1963

1963

Woodbine Avenue

Overbrook

Philadelphia, PA

My age: 7-8

School- Our Lady of Lourdes Grade School. Sister Andrew Mary was my 3^rd grade teacher. In hindsight, I don’t think she was any older than 20 years old.

Television: TV shows were a lot more wholesome than they are now.  There was no shortage of family values and morality lessons with each episode.

• ·      Patty Duke Show
• ·      The Flintstones
• ·      The Jetsons
• ·      My Favorite Martian
• ·      Petticoat Junction
• ·      Bonanza
• ·      McHale’s Navy
• ·      The Beverly Hillbillies
• ·      Mister Ed
• ·      The Andy Griffith Show
• ·      I’ve Got A Secret
• ·      My Three Sons
• ·      Leave It to Beaver
• ·      Candid Camera
• ·      Ozzie &  Harriet

Movies

• ·      The Birds- this movie scared the hell out of me.  I watched just a few years back and found it to be comical in its attempt to appear scary.
• ·      The Great Escape- I’ve watched this movie at least 5 times and I still feel proud of our soldiers.
• ·      Bye, Bye, Birdie
• ·      Lilies of the Field- I thought this was a beautiful story.
• ·      The Nutty Professor- this was one silly movie.
• ·      The Courtship of Eddie’s Father- I loved this movie and I loved the TV show.
• ·      Flipper- after watching this movie, I wanted to be a marine biologist and save wildlife.
• ·      It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad World
• ·      Spencer’s Mountain

Books- The bookmobile came to our school on a weekly basis.  It was green and old.  We lined up and entered in single-file.  We were hurried and couldn’t explore titles.  Mostly we just pulled books off the shelf that caught our eye.

Travels- The New York World’s Fair excited the world. Just the three older kids, myself being one of them, got to go to the fair. We took the train up to New York and stayed at a hotel. We saw Michelangelo’s Pieta. As an 8-year-old, I understood that this sculpture was magnificent.

News events:

• Kennedy was killed right before our eyes and the whole country was devastated. We watched as John-John saluted him as his coffin passed.  It’s a memory that is etched in our minds.
• The Polio Vaccine which is taken with a lump of sugar was distributed throughout the country.  We had to go to school on Sunday for three weeks in a row to get our lumps of sugar.

Family and Friends

• Spring – my grandfather had a heart attack on our front porch.  I thought for sure that he was going to die but he survived and lived another 11 years.
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•  A 7^th grade boy in my neighborhood was hit by a car and killed.  He and his friends were playing a game of chicken at a busy intersection and he lost.  This boy was the 2^nd child his mother buried.  And this mother would bury a third child several years later.