by Maggie Schafer
So, yes, I’m approaching the half-century mark. It’s hard to hide your age when you have a son who, since the day he could talk, reminds the world how old I am.
Anyway, I did a little research to see what was happening 50 years ago.
Well, for starters I was born the same year as Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Randy Jackson, and my forever heartthrob, Mel Gibson. Although, in the most recent pictures of him, he looks like a member of ZZ Top.
In 1956, Elvis released his first gold album and had his first hit song, “Heartbreak Hotel”. I did get to see Elvis in concert shortly before he died. I saw him in Kalamazoo of all places. In fact, I think someone saw him there last week.
In international news, Pakistan became the first Islamic republic. Labor riots broke out in Poland and Soviet troops fired at a crowd protesting high prices, killing 53 people. Heroin was banned in the United Kingdom. A little known fact, Bayer created heroin as a medicine 11 days after inventing aspirin. Bayer was afraid of the side effects of aspirin and registered Heroin as a trademark. It sold at one time as a non-addictive cough medicine for children. And I thought Nyquil was bad.
Fifty years ago the first videotape was demonstrated at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Chicago. I suppose it was a Betamax. Also, one of my favorite inventions of all time was introduced in 1956, the snooze alarm. Can you imagine having to get up with the alarm only ringing once? How did people survive before this was invented?
As far as entertainment, I Love Lucy, The Today Show, The Price is Right and As the World Turns were all big TV shows. Talk about staying power! The NBC peacock was also born in 1956. The top grossing films were Guys and Dolls and The King and I. Around the World in Eighty Days, Yul Brynner and Ingrid Bergman all won Oscars.
In April 1956 the worst tornado in the history of western Lower Michigan occurred, which caused devastation along a 50-mile path, taking 17 lives.
Finally, on a somewhat chilly day on April 9th, 1956, Joan Kujawa went into labor during the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings. Being the polite person that she is, she tried to stave off the labor pains until the end of the game. Unable to hold out any longer, Joan had her husband, Dan, take her to the hospital. She was in excruciating labor for at least 12 hours, and finally gave birth to an almost 9 lb. baby girl born face up rather than face down. Yes, yours truly, Margaret Mary Kujawa was born wanting to see what was going on and not having the patience to wait for the doctor to turn her over. And the rest is history…
PS: Montreal won the Stanley Cup 4 games to 1.
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