During the 1950s the world got its first glimpse of many amazing events, discoveries
and people that have shaped the 21st Century and that are, for the most part,
still with us, like: Disneyland, McDonalds, sugar cereals, filtered cigarettes,
Rock 'n' Roll, shopping malls and credit cards! We were introduced to color
TV, interstate highways, copy machines, computers and the Corvette. Man also conquered
polio, Mt. Everest and running the four-minute mile. More important firsts
were microchips, the hydrogen bomb, nuclear power, civil rights, jet planes,
organ transplants, DNA, space exploration and two new states! This decade in
the United States was like the advent of adolescence. We, in a sense, came of
age in a Renaissance-like fashion as we experienced a metamorphosis in character,
condition and appearance. Here is a recollection of what it was like for a boy
to come of age on a small island in Puget Sound where life was insulated from
the frenetic progress around it. Adolescents still fished with hand-lines from
oar-powered row boats, went camping in unexplored places, learned to drive old
cars on dirt roads and experienced the demise of the Island's ferry. The building
of a bridge caused the Island to lose its privacy, charm and uniqueness. The
little island and its inhabitants finally joined the 20th Century, only at a
slightly slower speed than the outside world. But, as Mahatma Gandhi said, "There's
more to life than increasing its speed."
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