Looking Back to April 12, 1968 - Where were you?

Saturday I was up early (for a Sat.) and went to the gym. Had a good work out, and was very happy to see my weight slip below the Mendoza Line to 248 lbs. I have not strung together a great week of complete and utter nutrient dense eating void of all bad carbs (bread and white rice), fried food (falafel wrap), and excess salt (miso soup) in quite some time so I am merely inching toward my goal instead of sprinting. This week I will sprint and see what happens. Although I keep from weighing myself too much, I will today and at the end of the week while being as incredibly strict as possible.

Although I ate pretty well this weekend, even squeezing in large salad and water in the middle of a raucous Saturday afternoon drink-up at Doc Watson's Irish Pub, it was uneven. For most of the weekend I was glued to the TV to watch the Masters (great job Phil). However, I did have a giant pasta dinner last night at Becco's on Restaurant Row celebrating a friend's birthday - I hope my work out today, and this week, are enough to get over my guilt even though we were given plenary indulgence yesterday.

Speaking of birthdays - shameless plug - today is mine.

Born: Good Friday, April 12, 1968 at Mather Air Force Base Hospital, Sacramento, CA.

I decided to look at the April 12, 1968 edition of TIME magazine for some historical corollary that is also relevant to this blog.

Obviously, in this issue the world was a different place and the news of that week alone so altered our history that it is still discussed today. How can you compare the week ending April 12, 1968 to the week ending April 12, 2010? There are only two similarities - War and The Masters. Additionally, 42 years ago this past week saw: 1. The surprise renunciation of the presidency by Lyndon Johnson who would not "seek, nor accept the nomination" for another term. 2. The shocking assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King. 3. False hopes, folly, and heroism lost in the shuffle in Viet Nam.

Also, there were three interesting articles from the otherwise explosive TIME issue of 1968.

The MASTERS Golf Tournament

TIME Magazine (4-12-68): The lucky fellow who wins this week's 32nd annual Masters Tournament at Georgia's dogwood-dotted Augusta National Golf Club will receive a check for $20,000...and a green blazer.

Yesterday, Phil Mickelson took home a check for $1,350,000 for winning The Masters...and a green blazer!

Side Note - Actually, the 1968 Masters is quite famous because at the end of the tournament both Bob Goalby and Roberto DeVicenzo were actually tied, meaning they would go to a playoff. However, DeVicenzo's playing partner Tommy Aaron wrote the wrong score for him (giving him an extra stroke by accident), and DeVicenzo signed his incorrect scorecard. By the rules of golf that score stands, and there would be no playoff. Goalby was declared the winner.

HEALTH

TIME Magazine (4-12-68): The greater the ambition and stress that is part of continued job promotion, so the "Executive Heart" myth goes, the greater the incidence of heart trouble. Last week...the American College of Physicians and London's Royal College of Physicians...reported the results of a five-year study that makes the opposite point: the more successful the executive, the less heart trouble he is likely to have. Behind the statistic there appeared to be a significant difference in family health and diet patterns that persisted throughout the employees' adult hood. Most of the college men came from smaller, healthier families. They were slimmer, taller, smoked and ate less. Their fathers lived longer. The differences may have spelled better care for themselves — and their hearts.

Just 42 years ago we were still trying to figure out the cause of heart disease - although they were on the right track (diet), the point that most people assumed it was "stress" is shocking.

BUSINESS

TIME Magazine (4-12-68): I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener. That is what I'd truly like to be. 'Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer wiener, Everyone would be in love with me.

Musically accompanied by 101 pieces of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, that jingle is now appearing on U.S. television. It is making a pitch for an old, redolent, profitable—and fascinating—company.

In the 1880s, in the back room of their neighborhood meat market on Chicago's North Side, the Bavarian Mayer brothers—Oscar, Gottfried and Max—worked hard stuffing sausages…

Today, on the same spot where the immigrant Mayers lived and labored stands one of the main plants of Wisconsin's Oscar Mayer & Co., the U.S.'s seventh largest meat packer, with sales last year in excess of $400 million…   (In 2009 it was $4 Billion)

Emphasis on processed-meat products (over 60% of total sales last year), which carry greater potential profit margins than fresh meat, partly explains the company's high earnings…

Today, all five of Oscar Mayer's processing plants across the U.S. have two-story contraptions where uninterrupted battalions of 36,000 wieners an hour glide toward their destination, untouched by human hands…

The money Oscar Mayer & Co. has spent on research, at an annual rate of $2.2 million recently, seems to have paid off. The company is also devoting some $4.5 million to advertising, so that everyone will really love an Oscar Mayer wiener.

Although the article is a celebration of American ingenuity, I can't help but marvel how differently that story would be written today.  Looking back we had unhealthy processed meats, but skinny children. Now, today's kids definitely exercise less than 40 years ago, but, are processed meats even less healthy today? Or, do moms serve it more to kids? Both?

Well, here’s to my new lifestyle ensuring at least another 42 years!