October, 1968

NASA has launched its first manned Apollo mission in the run up to beat the Soviets to the moon: billions of dollars and rubles spent in a glorious attempt to out piss the other. While down on Earth, at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raise their arms in a black power salute after receiving their gold and bronze medals for the 200 meter run - frightening the crap out of an entire swath of middle America. And if America hadn’t already had enough of the stuffing knocked out of its cushy global perch, Jacqueline Kennedy not only remarries, but remarries a foreigner by the named Aristotle Onassis. With the threadbare veil of post war bliss pulled away by assassination, civil unrest and a war broadcast daily into their living rooms it was clear that, yes, Camelot was over.

I am 7 months old, defined only by the people and the actions around me. What I know of global, or even local issues for that matter, do not extend beyond the bars of my crib. But the stories are there, transferred from mother to sister to relative to me and it was becoming clear that as I entered my second half year I was not what one would call a happy baby. I busy myself with putting whatever objects I find into my mouth and to a seven month old me this well serves. But it has come to the attention and concern of my mother that I do not laugh at the things most babies laugh at; rattles, funny voices or even the failsafe raspberry blown onto the belly all fail to garner the desired response. I was not like my brothers and sisters they said. My father, more pragmatic in the area of child rearing, saw little need for concern and if, for the time being, the house was made the less for one absent note of laughter then so be it.

I would laugh eventually, as soon as I saw something funny.

Hit from October, 1968
Simon Says, 1910 Fruitgum Company