The 50 Year Anniversary

If I had known 1964 was going to be so important 50 years later, I might have paid more attention. But I didn't. I plowed on with my life, which at that time involved quadratic equations, English literature and the mysteries of why my father was now working in Washington D.C. and not at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. So, times were tough? No. They were just times.

In 2014 we've had the news of the 50th anniversary of the signing of Civil Rights legislation by President Johnson. Certainly noteworthy. We've had several articles and picture essays about the World's Fair that was in Flushing Meadow Park in 1964. How have we changed? Did the predictions about the future come true?

The one futuristic aspect of the World's Fair that I can say did come through was I think AT&T's exhibit about being able to talk on the phone and see who you are talking to. Video phone calls. I distinctly remember doing this with my friend George, seeing a small, fuzzy black and white picture of him talking to me. Today, while it's not a land line phone that does this, it is Skype, or Face Time, or other things I have no knowledge of. That part did come true.

Fifty years ago also saw the death of Richard Nixon's dog Checkers, the cocker spaniel that was given to Nixon and caused quite a stir because it was seen as a gift, and gifts to politicians (this one made in 1952) were seen as bribes. The stir was so great that then Vice Presidential candidate Nixon took to the nascent airwaves of television to tell the nation that the dog was given to his two small daughters, and that he was keeping the dog.

The speech wasn't just about a dog, but it came to be known as the 'Checkers Speech.' Nixon even made reference to his wife's humble cloth coat that was certainly not a mink. Six years later a mink coat would play a part in the resignation of Eisenhower's chief of staff, Sherman Adams, and Nixon's part in telling him to resign.

I know of the 50th anniversary of the death of Nixon's dog because the local advertising newspaper for the little piece of Nassau county that I live in, is carrying a front page story: "Here lies the dog that saved Nixon."

The Nixon family had Checkers for 12 years. The dog was named by Nixon's 6-year-old-daughter Tricia. Apparently, in 1964 when Checkers passed away, Mr. Nixon was familiar with some people in New York and the dog came to be buried in a Bideawee cemetery on Beltagh Avenue, where fresh flowers are placed at the headstone. A friend of mine knows an employee of that cemetery, and they are very familiar with what is sometimes a tourist attraction.

I don't exactly know when Harry Truman said it, when he was in office or after, but he made reference to how few friends you could really have in Washington D.C. Truman said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog."

Apparently, Richard Nixon took care of his friend.

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