boomerag 2

That boomer post got me thinking. The baby boomer era was in full swing when I hit the scene. I was born on the 20th day of September, at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Burbank, California. I am told it was a hot, sticky evening. I was a healthy 8 lbs, 14 oz. My mother recalls the hospital nurses exclaiming over my pink, pudgy cheeks. There are no photographs of me as a newborn, so I’m not sure what I looked like, but 8 lbs 14 oz sounds pretty healthy. The attending physician, a Dr. Walker, signed the routine paperwork. The bottom of my foot was dipped in ink and pressed against a small, pink card with my name on the front. After my arrival, I was bundled up and trundled off to the baby ward while my parents worried whether they would be able to afford the $100 hospital bill.

I was born into a world filled with all the fear and anxiety associated with the aftermath of WWII. Harry Truman was President of the United States. The Cold War with the USSR was in full swing; national intelligence was busy estimating Soviet capabilities for clandestine attack against the U.S. with weapons of mass destruction. (Half a century later, that statement has a familiar ring). Perry Como, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Mario Lanza, Johnny Ray and Eddie Howard all had hit songs with titles like “Because of You,” “Be My Love,” “Cry,” “Sin,” and “How High the Moon." The first color telecast of a football game on a network occurred that month, and a scientist by the name of Nicholson discovered the 12th moon of Jupiter. The Senate Crime Investigating Committee declared Italy the heroin trafficking center of the world. The United Nations was busy acting as referee between the fledgling Israel and its hostile Arab neighbors. (Some things don't change.) Polio was still a common crippler. Bell Labs was introducing the transistor’s amazing versatility to industry. Herbert Hoover delivered a speech entitled “Men are Equal Before Fish” to the American public – a rather eloquent treatment of the virtues of getting back to nature and calming one’s troubled mind by going fishing. The Korean war was raging. George C. Marshall was serving his last month as Secretary of Defense, retiring just after the United States concluded three important security treaties with the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand, and with Japan. This last pact coincided with the signing of a peace treaty between Japan and 48 other nations, marking the official end of the Pacific phase of WWII. “I Love Lucy,” “The Red Skelton Show,” and the Ed Sullivan Show were the most popular TV shows. Pope Pius XII had just delivered “INGRUENTIUM MALORUM” (On Reciting the Rosary) to Catholicism’s Venerable Brethren, Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Ordinaries having Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.

Of course I’m only relating what I’ve been told of that time, being little more than a crying, hungry brainstem. I still cry, I'm still hungry, and my brain? well...