I am a child of the Catholic church courtesy of my mother who took us to mass every Sunday and on holy days. I still have my St. Joseph’s missal…

This is as good a time as any to start talking about religion, the second leg of my youth.

Once again, I’m no social scientist. This is an anecdotal view of our history through the lens of my experience and the family into which I was born.

I have a spreadsheet called John’s Timeline. It runs from the year I was born to the present. It has schools I attended, places I’ve lived, jobs I’ve held and that sort of thing. To help me delve into my past, I’ve also included data about world events.

After Russia, the other post war enemy of note was China. When Mao defeated Chiang Kai-shek, with the help of Russia, there was a big row in the states about who lost China? As if China was ours to lose.