The Day I Was Born

The world was a different place on the day I was born, this day, April 3, 1958:

The President of the United States was old, white and bald.

A brand new house could be had for $12,500.

The national debt was 16 trillion dollars less than it is today.

The most popular show on television was The Ed Sullivan Show.

The Beatles weren’t a band yet.

The two best baseball players on the planet were Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle.

The NBA was full of slow white guys.

Only sailors and motorcycle gang members had tattoos.

The most popular singer was Elvis Pressley.

Gas sold for .25 a gallon.

The cars you pumped it into were all huge and the most popular ones had fins.

Kids never wore helmets while riding their bikes.

Gigi won best picture at the Oscars.

The most popular novel was Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

My father was 34 years old, healthy, larger than life, and wondering how in the world he was going to manage to feed yet another mouth.

My mother was 28, healthy, beautiful, and thrilled with the arrival of her fourth child.

Fidel Castro’s forces began the attack on Havana.

An annual income of $3650 would have placed you dead center of the middle class.

The safety net consisted of Social Security, and the food bank at the local church.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 456, a mere 16,000 points lower than today.

Pam was still four years away from being born, and Kaitlin and Patrick could not possibly have been imagined.

Washington politicians were just as selfish and stupid as they are today but thanks to no 24/7 news coverage, we just didn’t know it.

The best selling song of the year was “All I Have To Do Is Dream” by the Everly Brothers.

The Washington Redskins finished the season 4-7-1, proving that some things never change.

Yes, a very different world when I was born.