To thine own self be true

need not necessarily lead to hate and retaliatory action or violence.
Live and let live, as they used to say. Best not to lose one’s overall focus and bliss on account of disagreements and betrayals. “Getting even” is a primitive, ego-centered behavior. Disagreements and betrayals are not necessarily the end of the universe or the end of oneself and one’s own life.

#6 in 11/61 (UK) Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”
#7 in 7/64 (US) Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto’s “The Girl from Ipanema”

(Month/Year) in the top 20 (Billboard)

All You Need Is Love 8/67
And I Love Her 9/64
Ballad of John and Yoko 6/69
The Beatles Movie Medley 5/82
Can’t Buy Me Love 4/64
Come Together/Something 10/69
Day Tripper 1/66
Do You Want to Know a Secret? 4/64
Eight Days a Week 3/65
Eleanor Rigby 9/66
Free as a Bird 12/95
Got to Get You into My Life 7/76
A Hard Day’s Night 7/64
Hello Goodbye 12/67
Help! 8/65
Hey Jude 9/68
I Feel Fine 12/64
I Want to Hold Your Hand 1/64
Lady Madonna 4/68
Let It Be 3/70
The Long and Winding Road 6/70
Love Me Do 5/64
Nowhere Man 3/68
PS I Love You 6/64
Paperback Writer 6/66
Penny Lane 3/67
Please Please Me 2/64
Real Love 3/96
Revolution 9/68
She Loves You 2/64
She’s a Woman 12/64
Strawberry Fields Forever 3/67
Ticket to Ride 5/65
Twist and Shout 3/64
We Can Work It Out 12/65
Yellow Submarine 9/66
Yesterday 10/65

(All songs by Lennon and McCartney except “Something”–George Harrison)

Elvis- 44 times
Beatles–37

Those were my grade 9 and high school years, a time when music drastically changed thanks to The Beatles, the British Invasion, folk rock, and the ‘flower power’ generation. The following songs were number one songs in the U.S. for all the weeks of ’65-’67. (Based on Billboard)

1964
Sept.–The House of the Rising Sun–The Animals
Oct.–Do Wah Diddy–Manfred Mann
Nov.–Baby Love–Supremes
Dec.–Mr. Lonely–Bobby Vinton
1965
Jan.–Come See about Me–Supremes
Feb.–You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’–Righteous Brothers
Mar.–Eight Days a Week–Beatles
Apr.–I’m Telling You Now–Freddie and the Dreamers
May–Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter–Herman’s Hermits
June–Wooly Bully–Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
July–I Can’t Get No Satisfaction–Rolling Stones
Aug.–I Got You Babe–Sonny and Cher
Sept.–Help!–Beatles
Oct.–Yesterday–Beatles
Nov.–Get off of My Cloud–Rolling Stones
Dec.–Turn! Turn! Turn!–Byrds
1966
Jan.–We Can Work It Out–Beatles
Feb.–Lightning Strikes–Lou Christie
Mar.–The Ballad of the Green Berets–Barry Sadler
Apr.–You’re My Soul and My Inspiration–Righteous Brothers
May–Monday, Monday–The Mamas & Papas
June–Paint It Black–Rolling Stones
July–Hanky Panky–Tommy James & The Shondells
Aug.–Summer in the City–Lovin’ Spoonful
Sept.–You Can’t Hurry Love–Supremes
Oct.–Reach Out I’ll Be There–Four Tops
Nov.–Last Train to Clarksville–Monkees
Dec.–Winchester Cathedral–New Vaudeville Band
1967
Jan.–I’m a Believer–Monkees
Feb.–I’m a Believer–Monkees
Mar.–Baby I Need Your Lovin’–Johnny Rivers
Apr–Happy Together–Turtles
May–The Happening–Supremes
June–Groovin’–Rascals
July–Windy–Association
Aug.–Light My Fire–Doors
Sept.–Ode to Billie Joe–Bobbie Gentry
Oct.–The Letter–Box Tops
Nov.–To Sir with Love–Lulu
Dec.–Daydream Believer–Monkees

Lots of surprises as tastes changed. Listeners were exploring different sounds. The Beatles, The Monkees, and The Supremes had more than their share of no. 1 hits.

Lots o’ fun. The bigger the tooth, the more needles and freezing used. To the point that it takes a week or more for freezing to move out the area affected. One may not feel pain for a few days after. Ibuprofen/Advil works/seems to penetrate more than Tylenol with mouth/tooth pain. Have to use ice packs periodically, too. Whatever you do, leave the area clot alone. You don’t want to lose it–very painful if you do. Because mouth/tooth pain are located in the head, close to the brain, this kind of pain can be more intense than those elsewhere.

The Boeing 737 Maxs. Second technological flaw found today. New is not necessarily better as a couple of planeful loads of unlucky people found out. We don’t need to get on a plane and wonder if it will stay up in the sky. Boeing has turned back the clock to the early twentieth century when prototypes crashed with frightening regularity. This is primitive meets high tech stuff. It’s clear that technology in the skies has gotten out of control and doesn’t much care if hundreds of humans die unnecessarily. Technology with a will of its own–shades of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL.

What the average Canadian family pays from their income for federal, provincial, and municipal taxes per year. Apparently some middle and upper families pay over 50%. Now that’s servitude, baby. (info: Fraser Institute, 2013)

1. What is my bliss? What do I like? What am I into? What am I passionate about? What can I lose myself in/distract myself with? What is positively engaging, immersive, and distracting in my life?

2. What am I good at? What are my strengths? What do I have to offer others and the world?

3. Who can I rely on and trust? What for? To what extent can I do as completely as possible for myself? What are my current (known) limits and limitations?

4. What missing pieces do I still have in my life? Do I need to address any isolation, alienation, or loneliness? How might I do this?

5. What specifically is ‘to do’, remains undone, unfinished, and unfulfilled?

6. What do I have to look forward to today, soon, or in the near future?

(The Father of Canada and Confederation)

Long gone are the survey courses in both of my youth. With the usurpation by politically-correct topics, kids no longer know, study, or encounter:

Frederick Banting

Alexander Graham Bell

Billy Bishop

the Bluenose

Robert Borden

Brebeuf

General Brock

the amazing Building of the first transcontinental railway (CPR)

John Cabot

Guy Carleton

Jacques Cartier

Samuel de Champlain

Company of New France

Confederation

Conscription

Constitutional Act

Coureurs de Bois

Depression

Diefenbaker

Adam Dollard at Long Sault

the Donnellys

Tommy Douglas

Durham Report

Lief Ericson

Evacuation of Japanese Canadians

Expo 67

First World War

FLQ Crisis

Fort Louisbourg

Terry Fox

Fur trade

Alexander Galt

Wayne Gretzky

Group of Seven

Chris Hadfield

Halifax Explosion

Gordie Howe

Joseph Howe

Henry Hudson

Hudson’s Bay Company

Imperial Conference

Jesuits

Henry Kelsey

William Lyon Mackenzie King

Klondike Gold Rush

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

La Verendrye

League of Nations

Literature, Canadian

Loyalists

John A. MacDonald

Thomas D’Arcy McGee

Alexander Mackenzie

Jeanne Mance

Metis

Military, Canadian history

Montcalm

French-Canadian Nationalism

New France

Newfoundland

NORAD

North West Company

North-west Passage

North West Rebellion

Painting, Canadian

L.B. Pearson

Plains of Abraham

Port Royal

Quebec Act

Queenston Heights

Radisson

Red River Colony

Red River Rebellion

Regina Tornado

Louis Riel

St. Lawrence Seaway

Second World War

Seigneurial system

Seven Oaks Massacre

Seven Years War

Joey Smallwood

David Suzuki

Ken Taylor

Tecumseh

David Thompson

Treaty of Paris

Pierre Trudeau

Sir Charles Tupper

Union Nationale

George Vancouver

William Van Horne

Voyageurs

War of 1812

Winnipeg Strike

………………….

How well do new Canadians and Canadians under 40 know the history of our country? How well do they know, understand, and appreciate the broader, big-picture sweep of our country’s culture and its most famous and important people and events? Many have little or no sense of pre-2010 Canadian history back to the Viking visits in Newfoundland in 1000 AD. *That’s 10 centuries of ignorance, basically. A major cultural vacuum.* It’s interesting, with all the new incoming First Nations curriculum, how little attention is now being paid to the rest of Canada’s history as fostered and generated mainly by the English, the French, the Scots, and European immigrants before 1950 in six of those 10 centuries. Canadian history today–who needs it?

…………………………………..

Further: The past is now more forgotten and slighted than ever these daze. The ironic result of this is that few people under 50 and most newcomers to Canada have little or knowledge of this country’s history and the process which led us all here to now. No context and no large significant frame of reference for viewing things. This is yet another reason why politically correct types have run amok with zero perspective, context, understanding, and appreciation of the past. The sort of recklessness, nastiness, and vandalism, for instance, that has resulted with historical statues and monuments being vandalized or removed is often blind and cases of reverse discrimination (something seldom discussed when political correctness is being cited or played as an unconvincing  trump card).

The basic textbook of Canadian history that generations of Canadian elementary students of the past learned from in the twentieth century. It had a run from 1928 into to past 1960. I studied it in grade 5 (1959-60) and many of the names and events listed above were encountered for the first time then. It was a romantic take on Canadian history told in narrative form, but it was fact-based nonfiction. If you or someone else who knows little or nothing about Canadian history wants a quick easy reader, then you will find copies of this book sold on ABEbooks and Amazon.ca.