Observation — 1955, Stage Set For New Leaders

President Dwight Eisenhower suffered a heart attack.  Winston Churchill resigned.   West Germany officially became a country.  The unions AFL and CIO became the ALF-CIO.  Unemployment was 5.5 percent. One of the longest-lived TV series, “Gunsmoke,” made its debut on CBS. In books, the best seller lists boasted some highbrow titles: James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son, Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Picture of a Gone World, Mary McCarthy’s A Charmed Life and Vladmir Nabokov’s controversial Lolita. On the Waterfront swept the Academy Awards.  It was also a big year for James Dean.  Both East of Eden and Rebel Without A Cause were released with praise.  Marty, The Trouble With Harry and Lady and the Tramp filled movie theaters in 1955.  People listened to “Rock Around The Clock” by Bill Haley and His Comets, “Maybellene’ by Chuck Berry and ‘Heart of Stone” by the Fontane Sisters.  The world lost Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, Carmen Miranda and Charlie Parker.  In a coincidence too strange to make up, both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were born.  So were Whoopi Goldberg and John Grisham. If you were around, what were you doing during this year of the wood sheep?