.........I was on most of the more significant dates in my life, and with the tenth anniversary of 9-11 tomorrow, I have been reminiscing on some of those dates. Having been around for the better part of six decades, there have been a few memorable dates and milestones.
The first is the building of the Berlin Wall in August, 1961. It isn't so much the memory of the wall and it's significance, but the memories of my parents talking about it. My dad was career Army, we had lived in Germany and Belgium from 1958 - 1961, and had just left a few months earlier. My parents talked about what the other military soldiers and their families stationed in Europe must be going through with the increased alert status that would be in effect because of the "apparent" threat posed by the Russian troops and their government.
Just a few years later, November of 1963, we found ourselves back in Germany, at a small base (called a Kaserne) just outside of Frankfurt, Germany. I was 8 years old and at the movies with my older brother watching "The Longest Day", a movie about D-Day. I don't remember how long the movie had been playing, but suddenly it stopped and all of the lights came on inside. A man in uniform walked down to the front of the theater and announced that the movie was over, "The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, had been shot and died earlier that day". I was pissed, that movie cost me 25 cents of my allowance, 10¢ to get in, 10¢ for popcorn, and 5¢ for a drink and I wanted my money back. I was 8 years old!
Later on, we found ourselves at Fort Carson, just outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado. On the news they said a man named Martin Luther King had been shot and died. I asked my parents "why, wasn't he a man that preached about peace and understanding" and they really couldn't give me an answer. Something about prejudice and bigotry, things I hadn't really experienced. In the military, living on military bases, you didn't get to choose your neighbors. So I had grown up to the ripe old age of 13 with Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and others as my friends; we played together, went to school together and were on the same sports teams. I went to their homes and they came to mine, I didn't understand!
The 70's were quite a blur; graduated high school, joined the Army just as the Vietnam war ended, President Ford had two assassination attempts on his life and Rock and Roll ruled the Airwaves on radio.
But, the 80's were different! On January 28th, 1986, 5 years after I had left military service, I was at work when a coworker mentioned that the Space Shuttle Challenger had blown up shortly after liftoff. I didn't live in Florida at the time, but couldn't help but think, "Why can't we get it right!"
Later on, I had changed professions and was driving a truck over the road delivering freight across the country. As I traveled through Texas one day in November 1989 I remember hearing on the radio that the Berlin Wall, I was there shortly before it was built, had fallen and that East and West Germany was now free to reunite. Sensibility had returned to the world. But, not for long!
In January, 1991 I was in a truck stop watching live TV showing the initial invasion by US troops to drive the Iraqi forces out of Kuwait as the Gulf War began for the United States. I was thinking that if during the Second World War, if there had been the Internet, Twitter, Facebook and the instant communication we enjoy now, that the outcome of D-Day might have been very different.
And then.... there was Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. I was off that day, planning to leave the next day for a vacation in Seattle, Washington with a side trip to visit my brother-in-law in Spokane. Just doing some last minute preparations around the house and working out in the yard were the plans for the day. Instead, I sat with my better half, watching the events of the morning on TV. Not knowing facts, but simply listening as the various commentators tried to explain what was happening.
Now it's 10 years later, hopefully tomorrow will pass with only the memorials and tributes planned and not a new threat to our lives and lively hood(s). I wish the world well, peace and understanding by all mankind!
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