The time had finally come to celebrate our graduation from high school. It was June, and the Houston weather was already hot as summer is here. Our friends, who had been classmates for years, would be heading off in new directions. Some would remain in contact, while others we might never see again. Here, 64 years later, many have passed away with only memories of a great period remaining.
I only have fond memories of my high school day at Sam Houston, even though I know there were difficult times as well. I remember the friendships, dances, football and basketball games, teachers who cared, and feeling like adults. We had discipline built on respect, no gangs or fights that could have made us feel unsafe.
So, what was going on in the rest of the world during 1961? John F. Kennedy became the 35th President of the United States on January 20, 1961. U.S.-sponsored anti-Castro exiles invaded Cuba at the Bay of Pigs, and the attackers were killed or captured by Cuban forces. East Germany erected the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin to keep the refugees from escaping the East. There are 2.000 US military advisers in South Vietnam. OPEC was formed to control the production of crude oil by the Arab countries.
The US population is 183,691,481. First Class stamp is $0.04, and federal spending is (1998 dollars) $97.72 billion; the national debt is $292.6 billion, with the US GDP at $544.8 billion. The population in Houston in 1960 was 938,219 according to the US Census Bureau. The Texas population was 9,820,000 in 1961.
The top-grossing films in the US were:
The Guns of Navarone
West Side Story
Dalmations
El Cid
The Absent-Minded Professor
The Parent Trap
La Dolce Vita
Lover Come Back
King of Kings
Bayou (film)
Top 10 1961 Songs:
‘Tossin’ and Turnin”—Bobby Lewis
‘I Fall to Pieces’—Patsy Cline
‘Michael’—The Highwaymen
‘Crying’—Roy Orbison
‘Runaway’—Del Shannon
‘My True Story’—The Jive Five
‘Pony Time’—Chubby Checker
‘Wheels’—The String-A-Longs
‘Raindrops’—Dee Clark
‘Wooden Heart’—Joe Dowell
The top-rated US TV programs were:
1. Wagon Train -NBC
2. Bonanza -NBC
3. Gunsmoke -CBS
4. Hazel -NBC
5. Perry Mason -CBS
6. The Red Skelton Show -CBS
7. The Andy Griffith Show -CBS
8. The Danny Thomas Show -CBS
9. Dr. Kildare -NBC
10. Candid Camera -CBS
11. My Three Sons -ABC
12. The Garry Moore Show -CBS
13. Rawhide -CBS
14. The Real McCoys -ABC
15. Lassie -CBS
16. Sing Along with Mitch -NBC
17. Dennis the Menace -CBS
18. Ben Casey -ABC
19. The Ed Sullivan Show -CBS
20. Car 54, Where Are You? -NBC
21. The Flintstones -ABC
22. The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis -CBS
23. Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color -NBC
24. The Joey Bishop Show -NBC
25. The Perry Como Show -NBC
26. The Defenders -CBS
27. The Price is Right -NBC
28. The Rifleman -ABC
29. Have Gun, Will Travel -CBS
30. The Donna Reed Show -ABC
Pulitzer Prizes:
Fiction: To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Music: Symphony No. 7, Walter Piston
Drama: All the Way Home, Tad Mosel
Academy Award, Best Picture: The Apartment, Billy Wilder, producer (United Artists)
Nobel Prize for Literature: Ivo Andric (Yugoslavia)
Record of the Year: “Theme From A Summer Place,” Percy Faith
Album of the Year: Button Down Mind, Bob Newhart (Warner Bros.)
Song of the Year: “Theme From Exodus,” Ernest Gold, songwriter
Miss America: Nancy Fleming (MI)
Bobby Lewis – Tossin’ and Turnin”
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