but then the terrorists in Europe were horrifying as well
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Yeah I remember them arms locked filling the wide German streets chanting and marching. But they were not as terrifying to me as the old grannies in the 2nd-3rd story windows taking my picture wherever I went - they all worked for the KGB or Stasi.
Yikes! That must have been annoying (and creepy)!
My Dad was a top level scientist with a Q clearance, so the CIA “protected” us while there. My opinion of our CIA plummeted. They were so easy to spot, even for a kid. Kinda killed the mystique for me. I thought they were hilarious.
We didn’t have the street riots in Perfectly Orderly Switzerland, but we lived near the German border and got the German TV stations, so I saw some on the TV news. People were more worried about Palestinian terrorists in Switzerland.
German TV was a trip. The reruns of American shows dubbed in German were so funny to us, we laughed and laughed. Flipper (”Fleepah! Fleepah!”) and Hawaii Fünf-Null — and of course Hoss and Little Joe speaking German were funny, too.
German TV was um, interesting, in lots of ways. I still remember how one evening at dinner we left the TV on after the news and my baby brother (who was facing the TV) suddenly stopped eating and his eyes got bigger and bigger. We all turned to see what he was staring at. It was a nudist basketball game! Yes, the full Monty and they were wearing only socks and basketball shoes! My mother screamed and my Dad ran and switched it off, and after we got over our shock my brother and I got in trouble for laughing ourselves silly.
Little did we imagine then that worse would be on American TV in a couple of decades ...