MERIDIAN —     It was 50 years ago today that Marilyn Monroe died.

    I'm not 50 yet, but I will be next year. When you get to be about that age you appreciate how much the world changes in that amount of time — 18,250 days — and how fast that time flies.

    Other events from a mere 50 years ago include John Glenn becoming the first American to orbit the earth, Jackie Robinson becoming the first black enrolled in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and James Meredith becoming the first black enrolled at The University of Mississippi.

    The world was brought to the brink of nuclear war over the Cuban Missile Crisis that year. The Beatles made their broadcasting debut on the BBC and kicked Pete Best out of their group to make Ringo Starr their new drummer. Bob Dylan released his first album, and The Rolling Stones performed their first concert at the Marquee Club in London.

    To some, this all will seem like ancient history, but consider that John Glenn and James Meredith are still with us. Fidel Castro is still dictating in Cuba. The Stones are gearing up for a 50th anniversary tour. Ringo and Paul McCartney are still on the road, as is Dylan, who has a new album scheduled for release next month.

    Look back a mere 50 years before 1962 and the Titanic sinks. Edgar Rice Burroughs publishes "Tarzan of the Apes." The U.S. population is less than 100 million people. Arizona becomes the 48th state, and Woodrow Wilson defeats incumbent President William Howard Taft, and former President Teddy Roosevelt to become the next president of the United States.

    My grandparents were all kids at this time, and they told me stories of their childhood. They talked about the old days, and things that made an impression on them, like seeing their first airplane, which would have been among the very first airplanes ever. When I was small I would sit on my grandfather's knee as he told me stories his grandfather told him, while he sat on his knee sometime around 1912. These were stories of things his grandfather saw a mere 50 years before that, while fighting in Stonewall Jackson's army in 1862.

    That was the year of Shiloh and Antietam. It was the year Memphis and New Orleans fell into Union control, and the year the United States outlawed slavery in the states and territories still in its possession. The Emancipation Proclamation was first published that year, and President Lincoln fulfilled his promise to sign it on Jan. 1 of the new year.

    So, it's easy to see how people about 50 and older might tend to consider the last 150 years more like modern history than younger folks do. We have a lot of memories of our own, and a lot of shared memories we've been connected to before our time.

    The cruel joke of it all is that every day we see an older version of ourselves in the mirror while still getting excited over things we loved to do when we were so much younger. For example: I've seen McCartney in concert twice; the Stones four times; and Dylan 17 times — and I'm looking forward to seeing them all again.



    Steve Gillespie is managing editor of The Meridian Star. E-mail him at sgillespie@themeridianstar.com.