October 2008 - Books and Authors
By Elaine Welles
Twenty years ago, the Soviet Union was agreeing to withdraw from Afghanistan. The Summer Olympic Games were in Seoul. And, George H.W. Bush was elected president.
The popular music of that year included “So Emotional,” sung by Whitney Houston and “Got My Mind Set on You,” sung by George Harrison. Life expectancy was 74.1 years, median income was $32,191 and a new Ford Taurus could be purchased for $9,996.
These facts about the year 1988 are in The Years Gone Bye (AuthorHouse, $9.99), a book researched and compiled by local author Lorraine Rocco. Described as “A Yearly Snapshot of the People, Places and Things that Captured Our Attention for 50 Years,” the tidy 112-page compilation is fun past time reading (pun intended).
Readers get a glimpse of history from 1950 to 2000 through headlines and topics of popular culture. Each year includes international and national events; automobile and home prices; life expectancy; sports champions; and most popular TV shows and books; as well as new products, places and things.
Each year’s topics are the same, which makes thumbing through the years quite handy. Sports fans will find this particularly helpful, when checking the results of World Series, the Super Bowl and NBA (National Basketball Association) championships.
Rocco, a retired elementary school teacher, says she wanted the information to be interesting and fun, while sparking remembrances. Data from the various years might prompt readers to recall “the year they were married or graduated from high school, or important things in their lives,” she said.
Comparing then and now is always interesting. For instance, who would have suspected that in 1950 children were watching 27 hours of TV per week? That’s why in 1952, Hollywood created 3D, in an effort to lure audiences back into the movie house.
Rocco, who has written feature articles for the Philadelphia Inquirer, began compiling information for what became The Years Gone Bye initially as a way of occupying herself. “I did it to keep busy,” she says, following the death of her second husband in 1999.
Her initial sources were books and almanacs, and later the Internet. Gathering the information took about five months.
“Had I realized the enormity of the job I had undertaken when I began,” writes Rocco in the ‘author’s notes,’ “I am not certain I would have continued. However, once started, its completion became an obsession.”
The years (and pages) that have particular meaning for Rocco are 1982 and 1999. On those pages are the names of her husbands, who died in those years.
The Years Gone Bye contains a glossary of terms and jargon used through the five decades, some really quite amusing. A bibliography is also included.
Rocco’s first novel, Secrets of the Heart, is being released this fall by BlueWaterPress. It is the story of a couple who marry under veil of a secret — which explodes 13 years later when one of them undergoes a heart transplant.
