Rural Civil Defense, 1960.

Bombs have fallen. At least one has struck St Paul-Minneapolis. Another has exploded above the Great Lakes port of Duluth-Superior. Air force [sic] bases at Grand Forks, Rapid City and maybe Minot have been hit. So have other areas...Here, there is nothing to do now but wait. Radioactive fallout, if it isn't already here, will be filtering down within the next hour or two. Heaviest concentration will be between the next 6 to 12 hours, with no one daring to leave the family fallout shelter. Tomorrow, it may be safe to run to the barn long enough to check on livestock. Not all animals could be gotten under cover, but the producing cows and most valuable breeding stock are inside.

Cold War advice on preparing your farm for the inevitable nuclear war. From a 1960 issue of The Farmer.

Elmer For Governor, 1960.

In 1960, Elmer was on the GOP ticket for Governor of the state of Minnesota. A few short weeks after he published this ad in The Farmer magazine, he won his bid, starting a controversy-free term in charge of the state. Two short years later, however, he was undone by 91 voters: in an extremely close election, he lost out to Farm-Labor candidate (and his Lieutenant Governor) Karl Rolvaag. Despite his Republican heart, Andersen was a self-proclaimed liberal to the end, even endorsing John Kerry during the 2004 election. Andersen passed away shortly thereafter.

Halloween Bowling, 1960.

On the evening of October 31st, 1960, the gals from the bowling league got together and tossed the balls a few times. Being Halloween, they couldn't go without a costume, of course: some made due with just a black mask, but others got into it more. I see a couple clowns, a railroad engineer, and a Bo Peep.

"Reflectorize" Your Costumes, 1960.

Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse have been 'reflectorized', according to this article from 1960 on Halloween safety. You may think your parents were the first ever to be so lame as to worry about cars running over little Batmans and princesses on your neighborhood streets, but the worry has been around about as long as cars (but probably moreso about the time the suburbs began to flourish). My only thought about this picture is that it doesn't actually depict Halloween: in order to be included in the October 15th issue, the article and photo probably had to be in to the publisher by the 1st, and with photo developing time the picture was probably taken sometime in September. Imagine you're the two kids, dressed in your Halloween costumes a month early, walking around your neighborhood decked out in high-reflective tape, during the first couple weeks of school. Downright embarrassing.

Space Flight - Ten Cents

In 1960, you could drop a dime in the mail and get yourself some genuine space-flight experience! The Science Program was a subscription service, delivering a booklet devoted to a single subject each month. Ten cents was the introductory offer, but future booklets cost a dollar (plus shipping). Subscribers also got posters, star-charts, and other helpful activities to help teach about the varied topics, from nuclear power to cartography.

Take a close look at the date, though: this advertisement was printed on the back of the 27 March 1960 edition of This Week magazine...a full year before the USSR and USA launched their respective manned spaceflights. The potential for wild speculation and amateurish writing was ripe, but the Science Service was above such things. Established in the 1920s, the Science Service was a newswire for scientific thought, sponsored and edited by scientists for accuracy and clarity to the layperson. These booklets were carefully written for accuracy, as much information as they had in the 1960s, and certainly inspired the minds of today's scientists and engineers. That is, if their parents could come up with a buck a month to keep the sticker books coming.

Arrangement in Gray and Black: Melby's Mother

Whistler's Mother (otherwise known as Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1) is an iconic image in our culture, recalling a Victorian silence and respectability. Mrs. Melby's Mother, above, spent Halloween 1960 at a bowling alley. My, how times change is a little less than a century! Not quite as much as you may think, though -- the style of dress is similarly modest, although Mrs. Melby has gone stocking-free and is showing a little ankle. Her chair is similarly spartan, although anyone who attended a high school built earlier than 1960 is probably intimately familiar with such folding seats; many a small finger has been bit by those steel hinges while screwing around during an oh-so-important school assembly in the auditorium.

Pfister Hotel Barber Shop Staff, 1960

The couple in the front, members of the "Pfister Hotel Social Club" spent more time at the Pfister than just as customers: they appear to be the proprietors of the hotel barber shop. Several photos were taken, in hopes of getting a good shot where nobody's blinking, everybody's looking at the camera, and you can see everyone's faces...they didn't succeed.

Nixon at the Tournament of Roses Parade

Who's that cheery guy waving from the back of a convertible Cadillac? Why, it's the nation's most beloved politician, Richard Nixon! Presiding over the 1960 Tournament of Roses parade, Nixon's car was overcome by beautiful women wishing to lavish kisses upon the vice-president...oh, um, sorry, this IS Nixon we're talking about, and from what I've read he was always a bit creepy. Notice the number of people in the crowd looking away as he drove by. I actually uploaded these to Collector's Quest, in conjunction with an article I wrote.