Our Collective Memory and a Bad Picture
I remember many years ago someone saying that the most news-worthy events ever had happened during the decade of the 1960s. I don’t know what constitutes “news-worthy”. We have lots of news every day; some of it seems worth sharing and some of it does not. All I know is that these things all happened fifty years ago. Which means not only am I more than fifty years old, it means that if I write about the fiftieth anniversary of all of those events, I will have plenty of blog material for the next ten years. If you think I am off by a few years, according to Wikipedia the time period known as the Sixties lasted from 1963 to 1974. I think they were just trying to find the time period which had the most news-worthy events.
Why do I bring this up now? You may have heard that this past Sunday night was the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles American debut on the Ed Sullivan show. I was once again too young to really remember it. I never will be able to understand the frenzy then or the frenzy now over any rock stars. I do find it pretty comical that at the time the haircuts which the Beatles sported were considered rebellious. Don’t I wish kids today were only that rebellious.
Believe it or not, I spent an entire day writing this blog. I had to research everything I could on the Beatles, which you could imagine was a lot of information. And now I’m not even sharing any of it with you. Not even a picture. Because I have never actually met the Beatles, I don’t have any pictures of them, and I hate borrowing pictures from the internet.
So what then is the point of this post? Besides that I can waste an entire day doing the most useless research. I believe that is the point. We can take any event, any moment in time and become absorbed in it, obsessed with it. Maybe that is why we remember these anniversaries. They were part of our life, our collective single life here on Planet Earth.
Sorry the photo is so grainy. It's from 1972. I thought I had a better photo of my sister with her guitar, but this will have to do. I have in my house right this minute three, possibly four of the items in this picture. Can you say "pack rat"? Bonus points if you can tell me who is on that album cover on the left. Super extra bonus points if you can tell me what is wrong in this picture besides the obvious (which is where is my face?). You probably would have had to know my sister to answer the super extra bonus question.
Why do I bring this up now? You may have heard that this past Sunday night was the fiftieth anniversary of the Beatles American debut on the Ed Sullivan show. I was once again too young to really remember it. I never will be able to understand the frenzy then or the frenzy now over any rock stars. I do find it pretty comical that at the time the haircuts which the Beatles sported were considered rebellious. Don’t I wish kids today were only that rebellious.
Believe it or not, I spent an entire day writing this blog. I had to research everything I could on the Beatles, which you could imagine was a lot of information. And now I’m not even sharing any of it with you. Not even a picture. Because I have never actually met the Beatles, I don’t have any pictures of them, and I hate borrowing pictures from the internet.
So what then is the point of this post? Besides that I can waste an entire day doing the most useless research. I believe that is the point. We can take any event, any moment in time and become absorbed in it, obsessed with it. Maybe that is why we remember these anniversaries. They were part of our life, our collective single life here on Planet Earth.
Sorry the photo is so grainy. It's from 1972. I thought I had a better photo of my sister with her guitar, but this will have to do. I have in my house right this minute three, possibly four of the items in this picture. Can you say "pack rat"? Bonus points if you can tell me who is on that album cover on the left. Super extra bonus points if you can tell me what is wrong in this picture besides the obvious (which is where is my face?). You probably would have had to know my sister to answer the super extra bonus question. 
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