75

Sunrise at Burke Lake, 2020

My 75th birthday is today. Wow. Three quarters of a century…I am blessed…and amazed. I remember my grandmother Halvorsen at this age telling me the things that had happened in her lifetime, here’s my trip down memory lane. Just a few, I’ll probably think of more later…I forget stuff. Smile. But these things, I truly remember.

—I remember being very small waiting in the Huron Clinic to get my polio vaccination. My parents were very happy, I was not.
—I vividly remember getting the measles, the mumps and chickenpox (not at the same time). My parents were worried, I mostly itched through it. Mumps hurt and were scary.
—I remember our phone was a party line.
—I remember getting our first TV, a black & white small thing with an antennae on the roof. I watched Captain 11 and was a happy child.
—Something called Sputnik was launched by the Very Bad Soviet Union
—People were encouraged to build bomb shelters, the threat of nuclear war was real. Cuba happened and everyone was alarmed. Huron had a giant “War Siren.”
—I remember walking into the Junior High School and someone yelled, “JFK’s been shot!”
—I remember being on the road as a teenager with our rock and roll band, The Bird Dogs.
—I remember learning about racism because of the news of the riots in the south. I completely missed the racism towards Native Americans where I grew up. I remember when Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated.
—I remember my 18th birthday like it was yesterday…I registered for the draft.
—I remember watching the Vietnam War on TV every day. I remember the demonstrations. I remember demonstrating and taking over the Administration building at SDSU.
—I remember when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
—Nixon went to China, enabled by Ping Pong diplomacy
—Richard Nixon resigned.
—The Berlin Wall fell
—-The Very Bad Soviet Union morphed into the Very Bad Russia.
—I remember getting my first PC and my first cell phone. I remember logging onto AOL and sending my first email.
—I remember 9-11.
—I remember COVID.

But most of all, I remember marrying Diane, having three very awesome kids, and celebrating the wonder of this journey with them. It’s been a magic trip. I am thankful.