In Honor of A Fine Movie

We went to see the wonderful movie Hidden Figures last week. It is nominated for Best Picture and is a moving story of what went on behind the scenes in the early days of our US manned space program. Specifically it is about three African-American women who helped make it possible.

Yesterday I was at the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and came across these two remembrances of history. I thought is would be appropriate to post them in honor of the movie- and the women who helped make it work!

Capt. Alan Shepherd, first American in space

The original Mercury 7 astronauts

Just for Some Saturday Fun

An incomparable scene from Jerry Lewis in The Errand Boy. One of the great comedy/music scenes as Jerry pantomimes to Count Basie's Blues from Hoss' Flat.

Have some fun on this Saturday afternoon.

A 25-year Memory: The (Former) Berlin Wall

Hard to believe, but it's been 25 years since the people of Berlin tore down The Wall. It was so much of an iconic symbol of the Cold War that it is even more surprising when you realize that it was only there for 28 years! I was there in 1970 when it was nine years old.

An Inauguration Day Quote

It was 52 years ago yesterday that John Kennedy uttered these words. 

They are as true as ever- and perhaps as needed to be heard as ever.

Liberty Bell

Independence Hall

Philadelphia. PA

August 2012

A 50-Year Memory: Two Memories of War

December 11

• The Vietnam War officially begins, as the first American helicopters arrive in Saigon along with 400 U.S. personnel.
• Adolf Eichmann is pronounced guilty of crimes against humanity by a panel of 3 Israeli judges.

A 50-Year Memory: Stepping Into the Big Muddy

November 18 – U.S. President John F. Kennedy sends 18,000 military advisors to South Vietnam.

A 50-Year Memory: Yossarian et. al.

November 10 – Catch-22 is first published by Joseph Heller.

A 50-Year Memory: A Devastating Challenge

October, 1961:  Black Like Me, John Howard Griffin's account of his experience becoming a black man in the pre-Civil Rights-era south, is published.

Griffin was a white native of Mansfield, Texas and the book describes his six-week experience travelling on Greyhound buses (occasionally hitchhiking) throughout the racially segregated states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia passing as a black man.
--Wikipedia

It was an eye-opener for many, myself included after reading it in college a few years later and the civil rights was making more headlines. Even today, in a different era, it brings chills to the senses. I often fear we have not come as far as we think we have.


The title comes from the last lines of a poem by the great African-American poet, Langston Hughes.

Dream Variations

To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me-
That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

A 50-Year Memory: A Record Broken

October 1 – Baseball player Roger Maris of the New York Yankees hits his 61st home run in the last game of the season, against the Boston Red Sox, beating the 34-year-old record held by Babe Ruth.

A 50-Year Memory: A Record Tied

September 26- Roger Maris hit his 60th home run in a 3-2 win for the Yankees over the Orioles, tying the record set by Babe Ruth in 1927 for most homers in a season.

A 50-Year Memory: A New Normal Begins

September 22- The ICC ruled that, effective November 1, all interstate buses in the United States were required to display signs that provided "Seating aboard this vehicle is without regard to race, color, creed, or national origin, by order of the Interstate Commerce Commission." In the same order, the ICC prohibited interstate buses from using "any terminal facilities which are so operated, arranged, or maintained as to involve any separation of any portion thereof, or in the use thereof on the basis of race, color, creed, or national origin." The order was a victory for the Freedom Riders, who suspended further plans to challenge racial segregation on buses and bus terminals.

A 50-Year Memory: A Death in the Jungle

September 18 – UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld dies in an air crash en route to Katanga, Congo.

A remarkable and deeply spiritual man who was the second Secretary-General of the UN. He had a deep sense of the mystery of life and the mystical openings before him. Here are four of his more famous quotes:

• God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. 
• I am the vessel. The draft is God's. And God is the thirsty one.
• The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.
• I don't know Who, or what, put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone, or Something,and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

A 50-Year Memory: The Wall Begins

Berlin Wall, 1970

August 13 – Construction of the Berlin Wall begins, restricting movement between East Berlin and West Berlin and forming a clear boundary between West Germany and East Germany, Western Europe and Eastern Europe.

A 50-Year Memory: Coming of Age

Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah are Jewish coming of age rituals. According to Jewish law, when Jewish children reach 13 years of age. ...In addition to being considered responsible for their actions from a religious perspective, B'nai mitzvah may be counted towards a prayer quorum (Hebrew: Minyan) and may lead prayer and other religious services for the community. The age of B'nai Mitzvah was selected because it roughly coincides with physical puberty. Prior to a child reaching Bar or Bat Mitzvah, the child's parents hold the responsibility for the child's adherence to Jewish law and tradition. After this age, children bear their own responsibility for Jewish ritual law, tradition, and ethics and are privileged to participate in all areas of Jewish community life.

The Bar Mitzvah ceremony involves the young man or woman being called to read the Torah, a Haftarah portion, or both at a Shabbat or other service (Thursday morning, Monday morning or a festival) when the Torah is read, and it may also involve giving a d'var Torah, a discussion of that week's Torah portion.
--Wikipedia

A 50-Year Memory: At Last- An End

May 30 – Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, totalitarian despot of the Dominican Republic since 1930, is killed in an ambush, putting an end to the second longest-running dictatorship in Latin American history.

A 50-Year Memory: An Even Newer Frontier

May 25 – Apollo program: President Kennedy announces before a special joint session of Congress his goal to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.

A 50-Year Memory: More Trouble

May 24 – American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders are arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for "disturbing the peace" after disembarking from their bus.

A 50-Year Memory: Trouble

May 14 – American civil rights movement: A Freedom Riders bus is fire-bombed near Anniston, Alabama and the civil rights protestors are beaten by an angry mob.

A 50-Year Memory: A New Frontier

May 5 – Mercury program: Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space aboard Mercury-Redstone 3.

I remember standing in the boys locker room at my Jr. High listening to this over the PA system at the end of gym class. It was an amazing day.

A 50-Year Memory: A New Beginning

May 4 – U.S. Freedom Riders begin interstate bus rides to test the new U.S. Supreme Court integration decision.