We've created an album on our Mobile ME account for everyone to access the pics from the slideshow.
Here is the link. http://gallery.me.com/aedigiovanni/100669
We also can add a gallery for people to upload and download pics from the event.
Enjoy. More to come!
Cadyn
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
1979
1979-- And after the grim years of political unrest and assassinations during the 60’s, there was yet another assassination attempt in 1979 which you may or may not remember. On April 20, President Jimmy Carter was attacked by a rabbit during a fishing trip in Plains, Georgia. The rabbit, which may have been fleeing a predator, swam toward his boat, "hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared." President Carter was forced to beat off the vicious beast with a canoe paddle. It made front page news and he got a lot of criticism, saying he couldn’t fight off Russia and the Ayatolla Khomeini but he sure knew how to defend himself from a vicious bunny rabbit.
One thing that I do remember is that when Dad and Mom came to OK for our wedding. They got off the train in OKC, Dad looked all around and said, "I never looked so far and saw so little in all my life." He always called me Okie, so I had to reciprocate and call him Yankee.—Joyce Hancock
One thing that I do remember is that when Dad and Mom came to OK for our wedding. They got off the train in OKC, Dad looked all around and said, "I never looked so far and saw so little in all my life." He always called me Okie, so I had to reciprocate and call him Yankee.—Joyce Hancock
1969
1969 Dad walked down the aisle with his third daughter on his arm to give her away on April 5th
In Tennessee James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida and will become the first manned space mission to land on the moon with Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on its surface. The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens. The Concorde supersonic transport plane breaks the sound barrier for the first time and Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States. The first computer-to-computer link is established and the 360 mainframe computer was becoming smaller and more affordable.
In Tennessee James Earl Ray pleads guilty to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Apollo 11 launches from Cape Kennedy, Florida and will become the first manned space mission to land on the moon with Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on its surface. The Woodstock Music and Art Festival opens. The Concorde supersonic transport plane breaks the sound barrier for the first time and Hundreds of thousands of people take part in National Moratorium antiwar demonstrations across the United States. The first computer-to-computer link is established and the 360 mainframe computer was becoming smaller and more affordable.
1959
1959 Headlines
• . Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
• February 3rd was known as The Day The Music Died: A plane crash kills rock-and-roll performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.
• The TV show Bonanza premiers—the First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color. The Twilight Zone pilot premieres, written and directed by Rod Serling a Binghamtonian.
• .Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• As an example of Politics in 1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.
• . Mercury program: NASA announces the selection of the United States' first seven astronauts which the news media quickly dub the "Mercury Seven".
• February 3rd was known as The Day The Music Died: A plane crash kills rock-and-roll performers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper.
• The TV show Bonanza premiers—the First regularly-scheduled TV program presented in color. The Twilight Zone pilot premieres, written and directed by Rod Serling a Binghamtonian.
• .Motown record label is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• As an example of Politics in 1959 Governor of Louisiana Earl K. Long is committed to a state mental hospital; he responds by having the hospital's director fired and replaced with a crony who proceeds to proclaim him perfectly sane.
1949
What happened in 1949 Dad has four children aged 7, 5, 3 and 1
• 1949 After many years of misery through the depression and World War 2 postwar prosperity is starting to get underway with companies now able to supply the cars, Televisions and the other goods demanded in a consumer society. The cars got bigger, the TV's got bigger, with some 6.2 million new cars sold in the US and nearly 10 million Televisions in American homes, A new type of TV program appeared we now call Soap Operas ( the name came from the fact many soap manufacturers sponsored the shows to catch the stay at home mum with advertising ) .
• China became a communist country and Russia had the Nuclear Bomb which increased the tension between East and West in other words The Cold War began.
• There is an interesting story of the Mach 1, the first digital computer built in the US in partnership between IBM and Harvard University. The machine weighed 5 tons, incorporated 500 miles of wire, was 8 feet tall and 51 feet long, and had a 50 ft rotating shaft running its length, turned by a 5 horsepower electric motor. One of the primary programmers for the Mark I was a woman, Grace Hopper. Hopper found the first computer "bug": a dead moth that had gotten into the Mark I and whose wings were blocking the reading of the holes in the paper tape. Hopper is credited with coining the word "debugging" to describe the work to eliminate program faults. On a humorous note, the principal designer of the Mark I, Howard Aiken of Harvard, estimated in 1947 that six electronic digital computers would be sufficient to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States. (Today we have 5 at out house!)
• RCA Perfected a system for broadcasting color television. First Polaroid Camera sold for $89. The Emmy Awards for US Television first presented. First Volkswagen Beetle is sold in US. The first automatic street lights are installed in New Milford, Connecticut and the first 45 rpm discs are introduced.
How Much things cost in 1949
Average Cost of new house $7,450.00 had only risen $2000 since 1919
Average wages per year $2,950.00 up nearly 2000 from 1919
Cost of a gallon of Gas had gone down to 17 cents
Average Cost of a new car $1,420.00 up $600
Minimum Hourly Wage Rate 70 cents per hour which had almost tripled
1949 was a really good year.
Dad was working for Hancock Dairy, waking up at the crack of dawn to milk cows and then delivering the milk to homes in the area. A few yrs ago I went to a high school reunion. I saw Judy and wondered why she was never my friend when we were in school when we lived so near each other. We were talking about life, children, and catching up in general. Finally she said, 'when we were young she was always embarrassed to talk to me.' I gave her a confused look and she continued to say that if it hadn't been for Hancock Dairy and our family that her family would have starved after her father lost his job. It was enlightening to really understand a lot of things about our past.--Faith
• 1949 After many years of misery through the depression and World War 2 postwar prosperity is starting to get underway with companies now able to supply the cars, Televisions and the other goods demanded in a consumer society. The cars got bigger, the TV's got bigger, with some 6.2 million new cars sold in the US and nearly 10 million Televisions in American homes, A new type of TV program appeared we now call Soap Operas ( the name came from the fact many soap manufacturers sponsored the shows to catch the stay at home mum with advertising ) .
• China became a communist country and Russia had the Nuclear Bomb which increased the tension between East and West in other words The Cold War began.
• There is an interesting story of the Mach 1, the first digital computer built in the US in partnership between IBM and Harvard University. The machine weighed 5 tons, incorporated 500 miles of wire, was 8 feet tall and 51 feet long, and had a 50 ft rotating shaft running its length, turned by a 5 horsepower electric motor. One of the primary programmers for the Mark I was a woman, Grace Hopper. Hopper found the first computer "bug": a dead moth that had gotten into the Mark I and whose wings were blocking the reading of the holes in the paper tape. Hopper is credited with coining the word "debugging" to describe the work to eliminate program faults. On a humorous note, the principal designer of the Mark I, Howard Aiken of Harvard, estimated in 1947 that six electronic digital computers would be sufficient to satisfy the computing needs of the entire United States. (Today we have 5 at out house!)
• RCA Perfected a system for broadcasting color television. First Polaroid Camera sold for $89. The Emmy Awards for US Television first presented. First Volkswagen Beetle is sold in US. The first automatic street lights are installed in New Milford, Connecticut and the first 45 rpm discs are introduced.
How Much things cost in 1949
Average Cost of new house $7,450.00 had only risen $2000 since 1919
Average wages per year $2,950.00 up nearly 2000 from 1919
Cost of a gallon of Gas had gone down to 17 cents
Average Cost of a new car $1,420.00 up $600
Minimum Hourly Wage Rate 70 cents per hour which had almost tripled
1949 was a really good year.
Dad was working for Hancock Dairy, waking up at the crack of dawn to milk cows and then delivering the milk to homes in the area. A few yrs ago I went to a high school reunion. I saw Judy and wondered why she was never my friend when we were in school when we lived so near each other. We were talking about life, children, and catching up in general. Finally she said, 'when we were young she was always embarrassed to talk to me.' I gave her a confused look and she continued to say that if it hadn't been for Hancock Dairy and our family that her family would have starved after her father lost his job. It was enlightening to really understand a lot of things about our past.--Faith
1939
January 1939 Dad is twenty and getting married to Kathryn Calkin on October 29th. Two years later they bought the house on Pleasant Hill. The pre Civil War farmhouse including nearly 100 acres of land cost $2,800, an extra $320 bought him a team of horses and a wagon.
Headlines from 1939 include:
• The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
• In sports news Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it. Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball. The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York. The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated in Cooperstown, New York. .
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is introduced by Montgomery Ward stores and DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is called Batman.
• In world news-- Great Britain and Germany sign a peace treaty, saying they thereby they are averting all possibility of WWII Meanwhile in the US they began the Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop an atomic bomb program. 1939 headlined the First jet aircraft flight. WW 11 began in Europe and the United States declared its neutrality in the war.
Headlines from 1939 include:
• The 1939 New York World's Fair opens.
• In sports news Lou Gehrig's streak of 2130 consecutive Major League Baseball games played comes to an end. The record will stand for 56 years before Cal Ripken, Jr. breaks it. Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considered himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball. The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, a double-header between the Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York. The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is dedicated in Cooperstown, New York. .
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is introduced by Montgomery Ward stores and DC Comics publishes its second superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is called Batman.
• In world news-- Great Britain and Germany sign a peace treaty, saying they thereby they are averting all possibility of WWII Meanwhile in the US they began the Manhattan Project: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is presented with a letter signed by Albert Einstein urging the United States to rapidly develop an atomic bomb program. 1939 headlined the First jet aircraft flight. WW 11 began in Europe and the United States declared its neutrality in the war.
1929
In 1929 Dad is 10 years old and remembers having a Christmas with fewer presents than before two months after “Black Thursday” crash of the New York Stock Exchange. Otherwise things in the small farm town of Port Crane New York went on through the Depression relatively unaffected.
1929 Headlines:
• The movie Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors. First Academy Awards are announced. The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, The Karnival Kid, was released.
• February 14th St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters rivaling Al Capone are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
• Two years after the crash of the Hindenburg the German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight which ended on August 29).
• Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
• US Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole. .
In November 1929 US President Herbert Hoover announced to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy. He promises "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage," but he neglects to add that many Americans will soon be without pots or garages. So much for economic optimism.
1929 Headlines:
• The movie Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors. First Academy Awards are announced. The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, The Karnival Kid, was released.
• February 14th St. Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven gangsters rivaling Al Capone are murdered in Chicago, Illinois.
• Two years after the crash of the Hindenburg the German airship Graf Zeppelin begins a round-the-world flight which ended on August 29).
• Babe Ruth becomes the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.
• US Admiral Richard Byrd becomes the first person to fly over the South Pole. .
In November 1929 US President Herbert Hoover announced to U.S. Congress that the worst effects of the recent stock market crash are behind the nation and the American people have regained faith in the economy. He promises "a chicken in every pot and a car in every garage," but he neglects to add that many Americans will soon be without pots or garages. So much for economic optimism.
1919
I remember Grandma Hancock telling me a story of Dad's birth. His older brother Uncle Eddie was born at home and her blood pressure went so low she fainted. Before she passed out she frantically asked the doctor if the baby was alright and he quickly assured her he was. She had the same doctor for Dad and right after he was born she asked same question, "Is he all right?" The doctor hesitated then answered, "No…. half of him is left!" Grandma nearly had a heart attack until she got his "joke". Then she was so furious her blood pressure rose and she didn't faint. Of course that was the doctor’s plan all along to raise her blood pressure. So Dad's first moments of life began with a bad joke from a doctor and a very angry mom.
When we think of Dad’s lifetime and all he has experienced it is like a history book. I thought it would be interesting to mention some statistics, headlines and play some music from the decades of his life.
When Dad was born in 1919 Minimum hourly wage $.28 per hour, there were only 2,000,000 cars in the US, up from 1,000,000 in 1918.
Avg. Income......................................$1,125/yr
The medium price New Home...........................$5,626
New Car (Avg. Cost)....................................$ 826 most people drove open touring model fords, but other competitors were Packards, Studebakers and Hudsons
Gas........................................................25¢/gal
Headlines in 1919:
• The League of Nations is formed
• Rene Thomas becomes the first driver to break 100 mph at the Indianapolis 800.
• The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, is passed by the Congress of the United States. It went into effect one year later. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution made drinking illegal in the U.S. so everyone stopped. Except for the 40 million people who continued to get illegal alcohol and who didn't stop!
• The first Miss America is crowned (New York City) Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
• Leslie Irvin of the United States made the first successful parachute jump and free fall. The NC-4 aircraft arrived in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight. . The British dirigible R-34 landed in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship
• The atom was first split in Manchester, England and observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
• The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I with Germany
When we think of Dad’s lifetime and all he has experienced it is like a history book. I thought it would be interesting to mention some statistics, headlines and play some music from the decades of his life.
When Dad was born in 1919 Minimum hourly wage $.28 per hour, there were only 2,000,000 cars in the US, up from 1,000,000 in 1918.
Avg. Income......................................$1,125/yr
The medium price New Home...........................$5,626
New Car (Avg. Cost)....................................$ 826 most people drove open touring model fords, but other competitors were Packards, Studebakers and Hudsons
Gas........................................................25¢/gal
Headlines in 1919:
• The League of Nations is formed
• Rene Thomas becomes the first driver to break 100 mph at the Indianapolis 800.
• The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, is passed by the Congress of the United States. It went into effect one year later. The 18th Amendment to the Constitution made drinking illegal in the U.S. so everyone stopped. Except for the 40 million people who continued to get illegal alcohol and who didn't stop!
• The first Miss America is crowned (New York City) Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
• Leslie Irvin of the United States made the first successful parachute jump and free fall. The NC-4 aircraft arrived in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight. . The British dirigible R-34 landed in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic by an airship
• The atom was first split in Manchester, England and observation of shifted star positions during a solar eclipse confirmed Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.
• The Treaty of Versailles is signed, ending World War I with Germany
Intro
In celebrating Dad’s 90th birthday I wanted to share some of what I remember of our family heritage, the oral history of our family that Dad and his parents shared with me along with some of what I found on the web. The earliest recording of the surname Hancock is from Yorkshire in England before the Norman Conquest in 1066 ad. I could not find this on the websites I visited but dad told me that in English surnames ending with the suffix –cock, like Hitchcock, Babcock, Adcock, Wincock, Leacock, the –c-o-c-k was added in the middle ages as a title or honor given by the king and he actually gave them a rooster which often appears on the family crest or coat of arms.
People often ask us when they hear the last name Hancock, if we are related to John Hancock. Uncle John signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, while our forefathers were still in England. My Grandpa Hancock told me that Clayton’s great grandfather was an idealistic young pastor in England in the early 1860’s. He went to a lecture by the abolitionist and freed slave Frederick Douglas and was so moved by the condition of the slaves in the United States and the ensuing war that he left his young wife and young family and came to America to fight in the Civil War. Dad believes he died in the Battle of Bull Run. After his death his son Stephen (Bumpy’s grandfather) immigrated to the US when he was about twenty with his young wife Agnes. He became an itinerant preacher, traveling from small town to small town preaching to different congregations and they had a large family, with 5 boys that Dad remembers and 2 girls. Edward, our grandfather was one of the middle children.
Another family story is that one of Grandma Hancock’s forefathers came over on the Mayflower on the Clark side of the family. I googled the names of the signers of the Mayflower Compact and sure enough found a Richard Clark. I haven’t done a complete genealogy to prove we are direct descendents from him but it is a distinct possibility.
People often ask us when they hear the last name Hancock, if we are related to John Hancock. Uncle John signed the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, while our forefathers were still in England. My Grandpa Hancock told me that Clayton’s great grandfather was an idealistic young pastor in England in the early 1860’s. He went to a lecture by the abolitionist and freed slave Frederick Douglas and was so moved by the condition of the slaves in the United States and the ensuing war that he left his young wife and young family and came to America to fight in the Civil War. Dad believes he died in the Battle of Bull Run. After his death his son Stephen (Bumpy’s grandfather) immigrated to the US when he was about twenty with his young wife Agnes. He became an itinerant preacher, traveling from small town to small town preaching to different congregations and they had a large family, with 5 boys that Dad remembers and 2 girls. Edward, our grandfather was one of the middle children.
Another family story is that one of Grandma Hancock’s forefathers came over on the Mayflower on the Clark side of the family. I googled the names of the signers of the Mayflower Compact and sure enough found a Richard Clark. I haven’t done a complete genealogy to prove we are direct descendents from him but it is a distinct possibility.
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