Chris Cockburn's Childhood

Chris Cockburn was one of the lucky Americans who grew up in a small town in the Midwest between the end of the Korean War and the assassination of JFK, ten years filled with school, Initiation, football, Homecoming, dances, detention, basketball, tournaments, proms, yearbooks, class rings, class night, and graduation. Time marked by family, funerals, best friends, worst enemies, late nights, first dates, first loves, going steady, break-ups, and moving on. A time of hot cars, car clubs, twenty-five cent gas, radios, deejays, drive-ins, hangouts, movies, hunting, swimming, roller skating, picnics, rumbles, after-school jobs, baseball, and comic books. Small triumphs, helplessness, tragic and comic events, all combined to mold a teenager's life, a life underscored by the rhythm of rock-n-roll. A time when, as the poet said, "To be young was very heaven."