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Marvin Dansie
I appreciate the posts that have been made on the forum (to read about some of the life events of my fellow classmate of 69’).
I would especially like to thank Daryl (- THANKS YOU Daryl -) for being a constant presence on the forum and keeping the conversation going over the years.
By now about half of the Class Of ’69 have reached the age of 66 - the governments official age for retirement. Who would have thought that we would have made it this far? But, the slice of history that we have been privileged to witness has been quite remarkable. To quote a Grateful Dead’s song - “What a long strange trip its been”.
When we started school in kindergarten the state-of-the-art electronic device was the black and white TV that used vacuum tubes (Remember going to the drug store to test vacuum tubes for the family TV?) and it was the first year that Elvis Presley and The Wizard of Oz were on TV. The average income in the US in 1956 was $3,532.36 and the federal minimum hourly wage was raise to $1.00. The Dow Jones reached a new high of 500.24 points. A dime would buy a cup of coffee in most cafes. In Utah County, hardly anyone locked there doors at night - people often left their car keys in the ignition of their car. Most of the canyons around Utah County had nice campgrounds that were free to use and they even had forest rangers in some of them. Kids went out to play without parental supervision. We were much more innocent back then, even if we did have to practice air raid drills at school.
Now, to our grandkids we are relics of a past that seems almost ancient. We grew up before the age of computers and the internet. The transformation that has occurred in our lifetime is almost beyond belief and the rate that things are changing is only going up. The technologies we have now are almost in the realm of science fiction. Nobody knows what the future holds, but I'll bet it is going to be interesting.
We have indeed lived in interesting times.
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