In ’63 Lesley Gore came out with the single hits It’s My Party, Judy’s Turn to Cry and You Don’t Own Me which my sister Brenda had all three on 45 records which she played the so much I soon learned the lyrics by heart which, fortunately, I forgot all but the titles.  On the radio they played “Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" which I would always sing along with and then there was "Puff, the Magic Dragon" by Peter, Paul & Mary which Mom said was always one of her favorite songs.  I don’t know if she ever heard that some said the song was about smoking marijuana although Peter denied this explaining that the song is about the hardships of growing older and has no relationship to drug-taking.

  

Puff the Magic Dragon

Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff  

A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant's rings make way for other toys
One gray night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff, that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar  

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave
So Puff, that mighty dragon, sadly slipped into his cave
Puff the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

On TV were still our favorites, The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Lassie and always on Sunday night Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color although we only had a black and white TV and only saw it in color if we went to Grandma and Grandpa Junior's house. McHale's Navy about and antics of a crew of misfits on a PT boat like President Kennedy was on, was always funny. One of my favorites was  “My Favorite Martian” about a human looking Martian whose spaceship collides with an X-15 rocket plane and crashes and is found by a young man who takes the Martian home to live with him until he can fix his spaceship.  I loved the show, but it wasn’t as much liked by the others in my family.  

Captain Kangaroo with his side kicks Mister Moose and Mister Green Jeans. One of the show's long-running gags was the "Ping-Pong Ball Drop", instigated by the telling of a joke (usually a knock-knock joke) by Mr. Moose, in which the punchline included the words "ping-pong balls". At the mention of those three words, a shower of ping-pong balls was released from above on the Captain.  Each show always ended with the theme song  ending with "There's so much to do. These things are just a few." Then it would cut back to the Captain, who would sign off with, "So whatever you do, have a great day!"

We continued as a family to go to the movies seeing How the West was Won, Son Flubber and Jerry Lewis in The Nutty Professor.  The whole family loved Bye Bye Birdie and Dad took David and I to see the new James Bond movie From Russia with Love but my favorite movie was The Great Escape with Steve McQueen in which World War II prisoners of war escape out of a German prison camp by digging a tunnel.

Updated: 05-29-2023

6th Grade