1961

It's supposed to be easy to write a memoir,right.I mean it's my life so all I have to do is tell it the way I saw it,the way it happened.No need to dig deeply into a lot of particulars,because it's all in your head.Yeah right.It's a good thing that I rather like research or I may have given up on the idea of writing a memoir about ten minutes after the thought occurred to me.

I was born in 1961,but to tell the truth,I don't really remember that.I've talked to people who say they can remember being born,but to tell the truth I don't believe them.In my case I don't know if maybe March 2nd was just a busy day,with a lot happening all at once and lots of new people to meet,but I just don't recall a lot about it,believe it or not.So I had to do a substantial amount of digging to  bring back to my mind what that year was really all about.

In 1961,Kennedy had just been sworn in as the president of the United States.Diefenbaker was the Prime Minister of Canada.The depression had been over for almost 40 years and WWII was 15 years in the past.The Korean War was eight years past.The Soviet Union and the United States were locked in a Cold War,which for the most part was more posturing than war.

Canada had a population of 18 million +.Just under 600,000 people lived in New Brunswick,and Newfoundland,where I was born was home to 458,000 people.Canada's largest city then was Montreal,not Toronto.The population of Canada was shifting from rural to urban with about 70% living in urban areas.

March was a busy month so it seems.On the day before I was born,the United States Peace Corp was created.The Soviets launched a dog into space,then,just a short time later,a human.The United States followed by launching a chimpanzee,followed shortly thereafter by Alan Shepard.The space race was on.

In the American south the Civil Rights Movement was in the headlines,and Freedom Rides were taking place.On a related note,"To Kill A Mockingbird"won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction that year.Other books of note were "Winter Of Our Discontent"by John Steinbeck and "Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

Movies of that year included "Breakfast At Tiffanys","Judgement At Nuremburg",and the winner of best picture,"Westside Story."                                               

   Popular TV shows in 1961 were "Gunsmoke""The Jack Benny Show"Candid Camera" and "The Andy Griffith Show.Wide World Of Sports also began broadcasting that spring.

Hit songs of 1961 included,"Run Around Sue"(Dion),"The Lion Sleeps Tonight"(The Tokens) and "Hit The Road Jack"(Ray Charles)

Some further research revealed that,in 1961,The Oxford English Dictionary added 501 new words including,Valium,keyboard,plea bargain,and woody,meaning a station wagon.The words docudrama,skyjack and weight watcher also appeared in 1961,as did the word shitcan meaning to dispose of something or fire someone.And,if you happened to shitcan the devil,you could say you were born again,another new word in 1961.In Canada,the word New Democrat was new,as was the political party of the same name.They hoped to shitcan the ruling political parties of the day,but as of yet,they have had limited success in doing so.Neurotransmitter was also added to the dictionary that year as was the word down,in the sense of Downs Syndrome,which was used to replace the word mongolism which was considered offensive. 

I was surprised to note that a copy of The New Yorker could be purchased for just 25 cents,a true bargain.I've included a picture of The New Yorker,published two days after my birth.But to tell the truth,I don't think I paid a lot of attention to popular magazines at the time as,at just two days old,one hardly has enough neurotransmitters to really appreciate the esoteric nature of such a magazine.I'm guessing I likely did like to look at the pictures though.

So there you have it.My summary of 1961,the year I was born.















References:    Canadian Facts and Dates-Richard W.Pound.
                      
                      American Decades 1960-1969-Richard Layman.

                     Chronicle Of Canada-J.M.S. Careless Et.Al.

                     www,wordorigins.org