For me....and maybe most septuagenarians....1962 was not only the last full year of Camelot....but also of Happy Days. It lasted of course only until November 22 of 1963 when hell took off its mask and burst upon us like the first lightening strike of a storm....as Lee Harvey Oswald had to be solely blamed....for America to still be considered good.
My mother in the beginning of summer 1963 packed up the few bags we had and we took the bus to the train station in Buffalo and then we were off to Pittsburgh. I spent my first summer here....(I actually live a little north of Pittsburgh today)....living with my Aunt and cousins in a town called Turtle Creek....home of the Vogues....who as I understand it probably drank cherry cokes at the same soda jerk counter....and at the same time that my cousin and I would steal off to when we had a few coins.
What stands out to me of that time is that the different generations might either cook the day's food or play board games in the kitchen and both enjoy the same music played on AM radio. At your leisure sometime look through the top songs of 1962 and 63 that's littered with names like Bobby Vinton and Elvis and Nat King Cole. The Beatles and Stones were just about to come over here....and although they may have been more....exciting....they proved to be much more dangerous....and eventually damaging....and it would never be the same in America.
Peter, Paul and Mary took the song to number 10 in 1962 but it was the Trini Lopez 1963 hit version that stays with us more today.....If I Had A Hammer. Written by a self-proclaimed communist Pete Seeger.....it later became an anthem for freedom....I'd hammer in the morning.....I'd hammer in the evening....I'd hammer out danger....I'd hammer out a warning.....I'd hammer out love...."
Slavery was long gone....but the plantations only sent their freed slaves to the cities....where we wanted them to stay....as if on their own reservations....which previously worked out well for us as we successfully assuaged our guilt as to the plight of the American Indian. Today.....almost sixty years later....we still want to make sure that low-income housing stays out of sight and out of mind...."Enjoy!".....@real.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 60s was more than honorable....as we were trying somehow to make some kind of amends....but it was imperfect....even tainted at times.....whereas today we cannot deal with anything where we might actually have to analyse or use common sense....as in our ridiculing masks or for a time not gathering together....whether it be bars or churches....so we have to be perfectly indoctrinated....either in socialism where if one is not vigilant it leads to communism and anarchy......or in a capitalism that can become a demanding god in itself....leading to pride and destruction....of which both scenarios are today being fulfilled...."For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.....no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." (Mathew 6:21,24 ESV)
Update: After posting this I watched a film that I hadn't seen since it was in the theaters in 2006....Amazing Grace....(Albert Finney....Benedict Cumberbatch....Ioan Gruffudd) If you have yet to see this movie....please try to do so....for it's a wonderful film....
