1922 Plus 90

Yesterday, June 1st, was my father's 90th birthday. Really. Some of you who know Morgan tell me he doesn't look a day over eighty. However, to be truthful, I am not sure if he thinks that is a compliment, or not.

Thinking of telling the truth, 1922 was a lo-o-o-o-ong time ago. In some ways, it feels like Morgan was born into another world.

It was in 1922 that President Warren G. Harding placed the first radio in the White House. For the record, he was also the president who decided that government needed to regulate the new-fangled technology. Makes you wonder what he heard on that radio, doesn't it?

Morgan grew up with an interest in aviation. Coincidentally, it was in 1922 that the first commercial airline midair collision occurred - seven people lost their lives. Since then, I only find record of 49 midair collisions of scheduled, commercial aircraft - most took place before the military air controllers could communicate with civilian controllers. This is probably one of the strongest arguments that could be made for the need of good communication between government branches. Since contemporary evidence exists that this lesson still needs to be learned, it proves that not everything has changed since Morgan was born.

 

The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington the day before my father's birth. Since then this monument has made its own special history. In 1939, Marian Anderson sang there when she did not receive permission to sing at Constitution Hall. Martin Luther King gave his moving "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. In one of the stranger happenings on its sacred steps, Richard M. Nixon met one night with anti-war protestors during the Vietnam era. That incident reminds me of other conversations between Morgan and me during the same war.

It was in 1922 that the British archaeologist, Howard Carter, discovered the entrance to Pharaoh Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. King Tut, as he has been popularly known, reigned about 1300 years before the time of Christ - making him technically a few years older than Morgan. Still, since Tut died at 18 years of age, it is probably not a fair comparison.

In 1922 the United States had a population of about 106 million. Only 343,000 of those served in the military - down from 1,172,601 just three years earlier. The average salary was $1236 dollars... a year! A teacher earned only $970. More relevant to the subject, or father, at hand, the average life expectancy for a male was just 53.6 years.

I am glad that Morgan beat the averages from when he was born. He has been a mentor, encourager and, occasionally, early on, the source of merited discipline. As the years have gone by he has become a friend... and that is about the best thing a son can say about his father.

So, happy birthday, Morgan! You are younger than King Tut and about the same age as the Lincoln Memorial (which, for the record, already needed restoration at a cost of $18 million). You managed to learn to fly your own plane and see other aircraft fly that you couldn't have imagined when you grew up on that Minnesota farm. May God continue to bless you in each day that He gives you the grace to live.

PS Since I will never have the opportunity to note this fact again. It was also in 1922 that an Australian named Fred Walker invented Vegemite. This has nothing to do with Morgan, but does provide evidence that not everything which happened that year was a net positive for humanity.