It Was Fifty Years Ago...

If 1967 was the summer of love, then 1957 must have been the summer of birth. Two things happened fifty years ago this summer that are particularly noteworthy.



In 1957 ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac was released. It is a rambling semi-autobiographical novel about two guys who hit the road. But it's really about much more than that. Many people call it the birth of the Beat generation, the anthem of Baby Boomers all across America who questioned everything their parents fought and died for in a cruel and ugly war.



Also in July, 1957, a little known skiffle group called The Quarrymen played a one-hour engagement at an English Garden Party. Little noteworthy about that, except for the fact that a fifteen-year-old Paul McCartney took his guitar along to meet these Quarrymen, led by a sixteen-year-old fellow named John Lennon. I doubt that lightning bolts shot down from the heavens. There was no cracking in the earth's crust. Just two blokes who'd heard of each other and sat down to play few tunes together.

The rest, as they say, is history.

If Jack Kerouac wrote the script for the lives of the Beat generation, Lennon and McCartney composed the soundtrack. What peculair alignment of the stars during that fifty-year-old summer allowed this creative energy to flower? How did this come to pass?

Odd coincidence, perhaps. But I can't help wondering this: What is happening right now that will be noteworthy fifty years from today?

Something to think about.

Have a great day.
Susan