Some of the Things I've Lived Through in My Sixty Years

I was born in nineteen hundred and fifty three by the christian reckoning.  The end of the Korean war; Eight years after the end of WWII; eight years into the nuclear age.  What are the historic moments I can remember? 

I remember the Bay of Pigs.  I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis.  I remember Duck and Cover when the country still thought a nuclear war was winnable.  I remember the day John F. Kennedy was killed.

I have been witness to the entirety of the world's space programs.  I have sat up to the wee hours to watch Neil Armstrong step foot on our moon.  I have seen robots on the planet Mars.  I have seen Voyager I leaving the solar system completely and voyaging off into interstellar space.

I have seen more progress and medicals miracles than I can remember as well as the rise of some of the more horrific diseases ever known to man.  I've seen the end of legal segregation though the reality of racism still has not ended.

I watched the University of Kentucky win its fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth national basketball championships.  They currently have eight and I've watched fully half of them.  I hope to watch a few more before I depart this world.

I've seen more wars that weren't wars and wars that were than I can name.  I'm blessed to have been in none of them though I did do my stint in the US Army.  I was fortunate enough to do it in a time of relative peace.  Though I vividly remember the nightly news body counts from Viet Nam.  Watching the fireworks of anti-aircraft fire over Bagdad in two Iraq wars. (On TV, of course).  So, far I've lived through double digit presidents and have seen the first bi-racial president.  I hope to live to see the first woman president.

I've lived though depressions, recessions and boom times.  Most of my early years were in recessions and very little boom.  But, now, in a time of no booms I've got a job and I'm thankful for it.  It is a lot more than a lot of people have.  Education is important.  Not just college but technical school.  Seems like it does not matter how much you know you can't get a foot in the door without that piece of paper.

I've seen the birth and the fiery death of the Concorde faster than the speed of sound airliner.  I've seen a solar powered airplane fly around the world.  I've gone from one TV station to over two hundred.  (Still nothing on worth watching.)  I've gone from before sputnick to satellites that provide world wide coverage of darned near everything and satellites that provide geographic location to about a single yard no matter where on the world we are.  Radio has gone from local towers to satellites and world wide stations.

I've had the opportunity to visit other countries, meet their people, eat their food, enjoy their culture and learn more about them.  I have had the privilege of having "my horizons broadened". 

I've gone from where the very word "sex" was forbidden to watching women in their underwear on TV at all times of day.  And, when in Europe, women without their underwear all times of the day.  Why is America so backward and prudish?

I watched us go from Andy of Mayberry, Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet to Married With Children, The Simpsons and South Park.  Probably a few more extreme ones I've never watched as well.

I've lived through medical advances, scientific advances, a shrinking of the world due to fast transportation and world wide communication.  I've seen more conspiracy theories than any one person can keep track of.

So, what would I love to live long enough to see?  First and foremost is great grand children.  Next would be life on other planets.  My biggest regret by far is missing out on the exploration of our own solar system then the exploration of the stars.  I would love to see when we have the technology and discover the first purely earth like extra-solar planet which has the signatures of life in the atmosphere.  I would love to see when SETI receives the first signals from a stellar civilization.

I am permanently curious about everything.  I love knowledge and the increase of knowledge and I hate that I will miss so many advances of learning in the future. 

And I'd love to live long enough to see the NCAA actually do something about that cheating University of North Carolina sports program.  That is probably the most far-fetched of my wishes.