Saturday, May 10, 2014

DAY 91 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

Good Morning, Class of '64
Woman Embroidering Under a Tree - John M. Tracy
It Was Long Ago

Eleanor Farjeon

I'll tell you, shall I, something I remember?
Something that still means a great deal to me.
It was long ago.

A dusty road in summer I remember,
A mountain, and an old house, and a tree
That stood, you know,

Behind the house. An old woman I remember
In a red shawl with a grey cat on her knee
Humming under a tree.

She seemed the oldest thing I can remember.
But then perhaps I was not more than three.
It was long ago.

I dragged on the dusty road, and I remember
How the old woman looked over the fence at me
And seemed to know

How it felt to be three, and called out, I remember
"Do you like bilberries and cream for tea?"
I went under the tree.

And while she hummed, and the cat purred, I remember
How she filled a saucer with berries and cream for me
So long ago.

Such berries and such cream as I remember
I never had seen before, and never see
Today, you know.

And that is almost all I can remember,
The house, the mountain, the gray cat on her knee,
Her red shawl, and the tree,

And the taste of the berries, the feel of the sun I remember,
And the smell of everything that used to be
So long ago,

Till the heat on the road outside again I remember
And how the long dusty road seemed to have for me
No end, you know.

That is the farthest thing I can remember.
It won't mean much to you. It does to me.
Then I grew up, you see.
http://allpoetry.com/poem/8603783-It-Was-Long-Ago-by-Eleanor-Farjeon
Woman Seated Under Tree - Gustave Caillebotte

“Long ago, long ago.
The simple things come back to us.
They rest for a moment by our ribcages
then suddenly reach in and twist our
hearts a notch backward.”
Colum McCann
Let the Great World Spin
In the school year, 1959-1960, we are eighth graders. The fifties decade of our childhood is ending. A new decade will spin us even further from those years of jump ropes and crayons. Some of us have already left the preteen years and became teenagers. The rest of us will become thirteen when the new decade dawns.

In the valley, as the sixties begin, except for moving from one grade to the next, for most of us life will remain much the same. For others, circumstances have already moved them to another town, or outside the valley or out of the mountains entirely. We have missed their faces and names at school and still wonder where some of them went and what happened to them.

In our youth, years are measured in parts, by the school year. School starts in one year and ends in another. In our eighth grade year we switched decades, as well. So the seasons and the holidays of that school year gave way to summer. We left our roots, forever deeply embedded in the fifties, and became part of the sixties generation.

 

Headlines




Events
http://www.historyorb.com/events/date/1959 
Jan 3rd - Alaska admitted as 49th US state
Jan 7th - US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government
Jan 8th - Charles de Gaulle inaugurated as pres of France's 5th Republic
Jan 25th - 1st transcontinental coml jet flight (American) (LA to NY for $301)

Feb 3rd - "The Day the Music Died" plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J. P. Richardson and pilot near Clear Lake Iowa.
Feb 6th - Fidel Castro is interviewed by Edward R Murrow
Feb 7th - Cessna lands in Las Vegas after 65 d without landing (refuels in air)
Feb 13th - Barbie doll goes on sale
Feb 17th - 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg
Feb 22nd - 1st Daytona 500 auto race-Lee Petty wins (135.521 MPH)

Mar 4th - US Pioneer IV misses Moon & becomes 2nd (US 1st) artificial planet
Mar 18th - President Dwight D Eisenhower signs Hawaii statehood bill
Mar 31st - Dalai Lama fled China & was granted political asylum in India

Apr 7th - Oklahoma ends prohibition, after 51 years
Apr 12th - France Observator reports torture practice by French army in Algeria
Apr 13th - USAF launches Discoverer II into polar orbit
Apr 13th - Vanguard SLV-5 launched for Earth orbit (failed)

Apr 15th - Fidel Castro begins US goodwill tour
Apr 25th - St Lawrence Seaway linking Atlantic, Great Lakes opens to shipping
Apr 26th - Cuba invades Panama

Apr 27th - "Today" show goes abroard 1st time (Paris France)

May 6th - Iceland gunboats shoot at British fishing ships
May 10th - Soviet forces arrive in Afghanistan
May 20th - Ford wins battle with Chrysler to call its new car "Falcon"
May 20th - Japanese-Americans regain their citizenship

May 24th - 1st house with built-in bomb shelter exhibited (Pleasant Hills Pa)
May 25th - Supreme ct rules La prohibiting black-white boxing unconstitutional
May 28th - Monkeys Able & Baker zoom 300 mi (500 km) into space on Jupiter missile, became 1st animals retrieved from a space mission
May 30th - World's 1st hovercraft (SR-N1) tested at Cowes England

Jun 3rd - 1st class graduates from Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo
Jun 3rd - Eisenhower routes Canadian premier Diefenbaker message off the Moon


Jun 11th - Postmaster General bans D H Lawrence's book, Lady Chatterley's Lover (overruled by US Court of Appeals in Mar 1960)
Jun 17th - Eamon de Valera elected pres of Ireland
Jun 18th - 1st telecast transmitted from England to US

Jun 18th - Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.
Jun 26th - Queen Elizabeth & President Eisenhower open St Lawrence Seaway

Jul 4th - America's new 49-star flag honoring Alaska statehood unfurled
Jul 15th - The steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.
Jul 17th - Dr Leakey discovers oldest human skull (600,000 years old)
Jul 17th - Tibet abolishes serfdom
Jul 17th - River Canyon extending man-made Lake Hebgen by 5 miles. (Montana)

Jul 23rd - VP Richard Nixon begins visit on USSR
Jul 24th - US VP Nixon argues with Khrushchev, known as "Kitchen Debate"

Jul 28th - Hawaii's 1st US election sends 1st Asian-Americans to Congress

Aug 7th - Explorer 6 transmits 1st TV photo of Earth from space
Aug 7th - The Lincoln Memorial design on the U.S. penny goes into circulation. It replaces the "sheaves of wheat" design

Aug 16th - USSR introduces installment buying
Aug 17th - USSR & Iraq signs contract for building Iraqi nuclear reactor
Aug 21st - Hawaii becomes 50th US state
Aug 24th - Hiram L Fong sworn in as 1st Chinese-American senator while Daniel K Inouye sworn in as 1st Japanese-American Rep (Both from Hawaii)

Sep 2nd - US President Eisenhower arrives in Paris
Sep 11th - Congress passes a bill authorizing food stamps for poor Americans
Sep 19th - Nikita Khrushchev is denied access to Disneyland

Oct 7th - Far side of Moon seen for 1st time, compliments of USSR's Luna 3
Oct 9th - Lee Harvey Oswald arrives in Southampton
Oct 10th - Lee Harvey Oswald signs guestbook in hotel Helsinki
Oct 31st - Lee Harvey Oswald announces in Moscow he will never return to USA
Oct 31st - USSR & Egypt sign contracts for building Aswan Dam


Nov 2nd - Charles Van Doren confesses, TV quiz show-"21," was fixed
Nov 14th - Kilauea's most spectacular eruption (in Hawaii)
Nov 17th - De Beers firm of South Africa announces synthetic diamond
Nov 19th - Ford cancels Edsel
Nov 20th - UN adopts Universal Declaration of Children's Rights


Dec 1st - 12 nations sign treaty for scientific peaceful use of Antarctica
Dec 1st - 1st color photograph of Earth from outer space

Dec 12th - UN Committee on Peaceful Use of Outer Space is established
Dec 17th - "On The Beach" is 1st film to premiere on both sides of Iron Curtain
Dec 21st - Citizens of Deerfield Ill block building of interracial housing
Dec 25th - A synagogue in Cologne Germany desecrated with swatstikas
Dec 25th - Sony brings transistor TV 8-301 to the market
Person of the Year



 Time Man of the Year 
1959

Dwight David Eisenhower
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2019712_2019702_2019605,00.html 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_D._Eisenhower

A five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.
 
President of the United States of America
from
January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961


Eisenhower Quotes

"You know, farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."
Address at Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, 9/25/56

"The proudest thing I can claim is that I am from Abilene."
Homecoming Speech, Abilene, Kansas, 6/22/45
 
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Jan.17,1961
 

Military Industrial Complex Speech
Fads & Trivia
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/1959.htm 

Pantyhose, which give women the look of stockings without garters, garter-belts, or corsets, are introduced.

Maxwell House inaugurates the "Good to the last drop" ad campaign.  

Aluminum beer can introduced by Coors of Golden, Colorado.

The microchip is invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce of the U.S.

 Metrecal is introduced by the 59-year-old Mead Johnson Company of Evansville, Ind. as a weight reducing aid.

Presbyterian church accepts women preachers.


Cost of Living 1959

http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1959.html 
http://www.ask.com/question/what-things-cost-in-1959 
http://thecostofliving.com/index.php?id=111&a=1 


Yearly Inflation Rate USA 1.01%
 
Average Cost of new house    $12,400.00 
  Average Yearly Wages   $5,010.00 
  Cost of a gallon of Gas  25 cents 
Average Cost of a new car   $2,200.00
  Movie Ticket   $1.00 
Loaf of Bread   20 cents 
Kodak Movie camera   $67.50 
 Ladies Stockings    $1.00
Gallon of Milk   $1.01
Stamp   4 cents

Phone Booth Stuffing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonebooth_stuffing 

The fad involved a number of people entering a phone booth, until the phonebooth would hold no more, or there were no more individuals available.
 
Advertising

 
Automobiles







Books 

 
Magazines
   
Fashion


Movies
List of American Films of 1959
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_1959 

1959 Oscar Winners
 http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/oscar-59.htm
 Best Picture
BEN-HUR


Best Actor
Charlton Heston for
BEN-HUR 


Best Actress
Simone Signoret for
ROOM AT THE TOP


Best Song
"HIGH HOPES"
from A Hole in the Head
James Van Heusen, Sammy Cahn


Ben-Hur Chariot Race Scene
 
Music

May 4th - 1st Grammy Awards:
 Perry Como & Ella Fitzgerald win

Nov 20th - 
WABC fires Alan Freed over payola scandal

Nov 29th - 2nd Grammy Awards: 

Mack The Knife, Bobby Darin wins

Dec 25th - 
Richard Starkey receives his 1st drum set

Top 100 Songs of 1959
Billboard Year End Charts
http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/top-100-songs-of-the-year/?year=1959

16 different songs hit number 
one in the US during 1959. 

Top 5 Songs of 1959
1 Johnny Horton - The Battle Of New Orleans
2 Bobby Darin - Mack The Knife
3 Lloyd Price - Personality
4 Frankie Avalon - Venus
5 Paul Anka - Lonely Boy

 1959 Number One Songs

Chipmunks - The Chipmunk Song                             4
Platters - Smoke Gets in Your Eyes                           3
Lloyd Price - Stagger Lee                                          4
Frankie Avalon - Venus                                             5
Fleetwoods - Come Softly To Me                               4
Dave 'Baby' Cortez - The Happy Organ                      1
Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City                                   2
Johnny Horton - The Battle of New Orleans              6
Paul Anka - Lonely Boy                                              4
Elvis Presley - A Big Hunk O' Love                             2
Browns - The Three Bells                                          4
Santo and Johnny - Sleep Walk                                  2
Bobby Darin - Mack The Knife                              9 (6)
Fleetwoods - Mr. Blue                                                1
Bobby Darin - Mack The Knife                              9 (3)
Guy Mitchell - Heartaches By The Number                 2
Frankie Avalon - Why                                                 1

Come Softly to Me
The first release for the new Dolphin Records label.
Reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.
The group sang it a cappella with the
rhythmic shaking of car keys.
Instrumental accompaniment was added later,
including an acoustic guitar played by Bonnie Guitar.
The group was inducted into both the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and the Doo-Wop Hall of Fame of America
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Softly_to_Me
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fleetwoods

The Fleetwoods - 1959

There Goes My Baby
Reached number two on the Hot 100 and
number one on the Billboard R&B chart
and was on the Cash Box sales chart for two 
weeks.The lyrics are almost free-form at a 
time when rhyming lines were mandatory. 
 This song pioneered the idea of having a full 
orchestra backing with strings accompaniment 
to enhance the emotional impact of R&B music.
The song ranked 196 on Rolling Stone's 
The Drifters - 1959
It's Just a Matter of Time
Topped the Billboard rhythm & blues chart and
peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100 pop chart.
Spent 18 weeks on the Top 100
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_Just_a_Matter_of_Time_%28song%29
Brook Benton- 1959
  
 Lonely Teardrops
Berry Gordy, one of the writers of the song, 
used the money from the song's success to
 form Motown Records within a year.
A 1999 Grammy Hall of Fame Inductee. 
The song is ranked #308 on Rolling Stone magazine's
 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Raced up to number-one on the Billboard R&B chart 
and became Wilson's first top ten hit on the Billboard 
Hot 100, eventually peaking at number seven.
The last song Jackie Wilson performed before his coma and later death. He collapsed on-stage singing it while appearing as one of the feature acts in Dick Clark's Good Ol' Rock and Roll Revue in 1975.
Jackie Wilson - 1959
 
 Primrose Lane
Rose to number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 
and No. 12 R&B. The song was ranked #47 on 
Billboard magazine's Top Hot 100 songs of 1959.
"Primrose Lane" was his biggest hit, in the US, 
selling over one million copies and awarded 
a gold disc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primrose_Lane
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Wallace
Jerry Wallace - 1959
 

 
Tell Him No  
Reached #21 on the Billboard R&B charts and #8 
on the Billboard Hot 100. A one hit wonder, the 
duo never had another hit single. The song was written by Travis (Pritchett).
Travis and Bob - 1959

  Sports

http://fifties1950s.com/1959sports.htm 

 Jun 30th - During a game in Wrigley Field, 
2 balls were in play at same time
Jul 12th - NBC uses cameras to show catchers signals during Yankee-Red Sox game
Oct 1st - 1st World Series since 1948 not to feature a NY team (LA vs Chic)

Athletes of the Year 1959
Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year: 
Ingemar Johansson, boxing Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year: 
Maria Bueno, tennis

Basketball 1959

NCAA Men's Basketball Championship
California wins 71-70 over West Virginia


Television

1. Gunsmoke (CBS)
2. Wagon Train (NBC)
3. Have Gun Will Travel (CBS)
4. The Danny Thomas Show (CBS)
5. The Red Skelton show (CBS)
6. Father Knows Best (CBS)
7. 77 Sunset Strip (ABC)
8. Wanted: Dead or Alive (CBS)
9. Perry Mason (CBS)
10. The Real McCoys (ABC)

 
Red Skelton Bloopers Blunders & Ad-Libs


Recipe 


from
 Patty's Cooking Blog

 Pillsbury’s Best 10th Grand National Bake-Off Cookbook, 1959.


Cherry-Chocolate Honeys
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup quick-cooking oatmeal
  • 1/2 cup filberts (hazelnuts), roasted at 350˚ for 15 minutes, then husked and chopped
  • 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/4 cup chopped maraschino cherries
Cream together the shortening, honey, and vanilla. 
Blend in the dry ingredients and the oatmeal. 
Stir in the nuts, chocolate chips, and maraschino cherries.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets (or a parchment-lined half sheet pan).
 Bake at 375˚ for 10-12 minutes.

“When they turn the pages of history,
when these days have passed long ago--
will they read of us with sadness
for the seeds that we let grow?
 

Neil Peart

“Falsehoods which we spurn today, 
were the truths of long ago.” 
John Greenleaf Whittier
 
 “Life is but a memory 
Happened long ago. 
Theatre full of sadness 
For a long forgotten show.”
Nick Drake
 
Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree - Unknown




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