1963

My friend Shawn Churchman did a very nice thing on Facebook, leading up to his 50th birthday. He wrote a "50 days of grateful" post every day, each one covering a year in his life. I just realized that if I am going to do anything similar, I need to begin it...within the next 1 hour and 15 minutes. I am queasy about posting personal stuff on the Internets, so I may continue this in private, or not finish it at all, or something like that. But at least I'm doing it here on my blog, where no one will ever see it. So, here goes...

I was born on September 9, 1963. The ninth day of the ninth month, and in the year '63 (6+3=9). Numerologists, take note.

I was born in Memorial Hospital in Clarksville Tennessee, which I understand is now a Publix. I wonder which aisle I was born in.

I was born to Mary Ready Gilreath Fott and Solie Isaac Fott. My brother David Samuel Fott preceded me by a couple of years. My first home was in the "Southern Hills" area of Clarksville, and my father still resides in the same house.

I remember very little about 1963. I'm sure that Markus Wasmeier, the great German alpine skier who was born on the same day as me, feels the same way.

Just 10 days after I was born, The Jimmy Dean Show premiered, on which Jim Henson's Muppet Rowlf the Dog appeared.

It was just a couple of months after I was born that Kennedy was assassinated. (I have an airtight alibi.) And on the same day, "With the Beatles" was released in the UK, which triggered the worldwide onslaught of Beatlemania.

On Christmas Day, Disney released "The Sword in the Stone" in theaters. Like the Muppets and the Beatles, Disney films were something I would come to care greatly about.

1963 was a year of much turmoil, with Vietnam, civil rights protests, and Kennedy's assassination. I slept through most of it.