Comments Made in the Year 1955...

[larryJ]

Amazing lists.  However, a couple of corrections. 

Ray Kroc did not start McDonalds, he bought out the McDonald brothers hamburger stand/s.

Polio was not injected, it was a vaccination.  This entailed scratching an area about the size of a dime on the upper arm and then putting the vaccine on the wound.  To this day, some people still have the scar.  Mine has gone away.  Then it became an injection before the oral vaccine was introduced.  I think!

And, in 1955, I had my first official date with a girl named Sharon.  We were to meet at the movie show on a Saturday afternoon.
While I was biding my time until I was to go there, a friend of mine came by and I lost track of time and was late getting to the show.  I found her and her girlfriend she brought with her and we watched the show in silence and afterwards, we went out and her parents were waiting and took her home.  Some date, but hey, it was a date.  Don't know whatever happened to her.

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Well, now I have to disagree even with Larry, which rarely ever happens. My vaccination that left the scar was for smallpox. My Doc refused to put it on little girls' arms because of the awful scar it would sometimes leave, so mine was/is on my upper thigh. The polio was both an injection, which was Salk, and Sabin which was oral on the sugar cube and came along later. The two men didn't get along at all, each swearing his own version was better. The Salk injection used a dead strain and the Sabin was live but worked in a totally different way. It was used for several years in other countries before it was released here because people were afraid of a live component. They both worked.

[larryJ]

Diane, you are so right!!  I must have had one of those OMPFI moments yesterday, more so than normal.  You are right in that the vaccination on the upper arm was for smallpox.  They say that the older you get, the wiser you get-------ain't happening here!

Larryj

[Diane Amberg]

Being a "know it all," just one of the many services I offer. I'm sure it would have come to you later...like 3:00 in the morning!

[sixdogsmom]

I got my scratchie for smallpox in the second grade. As a response to the rather alarming outbreak of smallpox in New York, our school district vaccinated in the schools. We all lined up, went into another classroom and 'got' it. Not too many tears as nobody wanted to be seen as a 'sissy'. I did get very sick as I remember, enough that Mom had the doctor out for me, the only time I can remember that he was called to the house for me. Later, we were given Diptheria vaccine, and tested for tuberculosis, all in the school. I do remember the first polio shots were given just to the kids through the health department here. When the Salk vaccine became available, the entire family went to the grade school to get their suger cube.

[frawin]

Dr. Buchele gave me my first Smallpox vacination in the first or second grade, I still remember the sore that everyone had. I had to take a second smallpox shot in 1978 because it was required to travel in Nigeria as was a Cholera shot. I had to go to New york to the Nigerian US consulate and get a Visa stamped in my Passport, the Cholera and Smallpox shots had to be stamped in my Passport before I went to the Consulate. The sore was very minor on the second shot.

[W. Gray]

More on that wonderful year:


Bill Haley and his Comets release Rock Around the Clock and it becomes an instant hit with teenagers.

The 100th commercial television station in the U.S. begins broadcasting.

The game Scrabble is introduced.

The U.S. Congress authorized Eisenhower to use force against China to protect Formosa.

Emmett Till was murdered in August.

Eisenhower sends the first U.S. advisors to South Vietnam.

SEATO (I worked there a short time a few years later) or the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization comes into being.

Middle East Treaty Organization came into being in Baghdad.

$64,000 Question airs on TV.

First edition of Guiness Book of Records comes out.

Alec Guiness meets James Dean and predicts his death, which happened later that year.

A time bomb explodes in a United Airlines baggage hold over Longmont, Colorado killing all 44 aboard. The plane had just taken off from Denver. The fellow responsible was after one passenger on the plane, his mother. He merely wanted to claim his inheritance earlier than he could have. He was caught by the FBI in Canada. At the time, there was no law against blowing up an airliner. He was tried for murder and went to the Colorado gas chamber two years later.

Bo Diddley makes his first TV appearance.

In 1955 before Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat to a white woman in Montgomery and is taken to jail. The NAACP did not announce or protest the event because Claudette was an unmarried pregnant young lady of sixteen.

General Motors is the first American corporation to make a profit of $1 billion for one year.

The Mau Mau uprising in Kenya continues.

Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) was born.

Kevin Costner was born.

Ira Hayes, nicknamed Chief Falling Cloud, dies.

Dale Carnegie, an early graduate of the then Warrensburg State Teachers College and now the University of Central Missouri, died. His filmed funeral made the then 15 minute national newscasts of the television networks.

Shemp Howard died--three years after brother Curly died.

PBS begins broadcasting.

First presidential news conference filmed for showing on TV.

Ballad of Davy Crockett is number hit. Maybe the hit was sung by Bill Hays but another group also had a popular rendition.

First Kansas City Athletics game played beating Detroit. Only eight teams and no divisions in the American League at the time. The team drew 1.3 million people in 1955. Prior to that time the largest annual attendance in the Athletics history was 945,000. A few years later attempting to counter failing attendance while the A's were steadily coming in eighth or seventh in the standings, the Athletics changed the team colors to Kelly Green, Fort Knox Gold, and Wedding Gown White. The shoes were wedding gown white and were supposedly made of Kangaroo leather. But the effort did not help.

Red Buttons last show aired on TV.

Dodgers option Tommy LaSorda to make room for Sandy Koufax.

Mickey Mantle hits 100th home run.

Illinois becomes first state to enact seat belt legislation. Could not have been very many vehicles with them.

Johnny Carson Show debuts on CBS TV. This was a 30 minute variety show that followed his game show on ABC TV. Ed McMahon was always with him.

Congress authorizes US coins to bear the inscription "In God We Trust."

Wally Cox debuts as Mr. Peepers. Both Peepers and Mrs Guerney were a hit. Tony Randall was a regular.

Sgt. Preston debuted on TV.

First speed boat goes faster than 200 mph.

RKO is the first movie studio to sell its library to television.

At age 13, Barbra Streisand releases her first record.