The early years of our lives were filled with major changes and events, world-wide. We were born in the early stages of the biggest world war, WWII, in history. Following that was the Korea Conflict, atomic bomb development, which led to suggestions we should all live in bomb shelters and had air raid drills at school. Some other things happened in our middle school years, grades 6-9 that, thanks to television, we could actually see what was happening.
In 1954, a major Supreme Court decision led to a real change in American society: Brown vs the Board of Education of Topeka Kansas. The decision ended separate schools, particularly in the southern states on the ground that separate facilities were non equal, according to the Constitution. We were too young to pay any attention to Supreme Court and government things at age 12, but when our 10th grade school year started in 1957, the news was filled with the opening of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, when 9 "Negro" kids(blacks/African Americans were called Negroes in those days), wanted to enter Central High, but huge crowds of angry white parents tried to block them from entering, so President Eisenhower, despite his personal feelings, thought he should carry out the Supreme Court decision, so he sent 1000 crack unit 101st Airborne Division soldiers to Little Rock to protect the 9 kids to enter. Even the Governor of Arkansas had tried to prevent the kids from entering. There were only 3 "Negro" kids in our class of 400+ members: Leon Maddox, Tolmon (Toby) Gibson, and Wallyne Hagin. They must have been thankful they didn't live in the South. They were well-liked by all of us ... at least as I recall. Toby was highly respected for his involvement in boxing matches. Wallyne's brother, Wally, a year behind us, was highly respected for his involvement in three sports: football, basketball and track. Wallyne was active in several extra-curricular groups, too.
Another small event that became a major one in 1955, that affected race relations in the South, was the Rosa Parks incident. Parks refused a Montgomery city bus driver's order to not sit near the front of the bus. It was against state and city law for "Negroes" to sit anywhere on public buses other than back seats. The led to more desegregation.
We were old enough to know that there was a Cold War going on, and a constant fear of Russia and its nuclear power and huge military. It was common knowledge that Russia still occupied eastern European countries. When the Hungarians revolted in October, 1956, our freshman year, there were fears in the US of how that might expand and involve the United States. The US propaganda source, Radio Free Europe, which encouraged such things to countries behind the "Iron Curtain", was responsible for the Hungarians to try to throw out the Soviet occupiers. President Eisenhower said no dice, he didn't want to get us into another major war in Europe. Good for him, or things might be different today had another world war happened in Europe. We males were only 3 or 4 years away from being eligible for the military.
"We Were There" in the history of major events that changed the world and our country. We may not have been on the scene for all the changes, but we were able to witness them, being old enough to understand such events and living in the early television days...or even reading newspapers. I delivered papers in those years and read them every morning when I got done.