” As The Edward Winter Group once sang: “
That’s, “EDGAR Winter Group”.....
In1962 I was 4. My Dad was about to go Vietnam for the 1st of 2 tours. In the 50’s he fought in Korea, in 1941 he was getting breakfast when the Japs invaded Pearl Harbor. My 11 year old sister took care of me for awhile because my Mother had a nervous breakdown. Neighbors pitched in to help us.
Nobody took anything from anybody. You did what you had to do.
Our national debt was $298.2 Billion on 30 June 1962.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm
Wow.
I remember when 1962 was only 20 years ago when it was still common to see cars from then on the streets and the music wasn’t old enough to even be considered retro.
It was like what 1992 is to today.
Playing over a friend’s house (I was five years old then).
I was 6 years old, dad was alive, family was growing, had fun summer with friends swimming and outdoor fun. Transistor AM radio and victrola for music. B/W TV for Saturday AM cartoons. We rode our bikes everywhere—helmets?
Couldn’t play enough baseball.
Rode our sleds in winter and built snow forts .Life was more than good.
I was 10 years old and growing up in the lovely, bucolic village of Cranbury, NJ. No color TV, no AC. We played baseball and rode our bikes for fun, cooled off under the sprinkler, walked down to the corner candy store for a treat, or bought a cone or Popsicle from the ice cream truck that came around every evening. Dad made a few thousand a year, first as a milkman delivering milk and cream door to door, and later as a clerk in an office. But we owned our home, never went hungry, and went “down the shore” every year for vacation. It all seems so long ago.
I was fresh out of college and just starting my career. I had been pretty much apolitical, but became as excited about Jack Kennedy back then as our young people were for Obama in 2008. He turned out to be the only Democrat I ever voted for.
Summer '62 -- between Jr. High and High School.
We walked a mile to Jr. High, took the bus to High School.
First kiss in 1962, and yes, I do remember her name.
But I'll never tell... ;-)
I was 26, a 1Lt in the Field Artillery back from a tour in Korea and stationed at Ft Totten, NY. “Way up north of the Imjin, Guarding freedoms frontiers. We are the first of the First Team, We are the eyes and the ears.”
Where was I in ‘62? Out in Hawaii, crapping in my diaper. My dad was stationed at Kanaehoe Bay.
I was in a diaper, running around the ‘cane fields.
So that's what I do in '62! (Just for rhyme's sake)
I don’t begrudge a safety net for people truly in need, but why should that be the government’s business. Charity is a private affair. Once you open the door to government wealth redistribution, aka a safety net, there’s no end of it. Programs always expand. That’s just the way it is. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be a safety net, but that net should come from private entities, like churches, and it should be entirely voluntary.
What you are seeing today is the latter stages of a government controlled safety net. There’s no political will to take the steps necessary to slash it, and it keeps growing as more and more people come to the conclusion it’s foolish to not take advantage of it. Everyone ends up wanting to get their slice while the getting is good, but all they’re really doing is stealing from their neighbors.
Then home for some leave before reporting to MCAS Beaufort, SC. In October, the Cuban Missile Crisis sent my squadron to Key West flying “photographic missions”. Our brand new F8U-2NE’s came back with blackened gun ports and greased missile racks, plus some new holes.
On 31 December,1962 I was honorably discharged from the Marines. That night, I proposed to my future wife. We will celebrate 48 years of marriage in December. 1962 was certainly a busy and momentous year.
I was born in the middle of the Cuban missile crisis. My mother was wondering if there would be a home to go to when we left the hospital. Of course that was when you got to stay in the hospital for a week after delivering. Ive been causing trouble ever since!
I was 5 years old. We lived on a ranch during the summer, and lived in a really rural and remote town in the winter. The ranch didn’t have electricity, nor plumbing, or phone. We got plumbing in 63 and electricity in 64. My dad had to pay to have the electric wires run to the house. We got a “party line” in 1967.
There was no TV reception (in fact there still isn’t to this day). We had very little money - far less than the average income. I had two school dresses, and a Sunday dress and a couple of pairs of hand-me-down overalls for work and play.
We were our own entertainment. We sang, made candy, played games and worked hard.
Life was better then.
In eighth grade planning to enter the seminary. I ended the year at St. Vincent’s Seminary in Cape Girardeau, MO.
VX-6, McMurdo Station, Antarctica.