Tuesday's child is full of grace

Tomorrow I will be 48 years old.

I cannot believe that, but it's true.

48

President Johnson's Great Society started the year which also witnessed the death of Winston Churchill; civil rights marches in Alabama; the first Marines sent into Vietnam; the Astrodome opened; NASA had Gemini and Mariner, as well as other projects running full blast; Maldives independence; Social Security Act of 1965; Watts; Jefferson Airplane; India and Pakistan go to war; Billion Dollar Betsy; Tom & Jerry; Thunderbirds; Gateway Arch; Norman Morrison; Rhodesia; Pillsbury Doughboy; Blackout; UNDP; Asterix-1; Race Relations Act; A Charlie Brown Christmas.

There were 3,334,874,000 people in the world in 1965 and now the population is estimated to be 7.072 billion - more than doubled in the last 48 years.  It is thought that the world population hit one billion in 1804 and two billion 123 years later, in 1927, and three billion 33 years later in 1960.  Current projections are that we will reach eight billion by 2030 and 10 billion by 2050.  That should make life interesting.  I'd be 85 if I lived that long.

It was a fascinating year of births and deaths - but I guess that's true each year.  I share my birth day with James Madison, John Butler Yeats, Henny Youngman, Patricia Nixon, Jerry Lewis, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Scott Simon.

Saturday will be the first day of Bacchanalia.  It's not how I'll be celebrating.  It will be a quiet day - the only thing planned right now is dinner with my sister.