Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth. Seattle played host to the World’s Fair, where the cordless phone and computer were unveiled. Goldfish crackers burst on the scene.

Life seemed good.

Then the Cuban Missile Crisis occurred. People feared nuclear end times.

All this happened in the crazy year 1962.

One more thing happened — Ken Kesey published his first novel, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

I was 5 years old and more taken with Dick and Jane books. I clearly remember one page in particular: “Look, look, grandfather is at the farm” — wearing a three-piece suit.

“Cuckoo’s Nest,” a book unsuitable for kids, is set at the Oregon mental hospital.

The story is told through the eyes of the biggest fly on the wall ever, a 6-foot-8-inch Indian, Chief Bromden. The chief, thought to be deaf and dumb, spends his days sweeping — and overhearing dicey conversations staff think are private.

Chief is the ultimate invisible man.

The hospital is turned sideways when hard-living, hard-fighting con man R.P. McMurphy arrives from the state work farm in Pendleton.

Never having met a rule that couldn’t be challenged, McMurphy butts heads with Big Nurse Ratched, who keeps patients in a drug-induced fog.

As McMurphy plays lead dog on the ward, he gets the other patients to join card games, where he wins their cigarettes, money and trust.

The World Series comes on TV. McMurphy wants to watch, but doing so would change the routine, which Big Nurse insists is therapeutic. Led by McMurphy, the men go on strike from their afternoon domestic duties. McMurphy switches on the TV. Big Nurse switches the set off. The men sit around for hours, staring at the blank screen, as McMurphy in his auctioneer’s voice broadcasts an imaginary pro baseball classic.

Later, the playful McMurphy, by much conniving, takes the men on a deep sea fishing trip. No good deed goes unpunished. Big Nurse, through electroshock therapy, punishes McMurphy for his insubordination.

Kesey paints memorable characters among the patients who are often saner than they first appear. The book is a product of its times. It contains racist, sexist descriptions that are true to the period.

“Cuckoo’s Nest” takes a deep dive into the darker side of life. The book asks riveting questions. Is mental health care effective? What needs to change to make it so? How can we have human beings who are as disposable as razors?

The rambling ruminations of Chief Bromden have the reader rooting for him to break through the fog and take back a life that was swept away with the building of the hydroelectric dam at The Dalles and the drowning of Celilo Falls.

The oddball collection of flawed heroes and villains reach an ending that is both sad and uplifting.

The movie made a decade and a half later, starring Jack Nicholson, was top-notch. Read the book to learn the rest of the story.