If I ever get my time machine working (that darn fleem discronificator keeps shorting out), one time period I especially want to visit is the late 1950s -- 1957, '58 and '59 -- and especially the last -- 1959. Those years may well be the acme of the American Century. I could cite many reasons why I think that; some I have already in previous posts and I may highlight more in a future post. But, for one thing, just looking at 1959, consider the number of best-selling books of that year (many of which are still popular today) -- and what a variety! -- Man's Search for Meaning, A Separate Peace, Starship Troopers, Naked Lunch, The Sirens of Titan, A Canticle for Leibowitz, A Raisin in the Sun, Alas Babylon, Psycho, Hawaii, The Longest Day, The Manchurian Candidate, Good-bye Columbus, Henderson The Rain King, Time Out of Joint, Advise and Consent, Nexus, All You Zombies, The Hustler.... I could go on and on. Does anyone even publish novels that ordinary people want to read today? Does anybody even read novels?
I also adore the popular music of the day, especially the syrupy love ballads aimed at teenagers. So sweet and innocent. I also like the cars of that era, in particular the Chrysler Corp. offerings. My choice to drive on my visit would be a Dodge Custom Royal Lancer convertible. The guys who designed it must have been drunk out of their minds on applejack and moonshine when they created it.
Oh, and how could I forget that the Barbie doll debuted in 1959! My mom got one for her birthday. The original price was $1.29 (I looked it up!) My mom watched Dick Clark's American Bandstand with her older sister when they came home from school and sometimes her mother -- my grandmother -- would watch with them. They all had their favorite dance couples and were as much interested in them as the singing acts. On weekends they would drop by the record store and buy their latest favorites. She recalls that her sister worked part-time as a waitress in a diner for 25¢ an hour plus tips and a 45 record cost 69¢, so she had to work an hour or so to buy one record that contained two songs. But she and her friends would share records, have record parties and that sort of thing so they always had access to the latest tunes from Fabian, Tab Hunter, the Diamonds and all their ginchy faves.
She was also crazy about horses and followed horse racing with a passion. 
Her all-time favorite was Tim Tam, who won the Preakness and the Kentucky Derby in 1958 and almost won the Belmont but suffered an injury on the home stretch when he was leading and finished second, thus losing the Triple Crown. His loss almost broke my mom's heart. Little girls and horses, huh? Her favorite book in those days was a Weekly Reader Children's Book Club selection, Old Bones by Mildred Pace, about the fabulous and beloved race horse Exterminator, who ran 100 races and won 50, including the 1915 Kentucky Derby, where he was a 50 to 1 long shot. I've read that very same book that she did and loved it, too. Who could not? And about Old Bones, as Exterminator was nicknamed, author Abigail Anderson writes, "The great horse lived to the ripe old age of 30. A kind, gentle and
charismatic individual, Exterminator was cherished by his fans
throughout his long life. School children visited him on his birthday
and a book was written about him for adolescents. He was part of the
culture, part of what it meant to be American." Over the top? Not in the wonderful Old America that was and is now only a fading memory, to be reached out and grasped for in vain by those of us who have heard its siren call in myth and legend and do so long for it.
