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birthday post - copy edited

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Greg Gauthier 2021-08-10 23:49:25 +01:00
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@ -35,19 +35,19 @@ Taking Israel first, I'm talking about the famous Six Day War. This is a war tha
#### Viet Nam
The second big issue is Viet Nam. It is said that 1967 was a year of "[big battles](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/opinion/1967-the-era-of-big-battles-in-vietnam.html)", "[pivots](https://www.stripes.com/special-reports/vietnam-stories/1967/)", and "[escalations](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/the-vietnam-war-part-i-early-years-and-escalation/389054/)". Maybe all of that is true; maybe none of it. There's so much mythology built up around this war, that its hard to say what's real or not about it, anymore. I was six years old, when Nixon signed the Paris peace accords, and just shy of 8 years old when Saigon fell to the communists. Since then, the mainstream narrative has been relentlessly self-flaggelation and self-loathing. But the reality on the ground wasn't as monolithically shame-ridden as the media would like to think. Anti-war protests satisfy their own communist sympathies. So, that's what one must digest on a regular basis, if one merely skims the surface. But if you dig deep enough, you can ocassional find evidence that Americans still thought of themselves and their country as fundamentally good, despite its flaws. Here, for example, is a photo of a pro-troop rally in Wakefield, Mass. in the fall of 1967 (right in the midst of all those anti-War protests going on at Berkely, and in New York, Boston, and Chicago):
The second big issue is Viet Nam. It is said that 1967 was a year of "[big battles](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/10/opinion/1967-the-era-of-big-battles-in-vietnam.html)", "[pivots](https://www.stripes.com/special-reports/vietnam-stories/1967/)", and "[escalations](https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/03/the-vietnam-war-part-i-early-years-and-escalation/389054/)". Maybe all of that is true; maybe none of it. There's so much mythology built up around this war, that its hard to say what's real or not about it, anymore. I was six years old when Nixon signed the Paris peace accords, and just shy of 8 years old when Saigon fell to the communists. Since then, the mainstream narrative has been relentless self-flaggelation and self-loathing. But the reality on the ground wasn't as monolithically shame-ridden as the media would like to think. Anti-war protests satisfy the media's own communist sympathies. So, that's what one must digest on a regular basis, if one merely skims the surface. But if you dig deep enough, you can ocassionally find evidence that Americans still thought of themselves and their country as fundamentally good, despite its flaws. Here, for example, is a photo of a pro-troop rally in Wakefield, Mass. in the fall of 1967 (right in the midst of all those anti-War protests going on at Berkely, and in New York, Boston, and Chicago):
{{< fluid_imgs "pro-troop-demo|/img/pro-soldier-demo-1967.jpg|Pro-military Demonstration 1967" >}}
#### Apollo 1 Disaster
In January of 1967, three [Apollo 1 astronauts went up in flames](https://www.space.com/17338-apollo-1.html) in a launch pad test disaster: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. It's not the Apollo disaster we're used to hearing about, because it didn't have a heroic happy ending. These guys were sealed up in the equivalent of a pork smoker, and then flash-barbecued as a result of a short-circuit. The original Apollo command module made it impossible for the men to free themselves from the capsule once it had been bolted shut from the outside, and the capsule was pressurized. So, anything like a fire was inevitably going to instantly kill them.
In January of 1967, three [Apollo 1 astronauts went up in flames](https://www.space.com/17338-apollo-1.html) in a launch pad test disaster: Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. It's not the Apollo disaster we're used to hearing about, because it didn't have a heroic happy ending. These guys were sealed up in the equivalent of a pork smoker, and then flash-barbecued as a result of a short-circuit. The original Apollo command module made it impossible for the men to free themselves from the capsule once it had been bolted shut from the outside pressurized. So, anything like a fire was inevitably going to instantly kill them.
{{< fluid_imgs "apollo-1-astronauts|/img/Apollo_1.jpg|Grissom, White, and Chaffee" >}}
#### World's First ATM
In slightly happier news, Barclay's Bank in Enfield, England unveiled the [first ever automated cash dispensing machine](https://home.barclays/news/2017/06/from-the-archives-the-atm-is-50/). Apparently, you put a radioactive check into a drawer, punched in a PIN code, and it would dispense £1 notes equivalent to the value of the check. Here's what it looked like. It's a bit difficult to make out the drawers. They were flush with the middle shelf in this picture. The dude on the right is an old British comedian. He is apparently, the very first person to ever use an ATM.
In slightly happier news, Barclay's Bank in Enfield, England unveiled the [first ever automated cash dispensing machine](https://home.barclays/news/2017/06/from-the-archives-the-atm-is-50/) in 1967. Apparently, you had to put a radioactive check into a drawer, punch in a PIN code, and then it would dispense 1 pound notes equivalent to the value of the check. Here's what it looked like. It's a bit difficult to make out the drawers. They were flush with the middle shelf in this picture. The dude on the right is an old British comedian. He is apparently the very first person to ever use an ATM.
{{< fluid_imgs "barclays-atm|/img/atmbarclays.jpg|Barclays ATM" >}}
@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ In slightly happier news, Barclay's Bank in Enfield, England unveiled the [first
On 9 August of that same crazy year, in a tiny near-southwestern suburb of Chicago known as "Blue Island", a self-educated half-Irish electrician from Wisconsin and his Irish wife from the Clearing District, sat in a nearby maternity ward on that Wednesday afternoon, waiting for me to appear. I'm not sure how I feel about that anymore. But more on that, in a moment.
The two moved from the small flat in Blue Island to a narrow townhome about two blocks from Midway Airport when I was about six months old, in order to be closer to my mother's family (for support and logistical reasons). But while they were in Blue Island, they often frequented the "Turnstyle" family center, to do their grocery shopping at the Jewel store, there. Here's a photo of it, buried in snow from the 1967 blizzard.
The two moved from the small flat in Blue Island to a narrow townhome about two blocks from Midway Airport when I was about six months old, in order to be closer to family. But while they were in Blue Island, they often frequented the "Turnstyle" family center to do their grocery shopping at the Jewel store there. Here's a photo of it, buried in snow from the 1967 blizzard.
{{< fluid_imgs "jewel-1967|/img/jewel-turnstyle-1967.jpg|Jewel And Turnstyle In 1967" >}}