By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… This last week I talked with the student leadership of Mack Lyon Middle School. They were a great bunch of youngsters who must surely have thought: What can this old fat guy have to say that could be important to us?

However, the thought I came away with was that I was by far the oldest person in the room, including four or five teachers and an administrator. I have quit looking at the obituaries, everyone in them is younger than I.

The oldest of the kids in attendnance was probably thirteen and that took me back to 1953 when I was that age. Now I often receive e-mails that declare how much better things were and lament the fact that the world is going to heck in a handcart because of the ignorant younger generations.

This will not be that kind of column for a number of reasons. For one, the world, for all its problems, is not all that bad; and two, the world I grew up was not all that much better.

If we are so concerned about what the younger generation is doing to the world, we might want to remember we are the ones who raised them. Where did they get their values and ideas? Sorry folks, it is from us.

In 1953, when I was 13, General Dwight David Eisenhower was inaugurated President of the United States. After all, he had single handedly won World War II. Richard Nixon was the Vice President. Little did we know Vice was the operative word for “Tricky Dick”. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was established. Unfortunately, a later administration made education a separate cabinet post.

It was during this time that the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the most powerful man in America, was rounding up communist leaders, real and imagined, throughout the country. The TV show “I Led Three Lives”, loosely based on the life of Herbert Philbrick a Boston advertising executive who infiltrated the U.S. Communist Party on behalf of the FBI, was a major hit. This show had all of us kids spying on the neighbors who we were sure had to be commies. After all, they got together at different homes each week, claiming to play bridge. We knew better.

Speaking of communists, the Russian spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed that year at Sing Sing Prison for compromising America’s nuclear secrets. As they went to their deaths, they looked a whole lot like our neighbors.

That year, Queen Elizabeth II was also crowned Queen of England; I believe the old bird is still queen.

That year, Federal spending totaled $76.1 billion and the federal debt was $266 billion. Unemployment was three percent and Eisenhower ended the wage, salary, and price controls that had been in place since World War II.

The population of the country was 160,184,192 and life expectancy was 68.8 years. The cost of a new home was $9,500 and a new car could be bought for $1650. The cost of a first class postage stamp was three cents. However, before you get too excited the average income for an American family was $4,242.

This was the year my father bought his first Buick. It had a huge straight eight engine and a trunk large enough for our entire family of seven kids to have moved in. The Buick was larger than the bedroom I shared with my two brothers.

This was the year the first Corvette hit the road. All 1953 Corvettes were Polo White with a red interior and a black canvas top. Two options were offered: a signal seeking AM radio ($145.15) and a heater ($91.40). Although listed as options, all 1953 Corvettes were equipped with both items. The base price was $3,498, including the federal excise tax and $248 for shipping and handling.

The radio had an interesting feature: since fiberglass is electrically inert, the antenna was simply incorporated in the trunk lid. Had anyone asked me, I would have said the Corvette was a reaction to the Ford Thunderbird. It was the other way around; the first Thunderbird is listed as a 1955 model but it was developed in 1954 in reaction to the Corvette.

The TV Guide hit the newsstand for the first time, as did Playboy Magazine. The cover of Playboy was adorned by Marilyn Monroe; this being a family newspaper we won’t mention the centerfold.

The TV Guide was graced by a much more acceptable Lucille Ball and her new son, Desi Arnaz IV. Sixty-eight percent of the American television sets were tuned in when the fictional Little Ricky was born on the show I Love Lucy.

The Academy Awards were televised for the first time in 1953. The Atkins, our next-door neighbors, got a TV in 1950 but my father endured the whining of us kids and held out until 1953. He was convinced TV was a fad that would go away. The Atkins bought all the new fangled gadgets and Dad said that is why they would always be poor. He would keep his money in the bank, thank you.

Dr. John H. Gibbon performed the first successful open heart surgery that year in which the blood was artificially circulated and oxygenated by a heart-lung machine.

James Watson and Francis Crick determined the structure of DNA and Alfred Kinsey published “Sexual Behavior in the Human Female”.

Elvis Presley made his first recording on the Sun label “That’s All Right” backed by “Blue Moon of Kentucky”.

Dow chemical introduced America to Saran Wrap. The Church of Scientology was found by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer. Bill Gates of Microsoft fame was born as was David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam” killer. Jackie Bouvier married John F. Kennedy. The New York Yankees once again defeated the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. We listened to the games over the school’s speaker system. The St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles and the Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee.

Now, with all that being said, I’m not sure it really matters but that is what was happening when I was 13. I would not suggest the world was better or worse. As my daughter-in-law often says, “It is what it is” or more correctly “It was what it was.”

Thought of the week… “If you are yearning for the good old days, just turn off the air conditioning.” – Giff Niblack