I sat down to write a totally different post about a completely different subject. When I pulled up WordPress, however, today’s writing topic really caught my eye and struck home with me. It asked “what historical events do you remember?” I grew up with Mama talking about being in gym class when President Kennedy was assassinated and how scared she was during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Granny Wham always talked about hearing on the radio about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. So, I got to thinking about it and realized I actually remember quite a few historical events. I may not remember all the details, but I remember the gist of things. Here’s a few.

The first event I remember clearly is the Jonestown Massacre in Guyana. I was sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of Granny and Papa Wham’s old console TV when the news came on that night and they showed the now famous aerial picture of the compound with all the bodies radiating out from the various stations where I assume the barrels of Kool-Aide were. I don’t remember having any definite feelings about it because I wasn’t really aware of death that much since it hadn’t touched my life yet.

I remember being at my babysitter’s house in the living room watching afternoon cartoons when the news interrupted with breaking news. The announcer said John Lennon had just been shot and killed outside his apartment building in New York City. I was nine, I think, and I didn’t know who he was. All I know is Mama was really upset about it when she picked me up that night.

I’m sure I’ll miss something major as sure as the world, but the next thing that really stands out was my freshman year of high school. We had all gotten our lunch and brought it back to our English class to watch the Space Shuttle take a teacher into space. Everyone knows what happened next. We were eating square pizza when the Challenger exploded right after takeoff. I remember it being so quiet in a room of thirty freshmen who were never quiet. I watched the news that night and saw President Reagan give his speech where he said they touched the face of God.

I don’t remember all the details, but I remember watching the news during the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. So many people were packed into the square. I remember Papa Wham saying something about the Chinese government wouldn’t allow this to continue. Sure enough ,after allowing the protest to go on longer than I ever imagined the army came in and killed so many people. I was privileged enough to see the original footage of Tank Man when he came out of nowhere and took his stand in front of the tank column to block them from continuing to the square. To this day, I think that unknown man is one of the bravest people I’ve ever seen.

Once again, I was lying in the floor in Granny and Papa Wham’s living room watching tv with Papa when the news broke in with urgent news from West Germany. It was November 9, 1989. I had come by to eat supper with Papa and Granny and ended up watching the Berlin Wall fall. It was crazy! Growing up waiting to be turned into a mushroom cloud by nuclear war, I never dreamed anything like this would happen, but I watched as East Berliners crossed over to West Berlin as the soldiers stood by with their guns on their shoulders watching. That was a glorious time.

I know I’m missing something big. I saw so much now that I start thinking about it. I watched as the Soviet flag came down from the Kremlin as the Soviet Union collapsed. Not long after that a bunch of us sat in my dorm room watching the beginning of the Desert Storm attacks and the First Gulf War. I saw the riots after the Rodney King verdict when parts of LA burned and the news showed people being dragged out of cars and beaten in the streets. I remember seeing news footage of the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. A few years later, I was at school and on my planning period I stopped by the library and several teachers were clustered around watching footage from the Oklahoma City Bombing. The announcer was talking about the nursery that had been full and how it was destroyed.

Then, there was the big one. I guess this is my generation’s “where were you” moment. I was teaching first period when Pat Harvey, the school secretary came to my door and motioned for me to come over. She said someone had just flown a plane into the World Trade Center tower. It was all over the news. I had a TV in my room so I turned it on just in time to catch the second plane hitting the tower. That’s when we knew it wasn’t an accident. The kids were silent. They couldn’t process what was happening. I was a so-called adult and I couldn’t really process it. That was all we did the rest of the day as parents rushed to the school to pick up their children just to hold them close.

Then, of course, the War on Terrorism started and drug on for twenty years. Since then, I’ve seen the first Black man elected President of the United States. I’ve seen the WoT end abruptly. I’ve lived through a global pandemic and just when I thought I’d seen everything, on my 50th birthday I saw the rioting crowds attack the Capitol Building!

So I guess I have seen a swath of history. Some of it was a pleasure to watch. Most of it involved blood. Seems like so much of history involved shedding blood. What about y’all? What do y’all remember happening? Let me know.

Love y’all and keep those feet clean!