1964

1964. Man, that really takes me back; it's hard to believe that was 41 years ago. President Kennedy had been assassinated the year before. I'd skipped 8th grade. I weighed 99 lbs and had very short hair, which I couldn't stand so short (really didn't have a choice, my uncle the barber just cut as he thought it should be; as soon as I could assert myself, I said no more and seeing how everyone combed their hair, decided to be different and parted it on the other side).
That was the time of no fm radio. It was mostly AM radio, and the only two I liked were KRIO 910am and KSOX1640am (I believe). No rock/hard rock, but fairly decent popular music. No CD players, no mp3 players, mostly black and white tv sets. Only two television stations in the Valley. No car-too young to drive. Very limited library in Donna, Texas. So what did we do for recreation? We went to the movies. We watched our limited tv. We played baseball or basketball. We got together in little clubs at school or at church. We read and did our homework. I liked to read ahead in the literature books and study math. I liked to research offbeat subjects and read comics and magazines (that hasn't changed much). I joined the annual staff at school, shot pool occassionally. On weekends we'd go to the movies and/or bowling. Or we'd go skating at the bowling alley/skating rink. Of course, there were the Friday night football games, which are still popular and a large part of the Valley culture. I mostly liked to go see the band performances, and that never really changed either.
I guess the major difference is the computer. There were no computers, no internet, no email. Having read a lot of science fiction, I'd wonder what the future held for us; I'd picture miniature two way radio sets along the lines of CBs that you could carry and communicate with your friends. I'd visualize spaceships going to the moon and Mars-one of my biggest disappointments has been the lack of progess following the moon landings. But the computer was way beyond my imagination.
I wondered about the Vietnam War. Even when I had been in junior high, it didn't make sense. I kept wondering when we had officially declared war. Years later when I entered college, the US was still in Vietnam, and one of first things the instructor said was, "You either pass this course, or it's 'Nam." That was the time when if you didn't have a student deferment, you'd probably get drafted.
The popular magazine in '64 were Look and Life. National Geographic was around. So were a lot of sport magazines. I think Cream or Creem was popular for music fans. I don't remember if Rolling Stone Magazine was around. The Beatles had already invaded the US, though. I never liked the Stones, but they were popular. So was Dylan, Donovan, Herman's Hermits, the Dave Clark Five, and of course, the Yardbird (with Eric Clapton on guitar, later with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page). The Byrds and Buffalo Springfiend, Sonny and Cher were around, so were Andy Williams and Perry Como and Lawrence Welk.
Well, I can't continue for now, so I guess that's it for today.