Where Were You in '62?

Townhall.com ^ | July 28, 2012 | Bill O'Reilly

[bert]

In 1962, I was in school at N.C. State College, School of Civil Engineering. (We led the revolt when the legislature lawyers from Carolina tried to mimic California and rename NC State as the University of North Carolina at Raleigh. We won. it became NC State University ) Memorable spring courses include integral calculus, physics, surveying and world history. I recently resumed fishing having taken a fishing course in the mandatory PE program.

I lived in a house with 21 other mostly engineering students where intense studies were balanced with lots of beer. Most had girls at home or in school elsewhere so somehow they were not included. There were almost no girls at NC State and none in my engineering classes.

I don’t remember much about world events because focus was on classes in the mornings and labs, long labs every afternoon. The focus was tight on classes and studies.

There was no TV

In the fall, we were inflicted by the new computer registration system. The long long lines for class cards were replaced with shorter lines and orange IBM cards. It was quicker and better unless there was a glitch and that screwed things up royally. The primary goal at registration was no 8:00 or Saturday classes.

Today, about ten of us and the girls from home we married meet annually to tell the tales and revel in our past sins. Wives eventually leave and go off by themselves having heard all the stories and knowing them by heart. It was truly great.

[A.A. Cunningham]

and there weren't any television attack ads.

Those wouldn't show up until 1964.

[Raycpa]

In 1962 if I wanted to buy a computer it would cost me millions of dollars.

If you were a kid in 62 you would have no need of a computer. But you would want and probably have the following:

A refrigerator box-you can make anything out of a refrigerator box including space ship, race car, house, and yes even a computer

A BB gun- in my neighborhood we didn't shoot our eyes out, we shot our playmates

homemade slingshot- strong rubber band or surgical tubing

A bicycle with one gear and no helmet -preferably made from bike parts obtained from dump

Baseball glove-well worn

homemade gocart with wheels from a baby carriage -inspired by little rascals

flexible flyer for sledding-

Ice skates

Transistor radio- FM? what is FM

HO train set with tunnels- if you could get Dad to stop playing with it

an erector set and Lincoln logs- poor kids today only know legos

sea monkeys- yes they are real, really

And a full set of baseball cards with your favorite team to use to make cool sounds when put on bike spokes(who knew we were throwing away thousands of dollars.

Life doesn't get better than that.

[Doc Savage]

In 1962 I was 17 years old. I left Chicago on the City of Los Angeles for Cheyenne, Wyoming. From there I took a trailways Bus to Douglas, Wyoming where I was met by ranch owner Walt Whitaker. I worked that summer on a 10,000 acre spread haying, branding, fencing, baling. There were no girls, we didn't get to town much, but it was one of the great experiences of my life.

During the summer my family moved from Wheaton, Illinois to Farmington, Michigan. I didn't know a soul. I began my senior year as page One editor of the school paper, taking advanced Biology, Advanced English, and Advanced Journalism.

Near Christmas a girl asked me out to a party. I had never been on a date or been with a girl. I seemed to be a natural and learned quickly. I was on the Wrestling team and tried out several moves on her. They worked.

That took me into 1963, graduated with honors and went to college. 1962 was a poignant year for me. I left behind all my childhood and school friends in Wheaton, and never even got to say goodbye. I was so lonely in the fall of 1962 in Farmington that I simply went home every day after school and studied for hours. That seems to be an excellent way of getting straight A's.

For me it was the Beach Boys, Gant shirts, penny loafers, madras shorts, Northville ice cream and girls, Ann Arbor, a HP 289 Mustang in Lotus Green, and the dream of one day owning a Corvette. Now it sits in my garage. A 436 HP red convertible. A little late to cruise for chicks, but it's been a fun ride.

I will always remember 1962 in my heart!

[lonestar]

Our standard of living is much higher now than it was in 1962.

So you don't lock your doors when you leave home?

In '62 I was fresh out of college, living in Houston, everybody was excited about NASA and the Astronauts coming to town, and we could drive all over town at midnight without being afraid of breaking down on the freeway. Life was good...and fun. I knew my neighbors by name.

I would go back in a minute without hesitation!

You don't miss what you never had. People actually TALKED to each other without texting!

I don't think our lives are better. Just more things!

[BobL]

“In 2012, all things must be measured by one one metric — the all-important metric — “How did this affect black people?””

Anyone who’s read-up on Thomas Sowell knows that he would have just been another street-thug (assuming he even made it to adulthood) had in grown up in Harlem AFTER the “Civil Rights” movement. He grew up there before - not the wealthiest part of New York City, but a place where black kids had a chance to be a success - totally opposite of today.

[The people have spoken]

My folks had little disposable income, certainly not enough for air conditioning or a color television set.

That's just as well. TV shows weren't broadcast in color until 1967, the final season of "The Fugitive."

[chimera]

Wowsers. A “seasoned citizen” for sure.

[BobL]

“I-phone? What’s an I-phone?”

Same here, I still use a jihad phone (i.e., pay by the minute). Seems to work great when you have a computer at home and at work.

[lonestar]

When Blacks started shopping in “White stores” it didn’t help Black neighborhoods and businesses.

[moonshot925]

We built Apollo without computers, and pretty much built the Shuttle without computers 10 years later

That is not true.

My father worked at Rocketdyne on the F-1 rocket engines for the Saturn V. He used computers in designing the engine and the Apollo Lunar Excursion Module(LEM) had a guidance computer. Computers were also used to build the Space Shuttle.

[BobL]

“The interstate highways were just being built. The first time I drove on a road was on a 10 mile stretch of I-90 that had just been completed. Only that 10 miles existed on that stretch and there was almost no traffic. A trip to my Aunt and Uncle’s home in Charleston, WV took over 8 hours. That trip became 5 hours or less after the interstates were completed.”

You stumbled on something there, we were BUILDING highways that improve the country greatly. Now what? Trains and light rail that no one uses? We’re friggen lost.

[MtBaldy]

I was 10 years old and going to a private Episcopal day school. My father had a growing manufacturing business and my mother had inherited money. Life was very good. My parents were yuppies long before anyone had ever heard of one. I was a spoiled rotten little rich kid and didn’t know it because all my friends were too. Didn’t everyone get picked up in Granny’s chauffered limo when mom was too busy, or drunk, to drive the two miles to their school?

[exit82]

You pretty much described my life as an eight year old in 1962.

Every day was a chance for a new adventure.

We didn’t know how “deprived” we were.

Nor did we care.

[MadelineZapeezda]

That’s, “EDGAR Winter Group”.....

seriously, the blowhard didn't know that??????

[antisocial]

I was 19 and had a good job with Proctor & Gamble traveling around the country giving out free samples of Salvo soap. It was made in biscuit sized tablets that each did a washer load. We would walk neighborhoods and hang doorknob bags of Salvo and Downey on every doorknob. We got to see much of the country and met some interesting people. Living in motels started getting old by the end of fall. As I recall they sent us home for Christmas. I joined the Navy in January hoping to stop the communism in Cuba. Instead it has made its way to this country.

[chimera]

They had them, but they would not be recognized today as such. And it is true the other way around. When I was cutting my teeth on the old 1401 and System 360, and even later the PDP11, I would not have recognized what we have today as a computer. I would have guessed it was a miniature TV or like the old Dick Tracy "wrist TV" gadgets.

That LM computer was very far ahead of its time. I vaguely recall the noun-verb way of coding from a keypad. Can't imagine it today.

[BobL]

“Designed with slide rules and drawn with pencil on vellum.
Bill of materials kept by some ancient clerk with 3-ring binders.

How the heck did we ever do it, LOL?”

Tell me about it. Well, one reason was because people could think - the computers were in their brains. A slide rule was all of the help they were going to get. If they needed to add up two numbers, they got a pencil (definition: a narrow, generally cylindrical implement for writing, drawing, or marking, consisting of a thin rod of graphite, colored wax, or similar substance encased in wood or held in a mechanical holder) and paper (definition: a material made of cellulose pulp, derived mainly from wood, rags, and certain grasses, processed into flexible sheets or rolls by deposit from an aqueous suspension, and used chiefly for writing, printing, drawing, wrapping, and covering walls) and wrote down the numbers, and added them up by hand.

[Oldhunk]

In my first job back then, I was designing industrial control systems using relays.

[moonshot925]

I must agree with you about the gays.

Now they are infecting our military.

This would be unacceptable in 1962.