He's got High, Apple Pie in the Sky, Hopes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!

My fantastic father is turning half-a-century old today, and he's lived to see over a fifth of the years of history of the United States of America. I thought I'd help him out to remember some of the things from his first few years of existance-

Dwight Eisenhower was president of the newly Fourty-Nine United States of America when my Dad was born. There were still segregation laws, no televised presidential debates, we still liked Cuba, and residents of Washington D.C. couldn't vote for president. Stamps cost $.04, a gallon of gas was a quarter with a loaf of bread just a nickel less, and movie tickets were $1.

Audrey Hepburn was alive at the same time as Dad, and she released her favorite film of her entire career, The Nun's Story. So was Elvis, Carl Jung, and Eleanor Roosevelt. So was Frank Lloyd Webber...but only for one day. He's been dead fifty years tomorrow.

Before Dad was born, nothing had ever crashed into or landed on the moon. Since he's been alive, fourty-six* things have crashed, twenty-one* things have landed, and a few have returned to Earth. There were no women priests, no pantyhose, no Wal-Marts, James Bond had no movies, no colour in newspapers, and Barbie was brand new- not to mention single.

Dad is older than the Guggenheim, the St. Lawrence Seaway , Six Flags, the Hollywood Walk of Fame, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, The Twilight Zone, The Incredible Hulk, and Spiderman.

It's true...the world has been vastly improved in this last half-century. But not only in convenience, entertainment, and politics. For the last fifty years, Robert Hendricks has been around to be a friend, a senior principle consultant, a teacher, a missionary, a bishop, a brother, a husband, a son, a father, and an example.

And that may be one of the best improvents yet.

"High Hopes" was introduced by Frank Sinatra in the 1959 film "A Hole in the Head"

**specifically, the source lists debris left on moon. These numbers may be inaccurate as they do not account for any instances where all traces have been removed.