1964
Overbrook
My age: 8- 9
School- Our Lady of Lourdes. Miss Capra was my 4th grade teacher. I thought she was beautiful and she was much nicer to us than other teachers. I think she was about 20 years old.
Music- The Beatles came on the scene and changed the music world and took up all my interest in music; I became an audiophile.
The Beatles made their first appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show. And the whole country watched. They had
13 singles on Billboard's Hot 100 at
the same time and they held the top five positions in the Billboard Top 40 singles in America. Everyone
loved the Beatles. Every
song they released became a hit.
Movies
- It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
- The Unsinkable Molly Brown – This movie was so inspirational.
- My Fair Lady
- Mary Poppins- Feed the Birds was such a sad song.
Books- Beverly Cleary- Ramone-I loved these books.
News Events- it was a turbulent year.
•
North
Viet Nam became a household word.
•
The
Boston Strangler was captured and everyone breathed a sigh of
relief.
•
Warren
Commission report on the assassination of President Kennedy concluded Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone. Now
50+ years later, there are still lots of conspiracy theories out there. It is still a disputed conclusion.
•
President
Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law and it wasn’t well received.
•
Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
•
Elizabeth
Taylor married Richard Burton. This
was gossip for everyone.
Cassius Clay
beat Sonny Liston for World Heavy weight championship. And while everyone talked about this fight, it did not measure up to the discussion when he changed his name to Mohammed Ali and converted to the unknown religion of Muslim.
•
President
Lyndon Johnson declared a War on
Poverty Campaign. It’s unfortunate that we made some progress but now have more poverty than we did when the war started.
•
The
first Mustang from Ford Motor Company was made. Now fifty years old, it still commands a level of
coolness that so many of us aspire to earn.
•
The
24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified which removed the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax
or other types of tax.
•
Race riots plagued our cities all summer long. At times, I thought we were at war.
•
Three
civil rights field workers disappeared after investigating the burning of a Black church by the Ku Klux Klan.
•
The World's Fair was held in New York. I went to the fair and saw the Pieta.
•
U.S. Surgeon General
reported that smoking may lead to lung cancer. This
was something the cigarette companies disputed with vengeance.
•
Jack
Ruby was convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the alleged assassin of President Kennedy. His involved in this awful situation was a mystery now
and still is today.
•
Sidney
Poitier became the first black actor to win the "best actor" Oscar in his role To Sir with Love. I
just watched this movie again after 50 years and I cannot
believe how sexist it is.
•
"Hello
Dolly," "Funny Girl," and "Fiddler on the Roof" premiered on Broadway. These plays have had their share of remakes and updated renditions.
•
The
Rolling Stones released a debut album, "The Rolling Stones." They
were too cool for me at this time.
•
Hasbro
launch G.I. Joe
an action figure for boys to join the Barbie Doll for Girls. I don’t know
if my brothers wanted these dolls but my father wouldn’t have let them get these dolls. “Boys don’t play with dolls,” he announced.
•
BASIC (Beginners'
All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code), a programming
language is introduced. It wouldn’t be until 1981 that I ever heard
of this language or understand its purpose.
•
United
States Presidential Election - Lyndon B. Johnson (Democratic)
defeated Barry Goldwater (Republican). I
still have my Goldwater pin. It’s
an elephant with big, black eye glasses.
Family
We went to the movies on Halloween night. My mother thought it was a great alternative to taking the six of us out to hoard candy. We went to see Mary Poppins. So, she put a basket of candy on the porch and left a note, “Take one and have a Happy Halloween”. One of the neighborhood kids told my brother that he got to our house early and took all the candy.
