One Week. Fifty Years. It could be coincidence; but, I think not.

It could be a coincidence.  It could be Karma.  It could be in the stars.  Seven days, fifty years — the first week of October saw the collision of vision, leadership, magic, and events that have shaped the world. 

1 October 1971.  Disney World opens to the public.  For years, my family would sit together on Sunday evening for the Wonderful World of Color.  On those lucky Sunday nights, Walt Disney would appear and share the story of a vision of a magical place, a community of the future, a land in which time didn’t exist.  Like Peter Pan, Disney was creating a world in his vision.  From the first steps into the Magic Kingdom, walking past the hidden apartment that Walt Disney designed near the entrance, and then down the pristine Main Street, Disney brought everything that was good — sugar and spice, into one place. 

Disney lived a dream and enabled others to focus themselves on a vision.  Moving slowly against throngs of people speaking over a hundred languages, Disney World, for me, is a world of entertainment and a world of potential.  Disney’s dream of a prototype community of tomorrow, EPCOT, didn’t open until after his death; yet, if you looked closely when passing the huge globe and strolling through the countries, you can see Walt Disney checking things out.  The sorcerer’s apprentice could not have dreamed a better dream.  Imagineers were created by Walt Disney.  When a visit to Disney World was over, amidst allthe packages and pictures, a little imagineer came home with me.

“We want something educational, something to keep the family together — that would be a credit to the community, to the country as a whole.” — Walt Disney

3 October 1961.  The life of a Baby Boomer was formed as “Ohhhhh Rob” was heard for the first time and the Dick Van Dyke Show debuted on CBS.  Much like the Baby Boomers themselves, Rob and Laura were not an instant hit.  Suburban life was created in the image of Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.  Watching the originals, eating breakfast with a repeat, or working out watching Rob stumble on the ottoman fifty years later, Carl Reiner provided a road map for how every Baby Boomer would live. 

They fought. Friends were part ofyour life.  Neighbors met, had children around the same time, and then watched their children grow up.  Work had its pressures and its successes.  Husbands and wives could disagree.  Couples could even (in the first couple of seasons only) sleep in one bed. Our grandparents knew that Ozzie and Harriet didn’t really have sex…the stork had to have left those boys on their doorstep.  Laura and Rob were passionate (Come on, how could you not be excited by Mary Tyler Moore in Capri pants!). 

The genius of a Carl Reiner was simple.  He wrote the stories of his life.  A life like ours.  A life that we wanted to have.  For fifty years, the Dick Van Dyke Show offered a how-to guide for a perfect marriage, a wonderful job, a terrific lifestyle, and a scrapbook of a generation.

It’s like abird.  If he knew what he was doing, he would fall.  Carl Reiner

 October 1957.    The Soviet Union launched Sputnik I. The world Disney had dreamed became smaller on that day.  The first artificial satellite orbited the earth.  The Earth became smaller on that day and our universe expanded.

It’s extremely important for U.S. history students to see waht came from the Sputnik days of the ate 1950s to the present, and say, 40 to 50 years from now, where are we going to be in space? and these students will be part of that.  Robert Gray

The launch started the space age.  It also was a formidable launch of the Cold War, political unrest, military strikes, and a unique fear in the hearts of those sitting in their living rooms laughing at Dick Van Dyke.

As with the disaster of 11 September 2001, no US intelligence agency had anticipated events. Yet Sputnik was not just a propaganda gesture from Moscow; its launch vehicle, known as the R-7, was capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The Cold War had reached a new level – literally.

America ran scared. Across the country, millions of its citizens held group gazing sessions at night. Meanwhile, international reaction was forthright. China and Egypt, allies of the Soviet Union, were fulsome in their praise.

The launch of a beach ball size structure into space was the catalyst for American investment into both exploration and military spending in space.  The excitement and opportunities of reaching new worlds was marred by fears on Main Street of nuclear attack by the Soviets.  The overwhelming belief of Americans in America was rocked with the thrust of a rocket into space.  American technology, values, politics, and belief that we were unstoppable was shaken. 

5 October 2012.  Fifty years after Disney ushered in a vision of tomorrow, Rob and Laura shared a lifestyle of life and love, a satellite opened the door to new worlds, the child of this era died.  Stgeve Jobs was fifty-six when he died.  The media was filled with a common statement, Steve Jobs created products that we didn’t know we needed.  The iPhone, iPad, iPod changed how we live, think, and act.  In so many ways, Jobs was the ultimate composite of the last fifty years.  He was the sorcerer’s apprentice.  His world was the world of tomorrow.  The experimental community of Disney’s imagination was reality.  Jobs built on technology that thrust us into space.  The expanse of the world was made smaller by the connectivity of his genius.  And at the end, it was home and family that he would retreat to.  Palo Alto was thousands of miles away from New Rochelle; it was ony a stone’s throw away thanks to the world Jobs created.

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”  Steve Jobs.

One week.  Fifty years. I doubt if it was coinidence.  A trip to Disney WOrld would not be complete without hearing “Now is the time.  Now is the best time.  Now is the best time of our lives.”  Disney dreamed it.  Dick VAn Dyke lived it.  Sputnik propelled it.  Jobs recreated it.  One week.  Fifty years.