Ninety Years, Country Strong

The year 1923 was not short on exciting events.  The first transcontinental airmail service had begun.  Time magazine published its first issue.  Firestone first put inflatable tires into production.  The US Attorney General actually stated that it was legal for woman to wear trousers – anywhere (yes you read that right).  Yankee Stadium first opened (although Fenway had it beat by eleven years).  The first ever country music hit was recorded.  Vice President Calvin Coolidge became president, after the death of President Harding.  The first nonstop transcontinental US air flight was successfully completed.  Lou Gehrig hit his first Major League home run.  Disney Cartoon Studios was formed.  Ethyl gasoline was first marketed to the public.  The traffic light was invented.  Radio waves were transmitted for the first time, which lead to the first presidential address made by radio.  It was also the year that brought the world Bob Barker, Peter Lawford, Charlton Heston, Estelle Getty, Ann Miller, Ted Knight, Aaron Spelling, Allan Sheppard, Rocky Marciano, Roy Lichtenstein, Hank Williams, Jean Stapleton, Ed McMahon and Margaret Elizabeth McConnell Garrett.

Margaret, or “Mammaw”, is my husband’s grandmother, my children’s great-grandmother.  She was born during prohibition and in her time on this earth has witnessed changes that few could have even imagined in 1923.  The Great Depression.  World Word II.  The invention of television, computers and robots.  Space travel.   The rise and fall of the Soviet Union.  Man walking on the moon.  The Korean War.  Kennedy’s assassination.  Vietnam.  Civil Rights.  Feminism.  Watergate.  The Cold War.  The fall of the Berlin Wall.  The evolution of technology.  9-11.  A black man overwhelmingly voted to the office of president. Continue reading This Is Ninety →