Mother and I were talking about today being the anniversary of the Challenger disaster, and where we were on that day. Do you ever play that game? Where were you when XYZ happened in the world? After giving it some thought I realized I sometimes am oblivious, and I sometimes have bizarre reactions to catastrophic events.
I think I got this from my older brother, who got a call from me on the morning of September 11, 2001 when he was at work and I was all "OMG WE'RE GOING TO WAR!!! THE TERRORISTS HIT THE WORLD TRADE TOWERS!!" and he calmly said, as if talking to an escaped mental patient, "Cool. And what do you want me to do about it?!"
[NOTE: He was not being insensitive to the tragedy. Anytime I tell him something startling, "Cool" is always the first word out of his mouth. I think it's a knee-jerk reaction to our childhood, when he was required to be the Calm Older Brother and I was allowed to Nut Up on a frequent basis because, well, that was me. Then. Not now. Not usually, anyway.]
I sometimes think my whole life has been spent in front of something like an enormous screen with sad or tragic things happening in the background, while I went about my business in the front of the screen.What you will see from this little timeline below is that my concerns were often on a personal level more than a global level.
Now that I think about it, as soon as I was born stuff started happening. Maybe my existence sparked chaos in the world. Don't want to think about that too much...
Cuban Missile Crisis - October 18-29, 1962. I was an infant. No memory of it. My mother tells hair-raising stories about it, though. Not always a good thing, living down the road from a nuclear reactor [Savannah River Plant].
President Kennedy assassinated - November 22, 1963. I was 16 months old. I have no memory of it. The first president I recall is Johnson, then there was Nixon. I remember thinking all presidents must be rather homely men, before I studied history and realized Kennedy was handsome.
Bobby Kennedy shot - June 5, 1968 - I do vaguely remember hearing this on the radio and telling Mother. I don't recall her reaction.I do recall her standard response to this sort of thing was "All right. Now go on back outside and play. Go on."
First walk on the moon - July 20, 1969. I was 7 years old. Mom changed her tack. I remember Mom calling me to come inside and forcing me, for perhaps half an hour, to sit there and watch vague white blobs bob up and down on our lousy black and white TV set, on what Walter Cronkite said was the moon's surface. Mother kept exclaiming "Look! They're walking ON THE MOON!" I could not see what the fuss was about. I complained until Mom let me go back outside to play. I had important mud pies to make.
Only years later, when I saw the movie The Right Stuff did I realize the importance of that day in 1969. (BTW, I highly recommend watching that movie to teach children about the importance of the space program.)
The Beatles break up - April 10, 1970. I remember this a bit. I remember thinking we'd never have good music on the radio again. I listened to the radio a lot. My brother immediately got the blue album and we had fights about who could listen to it.
George Wallace shot - May 15, 1972. I don't know why I recall this so well. I just knew the guys on the radio were excited about it, so I figured I'd better tell Mom. She just looked startled. "Go on out and play," was her response. "Who is George Wallace?" I remember asking. "Go on outside." The moon wasn't involved. I could move about freely.
My Tenth Birthday - July 4, 1972 - We were up at our cabin on Douglas Lake, and the next door neighbor made me a cake. (I always recall food.) I also got a cassette tape recorder of my own. Wow. It was a significant day. I remember very clearly thinking I am a decade old. I am OLD. I am turning into a teenager very soon. I am not a little girl any more.
Sometime in 1974 - I got my first pair of platform shoes. I promptly sprained my ankle in them. I should've realized right then I'd never be able to keep up with fashion.
Fall of Saigon / end of Vietnam War - April 30, 1975 - I remember sitting and watching the news with my dad, like I did most nights, in the basement of our house, and thinking how weird, the Vietnam war is over? I couldn't remember what life was like before the war. Seemed to me there had always been a war. What will peace be like? I can remember wondering. I do remember my mom being vastly relieved because my brother wouldn't have to go - he was too young, but the war wouldn't drag on long enough for him to be sent over there. Mom had feared that.
Elvis dies - August 16, 1977 - I was lying on the floor in front of our ginormous 500 lb. floor console model television, watching the 4:00 movie, as always, and they interrupted the movie to say Elvis had been found dead. I was sad. I had no sense of him being the king of rock & roll. I just knew I loved watching old Elvis movies, because he was so gorgeous.
I learn Hank Williams is dead - 1977 approximately - I was watching the late afternoon movie when a commercial came on. In solemn tones the announcer said, Hank Williams is dead. They played mournful music, and offered a collection of Hank's hits for $9.99. I was a teenager and had my drama queen moments. I rushed upstairs and burst into the kitchen to tell mom dramatically, through my tears, "Hank Williams is DEAD! First Elvis, now Hank!" My mother burst out laughing. Hank had died more than twenty years earlier - but there was still money to be made on his records. I was annoyed at my mother for being so disrespectful to Hank's memory.
High School Graduation - June 4, 1980 - I graduated on the football field, with about 500 classmates. It was muddy. I wore flat sandals instead of high heels because I knew if I wore heels my shoes would sink into the mud and I'd probably fall on my face. I don't think my parents went to the stadium. They said graduations were boring and they were right. I completely skipped my college graduation in 1984.
I was tired of high school. I had already been working, and I had a car. I wanted to get on with college. I started college a week later.
President Reagan shot - March 30, 1981 - I was in the basement of the library at school, studying for finals, holed up in a study room all day with a couple of granola bars and a lot of books. The dorm was too noisy. I remember going back to the dorm late that afternoon and watching all the news coverage on my little black and white TV. I wasn't a big fan of Reagan but I was a bit freaked out that somebody shot him. // The fall before I'd been holed up in a study carrel when John Lennon was shot, which affected me a lot more. I remember crying about Lennon.
I also remember telling someone it was a bit unsettling that every time I holed up in the library to study some major figure got shot. I stayed out of the library after that.
Challenger disaster - January 28, 1985 - I was working my first job, and I had been out to UT hospital picking up medical records when the radio broadcast was interrupted. I remember being very sad and thinking crap, are we being invaded? Is this the start of a war?! Yikes.My brother was in the army out in Texas.
Fall of the Berlin Wall - November 9, 1990 - I remember watching this on my TV in my little student apartment when I was in graduate school. I thought to myself, how odd to see this symbol of the Iron Curtain fall.I sensed that there were about to be big changes in the world, but I had no idea how much they would affect my life.
Fall of the Soviet Union - 1990-91 - I was aware that the old Soviet Union was going away and that Russia was now going to be called Russia again, but I had no clue how those events would affect my life. If the Soviet Union had not fallen I seriously doubt I would've ever traveled to Russia with the choir, or subsequently to Kazakhstan for Michael.
In 1991 Alesia was born. I was in Knoxville, unaware that I'd just become a mom, but there would be a delay in meeting my little one...
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