1962

[Serial_Apologist]

one consequence of 62 i thunk was that the USA, whilst the centre of power, lost its cultural hold and London especially became a central cultural locus in the mid sixties .... in retrospect far more importance should be given to the advertising industry in London than has been the case .... it was not just the great visual arts, music, and scene .... the ads were plastering it all everywhere ... it was a very turbulent year and period ... making choices involved parents and harking back to older certainties and the feeling that they were gone forever and the challenge was truly daunting ... a real freedom to explore ... in a fast changing and actually rather nasty world ...

Adverts, yes... I still I think hankered after the luxury lifestyle back then; it would take a short few years of the real world to disabuse myself of the G-Plan outer trappings.

[Stillhomewardbound]

I just about squeezed into 1962 on a snowy 28th of December. It was said that I had been due on Christmas Day but, apparently, I was a little reluctant to come to terms with such a frosty welcome.

In the early hours of the morning my father readied himself to head in to the studios of Radio Eireann where he hosted an early morning music show while my mother, with the nonchalance that accompanies the birth of a fourth child, decided that she may as well hitch a ride with him to the Maternity Hospital in Holles Street (also birthplace of the Nolan Sisters!).

I was born on the Holy Feastday of the Innocents and that has remained an appropriate juncture and as I have never entirely shed the vulnerability and sensitivity of the child I was; and as if to further the point, I believe I was named 'Stephen Thomas' out of sheer indifference,

My older siblings having been accorded elegant, celitc names, I was styled according to the closest saint's day. (Isn't it peculiar the minor things one doesn't get over!).

While all of the events mentioned were before my time I am intimately familiar with them as they were moments that continued to resound through the remainder of the decade.

Looking forward, there are many children in the womb set to join us on the 28th of December, 2012. I wonder what events they'll recall when they cast a backward glance in 2062.

SHB

[johncorrigan]

My dad must have had a win at the bookies that week because one evening in early '62 he turned up with a bush record player and five E.Ps. Elvis, Cliff, and a couple of Irish country singers....and Acker '4 hits and a mister' - with this top tune.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3j_dn9r-jw

- I think Paulo Nutini took a few tips from Acker's singing style but binned the bowler. Anyway we played them endlessly for days - nothing else for it.

[Stillhomewardbound]

It occurs to me that AB was taking after another accomplished jazzer and sometime vocalist, Jack Teagarden, with a touch of the West Country in the pot as well.

An interesting choice because it recalls that interlude before pop came along, and like a virulent ivy, spread like wildfire and all but strangled everything else in the garden, Jack T et al.

[richardfinegold]

Yes indeed gurnemanz.

The Kennedies & Marylin & Martin Luther King got shot & I got the glooms again

Marilyn got shot?

[french frank]

Marilyn got shot?

Well, that's what they told us, anyway

[David-G]

Wasn't the great freeze 1962 - 1963, rather than the beginning of 1962? It was in London. My student house didn't have running water for ages. It was pretty grim, I suppose, but we were young and thought it rather exciting.

The Great Freeze was indeed 1962-3. However, the previous winter 1961-2 was a cold winter with heavy snow. With hindsight it seemed like a forerunner of what was to come the next winter.

In 1962 I started secondary school, aged 12. This meant commuting by train into central London. I don't know if children would be allowed to do that on their own nowadays.

I remember the Cuba crisis vividly, but I do not remember being terrified. I was sufficiently interested by it to cut out all the relevant newspaper articles and stick them in a scrapbook.

On Boxing Day we visited my uncle in London. Heavy snow started to fall, and continued falling, about 6 inches. That was the start of the famous winter. About a week later another foot of snow fell. For weeks the pavements were hard-packed ice a couple of inches thick. The last of the snow didn't go until March.

[salymap]

I was 32 in 1962. I'd lived through the Blitz, being bombed out in 1940, the early death of my father from a sudden heart attack and serious illness myself. Therefore I took world events in my stride as the world, seemingly, had been in turmoil for ever.
My main memories of 1962-3 are the dreadful difficulties of getting to work in Londn on the Dartford Loop Line, surely the worst train service anywhere, and keeping warm. We had, like nearly everyone else, just a coal fire in the living room, a kitchen boiler to heat the water and freezing bedrooms. My personal life was wonderful,however. I had a job I mostly liked, after fourteen years of working and being part of the London music world, a relationship with a man who loved me and- to quote the song sung by Sinatra - It Was a Very Good Year.
He died of cancer a few years later, the old established London music publisher was taken over and we were all made redundant. I learned the hard lesson that nothing lasts for ever but 1962 was good to me.

[scottycelt]

As the old song goes, I remember it well. Due to my lack of application, my poor, exasperated father had moved me from my restrictive, rugby-playing all-boys school to a much happier one which encouraged football and also recognised the existence of girls, no proof necessary. Sadly that only made my lack of application even worse. As others have mentioned the Beatles arrived, other even more exciting and rebellious pop groups like the Rolling Stones emerged, and teenage parties became the order of the day or rather night. Though both my parents were keen classical music-lovers, I thought it was all very embarrassingly stuffy and even hilarious so kept well clear.At weekends it was playing and watching football then buying just about every newspaper around to read all the game reports. I did have a keen interest in politics and current affairs as well so the papers would have been well-thumbed.

Going into '63, I remember sitting on the upper-deck of trolley-buses with no heating and some old folks (they were probably around 40 years old) shivering and trying to forget their bodily discomfort by chattering away among themselves that it was the coldest winter since 1947. That was the year I was born so I couldn't really contradict them.

Happy Days.

[Northender]

I went to the Radio Show at Earls Court in 1962. Franklin Engelman hosted a live programme during which staff over at the BBC record library attempted to find requested items in the shortest possible time - I think the name of the head of the record library was Dougie, or Duggie.
There was also a demonstration of colour TV - a row of screens showing, I seem to recall, a picture of Coventry Cathedral.
1962 was also the year when, together with some 29,000 other fans, I watched Ipswich Town (my nearest League team at the time) win the old 1st Division title, beating Aston Villa 2-0.

[Mary Chambers]

Going into '63, I remember sitting on the upper-deck of trolley-buses with no heating and some old folks (they were probably around 40 years old) shivering and trying to forget their bodily discomfort by chattering away among themselves that it was the coldest winter since 1947. That was the year I was born so I couldn't really contradict them.

I remember 1947! I was six, and the snow came over the tops of my wellies. Ice on the inside of the windows was so common then that it wasn't commented on except to say how pretty the patterns were. It formed itelf into magical fern-like swirls.

[vinteuil]

Ice on the inside of the windows was so common then that it wasn't commented on except to say how pretty the patterns were. It formed itelf into magical fern-like swirls.

... indeed yes: my parents didn't get central heating installed until 1970, by which time I had left home. The phenomenon of ice on the inside of the windows was, as you say, frequent. I did like the feeling of being very warm wrapped up in lots of blankets (blankets! - does anyone remember them!!! ) but with a nose protruding into the chill air of the bedroom...

[amateur51]

I went to the Radio Show at Earls Court in 1962. Franklin Engelman hosted a live programme during which staff over at the BBC record library attempted to find requested items in the shortest possible time - I think the name of the head of the record library was Dougie, or Duggie.
There was also a demonstration of colour TV - a row of screens showing, I seem to recall, a picture of Coventry Cathedral.
1962 was also the year when, together with some 29,000 other fans, I watched Ipswich Town (my nearest League team at the time) win the old 1st Division title, beating Aston Villa 2-0.

Can you imagine Franklin Engelman inviting your texts or dealing with your tweets?! Days of innocence long ago

[jean]

...playing and watching football then buying just about every newspaper around to read all the game reports...

Didn't we call them matches in those days?

[Mary Chambers]

I did like the feeling of being very warm wrapped up in lots of blankets (blankets! - does anyone remember them!!! ) but with a nose protruding into the chill air of the bedroom...

And eiderdowns! Nostalgia takes strange forms.....