An Island In Time II: Coming of Age in the 1950's

During the 1950s the world got its first glimpse of many amazing events discoveries and people that have shaped the 21st Century and that are for the most part still with us like: Disneyland McDonalds sugar cereals filtered cigarettes Rock n Roll shopping malls and credit cards! We were introduced to color TV interstate highways copy machines computers and the Corvette. Man also conquered polio Mt. Everest and running the four-minute mile. More important firsts were microchips the hydrogen bomb nuclear power civil rights jet planes organ transplants DNA space exploration and two new states! This decade in the United States was like the advent of adolescence. We in a sense came of age in a Renaissance-like fashion as we experienced a metamorphosis in character condition and appearance. Here is a recollection of what it was like for a boy to come of age on a small island in Puget Sound where life was insulated from the frenetic progress around it. Adolescents still fished with hand-lines from oar-powered row boats went camping in unexplored places learned to drive old cars on dirt roads and experienced the demise of the Islands ferry. The building of a bridge caused the Island to lose its privacy charm and uniqueness. The little island and its inhabitants finally joined the 20th Century only at a slightly slower speed than the outside world. But as Mahatma Gandhi said Theres more to life than increasing its speed.