What stands out for you about the year 1959?
To mark this iteration of my newest series - when my 1959th post converges with the year 1959, the start of my second decade - your favorite blogger notes he passed from fifth to sixth grade, and was not yet totally consumed by music. What occupied me most in 1959? In descending order - baseball, dinosaurs, boy scouts. If you are sixty-one or over, what were you up to in 1959? If you were born after 1959, what event from that year has particular resonance for you? Use Google etc. - if you must - but first try scouring your family history to recall something more personal.
Many of us are able to remember at least a few fragments of life from our tenth year. Aside from my three abiding interests, some early family memories have some fuzzy focus, most notably stability mixed with occasional chaos. After all, just forty-nine months stand between me - the oldest of four - and my brother, the youngest. In addition, I recall in some detail the second floor apartment where the six of us lived from the early 50s to the late 60s, including the room I shared with my brother.
I hope you'll join me either today or in one of the later six posts that will make up this limited run series. I'd enjoy hearing a little bit of your history, a decade at a time.
So now I will comment on 1959 even though I mentioned it during the 1949 comments! I was 12 and it was an exciting year. We went back to Germany for the summer for the first time since we immigrated in 1951. Not only did I get to ride in an airplane (over the ocean!) for the first time, we had a famous person on board: Ingemar Johansson who had just won the world heavy weight boxing championship. We were supposed to land in Copenhagen but the plane was diverted to take him home to Sweden first. You would never have something like that happen nowadays! So we arrived really late in Copenhagen where we visited a colleague of my father's and then headed on to Germany. My father purchased a Mercedes Benz in Germany and we drove around Germany and Switzerland with my grandparents. Six of us stuffed into a 2019 model! The car was then shipped to the USA and my father drove it for the next ten years which will be the subject of your next decade.
ReplyDeleteInes; Thanks for the comprehensive response, perhaps your most detailed ever. I'm glad to have learned about this piece of your history and the anecdote re Ingemar Johansson is personally interesting to me because I actually remember (as a ten year old) that fight being part of the cultural conversation in 1959. Last piece: Although I know you meant to write a 1959 model Mercedes Benz near the end of your comment, I laughed aloud when you wrote 2019 instead. I have a term for that = decade slippage - it's something that happens to me frequently!
DeleteActually that was a mistake but not the one you think. It was a 219 model not a 2919 model!
DeleteIn 1959 my sister Leslie was born. Prior to her birth, I had spend 5 years with the full attention of my mom, at least during the day, because my older siblings were all at school. So Leslie's arrival was a bit of a wake-up call! No more mid-week trips to have lunch (hamburger, french fries, and chocolate milk) at the Palace Restaurant. No more mid-day movies (South Pacific) with my mom. It was exciting to have a new baby sister, though. I remember going with my Dad and sisters and brothers to the hospital when Leslie was born. We weren't allowed to go inside to visit, so we all stood in the parking lot and Mom waved to us out the window. I remember the day Mom and Dad brought her home for the first time and I remember being fascinated by my mom breast feeding. Also remember the neighbors having a baby shower for Mom and all the nice presents she got. Leslie was a really cute toddler with blond hair and blue-grey eyes and she was my mom's favorite for sure! Now that I'm writing all this I understand a little more about why I maybe wasn't always the best big sister!
ReplyDeleteSweetheart; Thanks for a moving and fitting comment. The first two comments I've gotten on this post have exceeded my expectations. I hope others will join you & Ines.
DeleteI had to consult Wiki to get a read on events of that year. Although I was finishing 6th grade and began 7th in the fall of that year, (St. Casimir elementary, Kenosha, WI) I honestly don't remember a lot. However I was a typical TV kid and do remember being totally addicted to The Twilight Zone which premiered on October 2nd. In a slight echo of the bent reality portrayed on the show, the 7th grade nun suffered some sort of serious illness and the school lacked the resources to hire a full-time replacement. As a result we were left on our own most of the time with reading assignments and expected to behave (things did get quite noisy sometimes) and keep up with whatever passed as the curriculum. Astoundingly we all passed the end of year tests and made it to 8th grade. However this experience may have planted a seed of discord that nobody saw coming until we became 8th graders. A group of about 5 girls developed into a corps of incorrigible smart asses who at every opportunity defied the authority of our 8th grade nun who was also the school principal. Although their antics were entertaining the principal retaliated against them by punishing all of us for their behavior. Our graduating class was the first ever to be denied the traditional end of the year 8th grade graduation picnic. Thus without realizing it, we were segueing into the decade of flouting authority.
ReplyDeleteSteve; Like the two earlier comments, yours is personal and exactly what I had in mind when I wrote this post. I'm feeling like I stumbled onto something here by matching my post numbers to the decades of my life. These first three comments (with more to come, I hope) now have me really looking forward to 1969, 79 etc. I love the school anecdote and the way you expressed it. Thanks for being such a loyal reader and good friend.
DeleteHello, Pat. I hope this finds you and your family doing well.
ReplyDeleteIn 1959 I was 2, and was at the time the youngest of 3. That was to change in 1961, but let's stay in 1959.
Full disclosure - some of what I remember may have trickled over into 1960. But, let's give it a go. Unfortunately, and probably not very surprising, I remember very little of 1959. I know we had moved from the Bronx (where I was born) to Queens sometime in 1957 and were living in a 2 bedroom garden apartment. During the time we lived in Queens - 1957 to 1967 - we moved down the block - it was honestly just down the block - from a 2 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom apartment. I do have a very vague memory of sharing a bedroom with my older brother. But there is one memory that has stayed with me through all these years. Mostly vague in total but there are parts that are quite vivid. It was when I was having my tonsils removed. For some reason I can remember standing in the crib in the hospital, then having a yellowish colored mask being put over my mouth - presumably in the operating room - and of being in recovery. Other than that ... Not too much of 1959. Looking forward to the next decade as 1969 should be much clearer - lol.
Be well ...
RRGRMG; OK, your comment completes the grand slam for this post, personal and honest. From my perspective, interesting that you recall having your tonsils removed because, although I have few vivid memories of childhood, one of them is my younger sister having hers removed (I still have mine) and how worried I was about her. She was two or three so this would have been around 1955-1957 when I was 6-8 years old.
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