Who is This Guy Now?

Ahhh the innocence of youth. Our mystery scout is not exactly famous but listeners of Fun Radio will know the name.  More to the point of this post though is the date on the back of the photo. The picture is dated November 15, 1963. That is exactly one week prior to the assassination of President John Kennedy.  To find out the name of our mystery guest and read about what was going on in the world when this picture was snapped.....

It's  me, Gary Shannon of Gary and Heather in Radioland..Mornings on Fun Radio. We were doing a bit of cleaning and I found this picture hidden away in a book.  It made me think a lot about what was going on in my life when the picture was taken, then I happened to look at the back and I was surprised to find that it was taken exactly one week prior to President Kennedy being killed in Dallas. I did a bit of digging and came up with a few other things that were going on in the world on November 15, 1963.

Touch-Tone phones were introduced that week.  We didn't get one right away. Out number was TE-37203..Why do I still remember that? It was big and bulky and they even made special phone stands for them. On the other had, they never dropped a call.

THERE WERE SOME GREAT SHOWS ON TV

Two guys going all over the country in a Corvette..Having adventures..living it up! You better know we watched it every Friday night! Todd Stiles (Martin Milner) and Buz Murdoch (George Maharis) we the two coolest guys in the world!

Do dee Doo Doo, Do De Doo Doo..Extremely cool...Great stories..Cool chain-smoking, great voiced Rod Serling ..Creepy (seldom scary) stories. It came on after Route 66 (which came on after Rawhide)... Friday nights were sheer bliss!

TOYS

We had kind of "outgrown" most (not all) toys. The big thing in our lives at the time were our BIKES- Mine looked a bit like this:

Schwinn Tornado-Mine had "Suicide" handlebars-the stuck up sort of like motorcycle handle bars...MUCH cooler than regular bike handlebars. We were cool..Oh Yeah!

Prices...If only these hadn't changed!

Loaf of Bread

21 Cents!! A LOAF..not a slice.

Fill-Er-Up...Gas..

The average price of a gallon of gas in 1963 was 30 cents a gallon. Of course, back then, stations would have gas wars and if you played your cards right you could find it for a quarter a gallon!

Of course, music was everywhere...The Beatles were actually just a few months away from taking the world by storm. The Number one song in America the week of November 15, 1963 was "Deep Purple" by the brother/sister duet of Nino Tempo and April Stevens

Play it

Think about this...only four #1 records away from The Beatles "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

MOVIES

Tom Jones ( Not the singer...He hadn't been heard of yet either) Won the Oscar for "Best Movie" that year. Nobody my age went to see it.  We like movies with a different kind of action!

What red-blooded guy didn't like Rock n" Roll ( at least the Broadway version) and watching Ann Margret dance around in that pink out fit!!

We (boys) weren't really allowed to like musicals but we were allowed to like Ann Margret!

Guys watched movies like>>>

How the West Was Won...It was a Western but it wasn't like the westerns we had enjoyed up until that time.  It had something like 40 stars in it and we loved it.

And that was pretty much what was going on when that kid in the Boy Scout uniform was having that picture made. To be honest, I don't remember a thing about taking the picture..but I sure remember being a Boy Scout and I remember all the great friends. I'm still in touch with some of those guys and we all agree that it was a wonderful time to be alive.

One week after the picture was taken, a guy with a mail-order rifle changed it all. Still, I'd rather not dwell on that. I'd prefer to remember Bucky Callas, Johnny Parigi, Sammy Tuminello, Randy Brewer, Jimmy Dudley, Barry Allen and all the other guys that were in Troop 17. Great leaders like Mr.  Brewer and the late Mr. Wilbanks.  Talk about role models.

If you've stayed with this post to the end..thank you..Its Friday...time to go home and watch Rawhide, Route 66 and Twilight Zone.