John McCain was born today in 1936, 72 years ago in the country of Panama.
In 1936 New Jersey mother Mabel Eaton loses custody of her children due to her affiliation with the Communist Party.
The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio, for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company.
Baseball Hall of Fame is established at Cooperstown, NY.
And this was in the movies
Folks were singing this tune from the movies with Fred and Ginger
When John McCain was just 9 years old. This was his world in 1945.
Car: $1,250
Gasoline: 21 cents/gal
House: $10,000
Bread: 9 cents/loaf
Milk: 62 cents/gal
Postage Stamp: 3 cents
Stock Market: 152
Average Annual Salary: $2,900
Minimum Wage: 40 cents per hour
When John was 10 years old this was his world.
The United Nations met for the first time.
The First general purpose electronic computer is unveiled at University of Pennsylvania. It is named, Eniac or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. Though John is 72, he is trying to learn about the google and email. He has told us he has never used a computer.
It is 2008, John McCain does not know how to use a computer. He is going to vet his Vice President by googling it.
Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis appear for the first time together at the 500 Club in Atlantic City New Jersey. You can still catch Jerry on his Labor Day telethon for M D A
At the Saturday matinee he may have seen this movie
On the radio Johnny is listening to this
Ahh! what a time it was. At age ten and into his teen years, a formative time. The end of the first half of the twentieth century. Just 60 years ago.
Remember this movie from 1946?
In the newspapers was this story: On July 25, 1946, two black sharecropper couples were shot hundreds of times and the unborn baby of one of the women cut out with a knife at the Moore’s Ford Bridge. One of the men had been accused of stabbing a white man 11 days earlier and was bailed out of jail by a former Ku Klux Klan member and known bootlegger who drove him, his wife, her brother and his wife to the bridge.
And this one: Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam.
or this:
Prime minister Nerhu of India appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament.
John may have played with this Steam Shovel toy.
Also when Johnny was 10 years old, Diane Keaton was born, as was Liza Minnelli, Candice Bergin, George Walker Bush, Sylvestor Stallone and Danny Glover. So that makes them about 62. Just ten years younger than John.
FDR was president when John was born in 1936. Roosevelt easily defeated Alfred M. Landon in 1936 and went on to defeat by lesser margins, Wendell Willkie in 1940 and Thomas E. Dewey in 1944. He thus became the only American president to serve more than two terms.
Through World War II John and his family benifited under the democratic government of FDR.
By the time John was 16, in 1952 he knew ‘American in Paris’ was chosen as Best Picture, Best Comedy show on TV was ‘The Red Skelton Show’, Nobel Peace prize was awarded to Albert Schweitzer (French Equatorial Africa). John remembers no one snickerd at Albert Schweitzer the way the rable snicker at Al. In those days respect was shown for those with intelligence and achievement. The Life expectency in the U.S. was 68.6 years. Harry Truman was president, Korean war began in 1950, McCarthyism begins. A communist found under everyones bed.
Color Television was first introduced into the United States. Population of the U.S about 158 million. ‘Caine Mutiny’, the book, wins the Pulitzer prize. The very first ‘Today Show’ appears with Dave Garroway, on NBC.
Here is Dave now, just click here This was the world of John McCain at age 16, in 1952.
John was formed by these mid-century events. It is his heart and soul. The music from that long ago is the background of his days. He is a good ol guy and we have to respect when he says he does not understand economics, the internet, or modern times. It does not make him any less than a good and decent person.
Your grandfather or grandmother are still good people even if they don’t understand the world of today.
John McCain served his country in the past and will serve Arizona, (the land of retirement) well into the future.
Some other folks that are 72 year olds: Elvis
And Johnny, who never grows old,
Happy 72nd Birthday, John McCain, and many, many, more.