Posted on 05/20/2008 3:27:35 PM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
What 1980's event helped re-shape your life, thoughts, person and/or change your focus and outlook on life?
You can answer as many times as you desire.
Thanks for your honesty. I hope that now, 21 years later, you can try to take all of the energy spent on thinking about this moment and perhaps transfer it in order to dedicate it fully to your family? Do you think this is possible?
I joined the Air Force and left Detroit behind. I’ve been back to visit but I will never live there again!
Me too!!! And the Dean (who looked like Lyle Lovett) had a celebratory party at his home, and I went there with a friend (after we had had a few drinks at a downtown pub) -- not a good idea! Later that night, Chief Byrd (our college police chief) gave me a ride home in his cruiser because I was so smashed! He gave me a 'citation'. Ah, the memories of youth!
I will be thinking, and praying for you and your little one as I pound these in the yard.
We will also be having a memorial service and I will be praying for you. I hope that's ok. Jesus heals.
Detroit Rock City!
Hi there, GB!
I was born in 1974 so was a range of age in the 80’s. Here are the historical events that had an impact on me:
Ronald Reagan’s election. I was too young to understand why my parents were so happy after the Carter years (now I know!)
His shooting.
John Lennon’s death.
The Prince Charles and Princess Diana wedding.
The first space shuttle taking off.
The bombing in Beirut. We were near the hospital (Wiesbaden) where the wounded were taken and our class wrote letters to the Marines. Our family friend was a military forensic photographer and took pictures of the remains.
The hijacking of the Achille Laurel.
The Space Shuttle blowing up. I still remember the morning vividly- and the shock and tears of a classroom of 6th graders as we turned on the classroom tv at the news.
Pan Am Flight 103.
The fall of the Iron Curtain.
Seeing a Madonna video for the first time. I can’t stand her now, but my friend and I were mesmerized.
Fall of the Berlin Wall. Signalled the end of Communism.
I graduated college.
Another event that stunned me was the shooting down by the Soviets of Korean Air Lines flight 007. To this day, there are people out there (including Sen. Jesse Helms) who believe that the aircraft landed safely in a Russian province close to Sakhalin island, and that all passengers were taken as prisoners, and converted into Soviets and Soviet society. When the USSR opened up in ‘91, Yeltsin gave Helms’ staff some other evidence that supposedly bolsters their claims.
Getting out of the navy San Diego November 30, 1980. The world was my oyster baby!
Wow! You wrote all that I was thinking! Even the Madonna video! I was born in 1975.
I have to add, The Olympics, with Mary Lou Retton.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
It changed all of our lives.
South Africa. I’m a Caucasian African American, I guess :-)
Do you still speak Afrikkaans? (sp?)
Challenger. It guarnteed that I would not make it in to space in my lifetime, a dream I had held since my dad let me stay home from school to watch every single Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo launch, and recovery.
I think your grandfather and my grandmother must have been twins. She'd froth at the mouth talking about Reagan at the tip of a hat.
I liked their song, "Pig and Elephant DNA Just Won't Splice"
I've gone through stages...the chemically induced fugue, not wanting to face what I'd done; blaming others; sobering up and accepting responsibility (followed by years of marrow-deep self-hatred)...I finally came to realize that, being truly regretful, I had to accept God's forgiveness, and I had to forgive myself. I've done that, and the change in my life has been remarkable.
But still, I live with what I have done, every day. It's not always easy but it is absolutely necessary. I could no more go through a day without a single thought for my three beautiful boys than I could go through a day with no thought for the baby I so selfishly sacrificed. That is my baby, my family.
If, I may ask, how old are you?
I ask because I read somewhere that Richard Branson of Virgin Air is going to have some sort of passenger aircraft - within 10 years - to go into space (but at the tune of $25,000 per passenger). There’s still hope.
What a decade. But for me it was watching the Berlin Wall come down, I guess. It is one of those things I will always remember, like when President Reagan was shot.
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