I think everyone has some year that stands out in their minds. We have such horrid and dismal news this day and time and 1963 was the beginning of lots of troubles in the 60’s, however we did see the beginning of justice and change and if I had to pick one year I could travel in time to, for just one day, it would be 1963.
This is a different type of diary but on a Sunday morning, it is about what all is happening today. There is hope and we can make a change. When the ugly of 1963 now sits in congress and on the Supreme Court and hate is around, we need to look back on how to make a change.
This one year, is about how people in America tried to make America better and did to a degree. If you were a white middle class kid with loving parents, it was a the best of years but if you were black or a minority, impoverished, it was the worst of years. It was however, the beginning of change, leadership, and mobilization and that is something we don’t see a lot of today and this is what the Ron DeSantis folks don’t want taught. THIS is the change he does not want talked about. The history of leadership, frustration, mobilization and HISTORY. It was a divided America but we had hope for change with true leadership. Today we have a hard time just getting people to vote. That has to end and immediately. We need to learn how to lead into change and what better year than 1963.
The end of 1963 was rough on many people, including all of us who remember the assissanation of President Kennedy. For me though personally, it was one of the best years in my life with few exceptions . I was only 13. The ugly of extreme racism was ever present but there were people willing to step up and march and try and did make change. I wonder, did they make real change or just sent it into hide under a rock until the likes of Donald Trump got in power.
Children for the most part were guarded back then of bad news. At least they were in my family. I know not everyone had that privilege but I remember a time when I was finishing elementary and feeling sassy that I was about to enter Jr. High. I was going to turn 13 in June.
There were lots of firsts for me that year. There are enough good memories of that year that I smile when I look back at that year. I was fortunate. I know many many kids were not nearly as fortunate as I was. There were lynchings and hidden things but I did not know about them. I did know about the segragation and didn’t understand the Whites only signs.
Mama and Daddy worked for Avon Products. Daddy retired from the shipping dept years later and Mama worked in office entry for over 20 years. We had milk men and bread trucks. We had 3 channels on the TV and the Dodgers and the Yankees. We had other teams as well but I remember those two were competing all the time. We did not have an epidemic of drug overdoses. We did not have fear instilled into us every day other than maybe Duck and Cover and even at 13 we knew Duck and Cover was a bunch or horse manure.
I remember almost all of my classmates in the 7th grade. I was class vice president. ( politics in school is not so crooked). LOL. I had my first serious crush, my first boy girl party after I turned 13. I had my first go around at spin the bottle, I had my first kiss, I had the best Christmas even though it was tainted with the never ending sounds of those terrible drums that went on from November 22 until Christmas when our President was assissinated. I wrote something in May at year end of school called the High School Prophecy which was a parody of our lives in the future which was pure comedy for our graduation ceremony themed Three coins in a Fountain. I had won several talent contests with a trio I was in. Life was kind to me in 63 and I thought of writing a song about it.
We had our first vacation as a family that year to the Mountains. Mama and Daddy seemed to be happy with each other and no squabbling that year. They divorced after 34 years in the 70’s but 1963 was special. I guess it was a coming of age year for me. Things kind of went downhill after 1963 not only personally but the country. Nothing seemed the same after Kennedy was shot. Vietnam heated up and all those buddies from 63 would eventually go off to war or marry someone who was drafted. Of course Robert Kennedy and MLK died in 68. They were leaders like non other. But in 1963 there began a movement for civil right and that was a good thing but trouble was all around during the moblilization and afterwards. Life everywhere was not even close to the year I lived in, It was a turbulent time.
We had the best music in the world IMO in 63. Families seemed to get along better and there was no fear of school shootings or even such a thought. Kids could play after dark and few worried about being kidnapped and groomed for traffic while playing badmitton in their yards. Black families I know now had it very bad. I did not know just how bad. We were segragated back then. I would like to visit the good times personally for me and I would love to stand for justice knowing what I know now and yell from the rooftops, You can’t quit fighting for justice”. I would do that if I could travel back to 63. Don’t assume things can’t go back into a bad 63.
I had no idea that 1963 would mean so much to me later in life.. I guess none of who have a My favorite year thinks like that. Of course the summer of 1963 was trouble but it was the beginning of a movement for Civil Rights and we had leaders. Great Leaders. We had JFK, MLK, RFK, John Lewis and the list goes on.
We had people like Wallace but they were going to be challenged with marches and change. We had no Q and the closest thing to it was Jim Crow and southern bias and blaming the CIA on Kennedy’s death which was a conspiracy theory, but again they were not the majority of America and many of these folks chose to be hidden except in the south and a change was in the making in 1963. For kids my age and sheltered and white, it was unknown to us just how horrid the minorities were treated but we soon learned.
1963 for me was a time of innocence but coming into the reality later in 64 and 65 just how bad it would get and would become. By the time 1968 rolled around, we had some hate built up against those trying and working for change.
On the good side:
I remember the Western Auto was the place to go and Sears Roebuck for Christmas gifts in our family. Families seemed closer knit. There was not that much fast food. There was still rotary phones and party lines. In fact push button phones actually began in 1963. There were no commericals on TV about suing, death and burials, and big pharma ads. None of that depressing crap. We got ads like Pepsodent, and yes we had cigarette commercials but they were entertaining. We had Brylcream commercials and Tide and Fab commercials and it was not one after another. We had maybe one commercial in between tv shows. The closest things we had on TV to reality was Divorce Court, Queen for a Day and What’s my Line. We had real journalism back then and not opinion disinformation disguised as News.
For Christmas that year I got a recorder and that was almost unheard of. Before DVR’s and VCR’s, I could record a whole movie from Masterpiece theatre...( just the sound but still) Of course we always got transistor radios and yes we had ear phones. That recorder was my best gift ever. There were no cell phones or computers but we sure had regular telephones and burned them up with our friends making plans for weekends. There was more in person interaction which I believe created empathy and involvement. We had to mail letters and bills. Is it easier today with technology. Yes but it comes with a price of a type of hibernation and lack of social skills.
In my family, grandparents and cousins were a big part of our lives. We had church services but no politics was passed down from pulpits. Not in any church I attended . No TV evangelists except Billy Graham ever blue moon and I am not sure he even showed up on TV until later. I remember Sunday School and those attendance pins were something that was an achievable success. I remember field trips that did not cost parents out the yazoo and were no further in our area than 50 miles away and to museums and colleges and kids went to the Shrine Circus and if they did not have a quarter to spend on treats, the shriners gave kids quarters. This was what 1963 was like for me. We were taught about The Trail of Tears in school. Teachers did not have to beg for a pay raise and school buses ran and there were no shortages of such.
Here are links to some of the things in 63. Money sharks took these places apart.
No Walmarts but WE HAD WESTERN AUTO and that was a good thing. We had Mom and Pop shops.
and
I have no idea whose Christmas this was ..Found on you tube but pretty typical for people in my family
The music that boomers can relate to and it was awesome:
This is aa glimpse of 1963 but from 13 year olds, we were almost unaware except for the good.
Kids were Kids and were not experimenting with drugs and alcohol on a daily basis. Yes we had duck and cover but we did not worry about crazies walking in and killing classmates with AR15’s.
It was not much of a pretty world in the summer of 63 but people started standing up to injustice and not afraid of one man or idealogy. ( Especially for kids under 16) that lived to play safe outside, it was a good time.
People got vaccinated. There was no questioning science to my knowledge. People progressively got greedy, entitled and lazy until we have what we have today. The movement that began full force in 63 is being taken apart by evil, stupid people. We have people like Trump wanting to destroy the constitution and raise up mobs of violence and this must be met with a movement of NO.
There was still no abortion that was legal and like I said, many things wrong that year but not for me personally. I was too young and not exposed directly to the injustice of white privilege I enjoyed. We were late in high school taught about things but it was still so ongoing, teachers took a risk talking about controversial subjects. They did and were not stopped by people like DeSantis. There were people like him around in 63 but they were far and few between in a leadership position.
Innocence is something you can’t retrieve but you can remember and think, “I lived during that time”. We were working on the Moonshot. We made things. Greed and capitolism was not in everyone’s eyes. Desantis wants the newer generation not to be taught that such a time existed. Only the good..not the bad. Well how can we be a better country without learning the problems of the past? He wants “It’s my Party” to be remembered but not “Blowing in the Wind”. We can learn a LOT from 1963.
To me 1963 was a year to embrace for learning. We saw so much good come from bad, and it was a time before what we have now. We had the best of times and the worst of times . I am sure Donald Trump’s slogan of Make America Great Again was not talking about 1963 because that was the beginning of people standing up. I am quite sure he was talking about 1863. Neighbor against Neighbor and brother against brother….You know, the middle of the Civil War.
Yes, it was the best of times for kids who were white, middle class and living the American dream but it was a horror story for minorities and many women. For me, I was sheltered until high school and change was coming . We had people with guts and spines ready to take on the injustice and not shrivel and talk from both sides of their mouths. We had courage to stand up. Where are those kind of leaders today? Where is the movement that needs to be bigger and even stronger and teaming up with Black Lives Matter> Look no further than 1963 and you can find the truth and courage of that year. Truth !!! We need truth and justice. Justice Garland needs to look at this March on Washington and see the difference in a march and an attack on democracy. We can learn from 1963
Build it and Believe it and it will come. It takes courage..People