(5) October 5, 1960 Magical Thinking

1960: First Class Stamp $0.04 cents
"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is published

Beatles make their debut in Hamburg, Germany

John F. Kennedy elected 35th President

Everybody was "Twisting" to Chubby Checker

When I was almost four years old I adored my mother's younger brother Bill. He was funny and great with kids, and I would follow him around like a puppy. Like every child, I resisted bed at night, so he devised the perfect way to coax me there. He convinced me that when I blew on the lights in the house at night they would magically turn off so everyone could sleep. I was the only one with this special gift, so I took this responsibility very seriously. I remember walking from lamp to lamp with him, carefully blowing on each lightbulb as it went out. It was a few years later that I realized I didn't really have this magical power, that he actually jerked the lamp cords out of the socket at the exact moment I blew on the bulbs. I was actually more disappointed realizing this than finding out Santa Claus didn't exist. But I do remember a time when I had a magical and mysterious special power, and cherish the memory of it. My favorite example of the magical thinking of a child.