The Universe expands

Science fairs , Dancing lessons , guitar lessons , fishing trips to the Oregon Coast ..The Seventh and eighth grades went by in a blur ...for two years all we would hear about in Grade school was the promise of High School and more homework . We were getting older , our bodies were changing , our parents were giving us more and more responsibilities . As I try to recall memories from my last two years in Grade School they seem dimmer than the earlier years . I suspect because there were simply so many distractions .

In 1959 we were on the verge of a new decade Average Cost of new house $12,400.00 Average Yearly Wages $5,010.00 Cost of a gallon of Gas 25 cents Average Cost of a new car $2,200.00 Movie Ticket $1.00 Loaf of Bread 20 cents Kodak Movie camera $67.50 Ladies Stockings $1.00

There were seeds being planted world wide that would have lasting impact on our lives but for the most part we were unaware of them : Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba after Revolution with the first communist state in the west. Alaska becomes a State , in the Congo the first person dies from a new disease we will come to know as AIDS , and the micro Chip was invented in the USA by Jack Kilby .

At school Transistor radios were the rage , and on the playground at recess and noon the first feint stirrings of rock and roll could be discerned . The chartered plane transporting musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper goes down in an Iowa snowstorm, killing all four occupants on board. The tragedy is later termed "The Day the Music Died," popularized in Don McLean's song, "American Pie."

In 1960 John F Kennedy announced He was going to seek the office of President of the USA and for some reason , perhaps His name Had Ken in to I decided to volunteer stuffing envelopes at His campaign headquarters in Portland Oregon. I remember initially my parents were not pleased mostly because Kennedy as a Catholic and they were convinced that the Catholic Church was behind His presidential bid . But in time they were less disturbed by my volunteering.

My boundaries were stretching ..from the confines of my yard ...Past the block , beyond the neighborhood and now to downtown Portland and the USA political Scene . More and more people apart from my Parents were beginning to form an impression on me . Several of my Teachers most notable Paul Jandreau the Science teacher and my Seventh grade teacher as well . Mr Pollard the Local Printer who let me watch Him set type , and listen to His Irish records . _______ a classmate who encouraged me to make my first phone call to a Girl.

Mr Kalisee , my Sunday School teacher , and there were the books lots of books . I was reading a lot in those days .Les miserables  by  Victor Hugo , Battle Cry by Leon M. Uris ,Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand ,Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak , Exodus by Leon Uris , Moby Dick Herman Melville , I was also enjoying Comedy narration like the Egg and I , and a book called Until Fish Do Us Part .

Like a planet settling into orbit I was attracting bits of flotsam into my boundaries . I was definitely sorting all this out ...Atlas Shrugged made the biggest impact on me ..and for the most part probably made a lot of people around me kind of miserable . Imagine the tension between the Humanity of Les Misreables and The virtue of selfishness espoused in Atlas Shrugged ..fortunately in time Victor Hugo held serve ...

As I think back ..I am confirming just how much each and every one of us are affected by the people and world around us ...and the need for boundaries that can put all of our experiences into perspective . Its not eh experiences that form us ..experiences happen , but it is the firm boundaries of faith , and family and Teachers who care that fuse those experiences into our world view ....