President Truman signed the Selective Service Act reinstating a peacetime draft. All men between 18 and 25 were required to register with the government for military duty and of course that meant us (guys). The President also banned segregation in the Armed Services by Executive Order.
Congress approved the Marshall Plan: $17 billion to Europe. The Berlin airlift began after the USSR blocked roads and rails from the West.
On June 24 the Republicans nominated Thomas E. Dewey as their presidential candidate. He became the favorite at the polls to defeat the incumbent President. On November 2, defying the polls, President Truman easily defeated Dewey and was reelected.
On the lighter side of life, the first McDonalds Restaurant opened in San Bernadino, CA with the following prices:
Burger..........15 cents
French Fries.........10cents
Milk Shake..........25 cents
Then there was Polaroid magic.....Pull a tab, wait a minute, and get an instant snapshot. What will they think of next?
How about those 1948 prices?
Average income.....$2,936
New car.....$1,230
New house.....$7,700
Loaf of bread.....14 cents
Gallon of milk.....87 cents
Gallon of gas.......16 cents
Movies - The Ten Best Pictures
Gentlemens Agreement (Gregory Peck)
Johnny Belinda (Jane Wyman)
I Remember Mama (Irene Dunn)
Treasure of Sierra Madre (Humphrey Bogart)
Hamlet (lawrence Oliver)
The Naked City (Barry Fitzgerald)
Sitting Pretty (Clifton Webb)
State of the Union (Spencer Tracey)
Call Northside 777 (Jimmy Stewart)
The Bishop's Wife (Cary Grant)
The Top Stars at the Box Office were:
Bing Crosby and Betty Grable
The Top Cowboys were:
Roy Rogers and Gene Autry
Television - 1948 was the year television really began to capture the American public. If you were lucky enough to live in one of the 1 million homes that had a television set you could watch "Mr Television" himself, Milton Berle. Arthur Godfrey made his debut as did Perry Como. Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town was very popular as was the Voice of Firestone.
Radio - Most of us settled for listening to the radio. We still had top-notch programs such as Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Amos n' Andy, Inner Sanctum (remember the creaking door), Lux Radio Theatre and Lum n' Abner.
Music - The songs we could listen, dance or sing along with were.....
Buttons and Bows
I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover
Love Somebody
Manana
Now is the Hour
A Tree in the Meadow
You Call Everybody Darling
You Can't be True Dear
A - You're Adorable
Enjoy Yourself, It's Later Than You Think
The Sports Scene.....
Baseball- The Cleveland Indians (AL) defeated the Boston Braves (NL) 4 games to 2 in the World Series.
Golf- Ben Hogan won the US Open Championship.
Boxing - Joe Louis was the Heavyweight Champion of the world.
Kentucky Derby - Citation was the winner ridden by jockey Eddie Arcaro.
Deaths in 1948 - Included Babe Ruth, Orville Wright and the assassination of India's Mohandas Ghandi.
and our life expectancy had grown to 62.9 years.
I know you all have many of your own meaningful memories of family and friends, but I hope you also enjoyed this stroll down memory lane. My best wishes to all of the CLASS OF 1948.....................Ken Jones