Remembering the year 1964

This September is a milestone birthday for me.  I surely didn’t think it would arrive so fast even though I heard my parents and grandparents talk about how fast time passes, especially each year. Besides my birth, some great things happened in 1964. The Beatles came to America and appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Ford Mustang was first produced and Mary Poppins was playing at the movie theatre.  

The average price for a home was $13,000 and a new car cost about $3500 depending on model and options. If you went to the grocery store you would spend about 21 cents for a loaf of bread and milk was 93 cents a gallon. Don’t forget the stamps! They were five cents each and a gallon of gas was 30 cents.  

Color television was a new thing, most of us still had the black and white tvs. Color televisions were extremely expensive so in 1964 you were watching Bewitched, Gilligan’s Island, Andy Griffith and Bonanza in black and white more than likely. If you went to the movie house or drive-in, you would most likely pay $1.25 and the top movies in 1964 that you could see were My Fair Lady or Goldfinger. On the way to the movie you would be listening to the radio in your car and humming one of the top songs like Chapel of Love, I Get Around or Love Me Do.

Some major events that happened in the world in 1964 were Martin Luther King winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Cassius Clay knocking out Sonny Liston, President Johnson declaring war on Poverty, the World’s Fair going on and there was a huge 9.2 magnitude earthquake in Alaska.

Some other folks that share the same big birthday with me this year are Keanu Reeves, Michelle Obama, Sandra Bullock and Russell Crowe. There were some major world events as well that happened in 1964. Did you know we didn’t have a vice president in 1964? When Kennedy was assassinated and LBJ was sworn in, they did not name a replacement VP. Work began on the Aswan Dam, England and France agreed to build a tunnel under the English Channel and Malta gained independence from England.

I hope you enjoyed the brief trip down memory lane circa 1964. There was so much more I could have added but I will let you look that up for yourself! Happy Collecting and Happy 60th birthday to the 1964 Boomers in 2024!