Did You Ever Expect to See.... As a young person, did you ever expect?.--Aside from the Stock Market crash and the Depression, the era we grew up in was fairly stable. The 1930s were more about economic survival than innovation. What innovation we did have came mostly from the rise of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal administration. But we were in for a lot of surprises in the next few decades, some of which we never expected. Did you ever expect.... To see television in your lifetime? To see anyone break Babe Ruth's home run records? To see two brothers govern two states at the same time? To see the Man in the Moon joined by men on the moon. To see the power of DNA? To see phrases like "hard-ass" in the Webster Dictionary? To see drivers using cell phones as they whiz down the highway? To see soup cans become expensive art? To see performers like Elvis, Cher and Madonna? To watch America's debt climb from $16.2 billion in 1930 to $6.5 trillon and climbing in 2003. That's more than 400 times as large as it was in 1930. To see guys wear zoot suits? To see Americans go from not being able to afford things in the 1930s to having them rationed in the 1940s? To see American women captured in war? To see three American leaders assassinated in less than five years? To see the United States fight five wars in your lifetime? To see the word "cool" mean so many confusing things? To see a sheep cloned? To see girls wear bikinis and men wear such ugly long swim suits? To see the federal budget measured in trillions of dollars? To see a heavyweight champion bite another boxer's ear? To see anyone score 100 points in one basketball game? To see a crippled football player--Tom Dempsey--kick a 63 yard field goal? To see two presidents threatened with impeachment within your lifetime? To read such weird stuff as Anne Rice and Stephen King write? To see basketball players literally fly? To see paintings sell for millions of dollars? To see a non-Caucasian dominate golf? And two black sisters dominate tennis? To see women's basketball games draw thousands of fans? To see Catholics eat meat on Friday? To see blacks leading Southern college teams in both football and basektball? To see multi-billion dollar companies collapse overnight? To see anyone run a 4-minute mile? Copyright 2005 by Carroll P. Trosclair