Robin Rocks 1963

As a writer you can write about anything.
And hopefully make it interesting.

Any subject can lead into another subject.

In late 2016 a young man named Peter McIndoe brought to the world’s attention the claim that all birds in the United States of America were unmercifully exterminated by the government between the years 1959 and 1971 (the year I was born). These real living breathing birds were replaced by non-living drones. When these so called birds sit on power lines, there not just tweeting away to their bird brained neighbors, but they are actually recharging themselves. You know that annoying bird poop they crap on your car or your person? Well it is really a tracking method so the government can keep tabs on you. You know why U.S. president John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 63? It was due to his reluctance to kill all the birds. This all makes you think doesn’t it?

In 2021 Peter actually admitted that the whole conspiracy theory was made up. A farce. A satirical movement started on a whim. What was not made up on a whim was a particular legend about a bird. A particular bird. The Robin. The Robin is characterized by its red breast. It got it’s rather unique look as a reward for protecting baby Jesus from the sparks of a fire. As the holy family were on the run from Herod, while resting in Egypt, the Christ child got too close to a fire that was lit to keep his holy family warm and perhaps to cook something for them to eat. Perhaps Smores. Instead of fire landing on the savior of world, the fire landed on the breast of the brave little bird who had swooped in to stand between Jesus and certain incineration.

The Robin later returned towards the end of Christ’s life as he carried the cross to calvary. The Robin this time plucked a thorn from the crown of thorns that lay utop Christ’s temple. As it did a drop of Jesus’ blood fell on the robin’s chest, turning it red. Wait. The other legend said it was already red. Ok. Don’t think about it too much. I honestly put these stories in here to give a Catholic sensibility to this post. After all this is The Catholic Bard. I put the Birds Aren’t Real story in because I found it interesting and a good lead in to my telling of the Robin legend. I showed my wife a video about this movement after she said she hadn’t heard of it before, which made me think of putting it in.

Robins are wonderful birds who are the subjects of songs and poems.

The Robins by Mother Goose

A robin and a robin’s son
Once went to town to buy a bun.
They couldn’t decide on plum or plain,
And so they went back home again.

Robins make people laugh by being rather silly and they also can fight crime if they are under the shadow of a bat.

Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off and they are nearly always doing it.-Frances Hodgson Burnett

Robin is also the name of one of my co-workers at St. Elizabeth Home. She works hard preparing and cooking food for the elderly. She also directs and stirs me through my working day, making sure I am working to my potential. When I don’t drive her crazy with just being myself, we can actually talk and laugh together. She’s a good person and February 6th, the day I post this article, is her birthday. Everything I wrote so far is just a lead up to wish her a happy birthday. And now I get to share and tweet some history.

While Robin was being born this also happen…

60 – The earliest date for which the day of the week is known. A graffito in Pompeii identifies this day as a dies Solis (Sunday), by a system in which Sunday corresponds to the day of the week this day would have in modern reckoning: Wednesday.
1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop.
1778 – New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.
1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.
1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.
2018 – SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, a super heavy launch vehicle, makes its maiden flight.

She shares a birthday with my older sister Patty and also rock legend Axl Rose from Guns and Roses. Both born in 1962. A year later in

Robin was born making her 59 in 2022. The year that she was born these historical events took place.

January 1-Osamu Tezuka’s Tetsuwan Atomu (Astro Boy), Japan’s first serialized animated series based on the popular manga, is broadcast for the first time, on the Japanese television station Fuji Television.
January 8 – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
March 18 – Gideon v. Wainwright: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that state courts are required to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants who cannot afford to pay their own attorneys.
March 21 – The Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes; the last 27 prisoners are transferred elsewhere at the order of United States Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
March 22 – The Beatles release their first album, Please Please Me, in the United Kingdom.

April 1 – The long-running soap opera General Hospital debuts on ABC Television in the United States.
April 11 – Pope John XXIII issues his final encyclical, Pacem in terris, entitled On Establishing Universal Peace in Truth, Justice, Charity and Liberty, the first papal encyclical addressed to “all men of good will”, rather than to Roman Catholics only.
April 14 – The Institute of Mental Health (Belgrade) is established.
April 15 – 70,000 marchers arrive in London from Aldermaston, to demonstrate against nuclear weapons.
April 16 – Martin Luther King, Jr. issues his “Letter from Birmingham Jail”.
April 29 – Buddy Rogers becomes the first WWWF Champion.
May 1-The Coca-Cola Company introduces its first diet drink, Tab cola.

Tab

June 3-Pope John XXIII (b. 1881) dies.
June 21 – Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini) succeeds Pope John XXIII as the 262nd pope.
June 23 – Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room opens at Disneyland, premiering the first Audio-Animatronics in the park.
July 1 – ZIP codes are introduced by the United States Postal Service.
July 19 – American test pilot Joe Walker, flying the X-15, reaches an altitude of 65.8 miles (105.9 kilometers), making it a sub-orbital spaceflight by recognized international standards.
August 18 – American civil rights movement: James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi.[15
August 28 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an audience of at least 250,000, during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It is, at that point, the single largest protest in American history.

September 7 – The Pro Football Hall of Fame opens in Canton, Ohio with 17 charter members.
September 29-The second period of the Second Vatican Council in Rome opens.
October 8 – Sam Cooke and his band are arrested after trying to register at a “whites only” motel in Louisiana. In the months following, he records the song “A Change Is Gonna Come”.
October 30 – The car manufacturing firm Lamborghini is founded in Italy.
November 22-Assassination of John F. Kennedy: In a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy is fatally shot by Lee Harvey Oswald, and Governor of Texas John Connally is seriously wounded at 12:30 CST. Upon Kennedy’s death, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson becomes the 36th President of the United States. A few hours later, President Johnson is sworn in aboard Air Force One, as Kennedy’s body is flown back to Washington, D.C. Stores and businesses shut down for the next four days, in tribute. Authors C.S. Lewis (Narnia Books) Aldous Huxley (Brave New World) and Wilhelm Beiglböck, an Austrian-German physician also die on the same day.

November 23-The first episode of the BBC television series Doctor Who is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
November 24-Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, an event seen on live national television.
Vietnam War: New U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson confirms that the United States intends to continue supporting South Vietnam militarily and economically.
November 25 – State funeral of John F. Kennedy: President Kennedy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Schools around the nation cancel classes that day; millions watch the funeral on live international television. Lee Harvey Oswald’s funeral takes place on the same day.
November 29-U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
December 4 – The second period of the Second Vatican Council closes.
December 8-Frank Sinatra, Jr. is kidnapped at Harrah’s Lake Tahoe.
December 25-Walt Disney releases his 18th feature-length animated motion picture The Sword in the Stone, about the boyhood of King Arthur. It is the penultimate animated film personally supervised by Disney.

December 26 – The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There” are released in the United States, marking the beginning of Beatlemania on an international level.

Other people who were born in 1963 include

June 25- Life of Pi author Yann Martel
August 3-Metallica co-founder James Hetfield
December 18- Acting Legend Brad Pitt

Other people who died in 1963 include

Poet Legend Robert Frost (March 26, 1874 – January 29, 1963)
Country Singing Legend Patsy Cline (September 8, 1932 – March 5, 1963)
Saint Gaetano Catanoso (February 14, 1879 – April 4, 1963)

Some other movies that came out in 1963 include

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Son of Flubber
Lilies of the Field
From Russia with Love
Jason and the Argonauts
The Nutty Professor
Bye Bye Birdie
The Birds
The Great Escape

Some other TV shows on the airwaves in 1963 include

The Fugitive on ABC (1963–67)
The Outer Limits on ABC (1963–65)
Leave It to Beaver (1957 – 1963)
Car 54, Where Are You? (1961- 1963)
The Today Show (1952–present)
The Twilight Zone (1959–64)
The Flintstones (1960–66)
The Fulton Sheen Program (1961–1968)
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962–1992)

Some other music on the radio in 1963 include

“Surfin’ U.S.A.” The Beach Boys
“The End of the World” Skeeter Davis
“Puff, the Magic Dragon” Peter, Paul & Mary
“Wipe Out” The Surfaris
“(You’re the) Devil in Disguise” Elvis Presley
“Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer” Nat King Cole
“Another Saturday Night” Sam Cooke
“My Boyfriend’s Back” The Angels
“It’s My Party” Lesley Gore

Some books that came out in 1963 include

A Gun for Dinosaur and Other Imaginative Tales-L. Sprague de Camp
Where the Wild Things Are-Maurice Sendak
The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath
Clifford the Big Red Dog-Norman Bridwell
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective (Encyclopedia Brown, #1)-Donald J. Sobol
Planet of the Apes-Pierre Boulle,Xan Fielding(Translator)
Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves-Farley Mowat
Way Station-Clifford D. Simak
I Am David-Anne Holm,L.W. Kingsland(Translator)

This article started when I thought about writing a post just so I could wish my coworker a Happy Birthday.
By doing this I could talk about history and all the surrounding interesting things that happen on her birthday.
I also needed to make this relevant to my Catholic audience by talking about Catholic things.
And thought I would add some interesting things I discovered elsewhere.

I should now go and make sure my bathroom is clean.
Then I should go to bed so I can wake up and go to mass in the morning and then go to work.
First I’ll get a drink of Orange Hi-C.

As a writer you can write about anything.
And hopefully make it interesting.
Any subject can lead into another subject.