Flashback Friday on a Wednesday

In a moment of boredom, I did Sandy's Flashback Friday exercise: http://www.banalchew.typepad.com/. As per usual I overlooked the part on keeping the answers to 15 Words or fewer. Woops. Hope it makes sense.

If it's possible for you to remember the following events, in 15 words or fewer, describe your experience with them.

1. The assassination of Robert Kennedy.Blank;………somewhere in my previous life. Six years before I was born.

2. The stroke of midnight on the first day of Year 2000.

Mum and I did a sit-down dinner for thirty of my closest friends at my parents' place in Brisbane. We were all supposed to be going to a party for which we had paid 200 bucks each, but the party was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. We never got our money back either. So on the stroke of midnight, we were all on my parents' back deck overlooking the pool, drinking cosmopolitans. How I felt? Excited about the future. Things were changing for me.

3. You first saw/heard your mother cry.

My uncle and my mother had a fight. I was about 4 years old. I was always very intrigued as a child when grown ups fought; I thought only children had fights. I guess at the time I was curious as to why Mum was crying but kinder fearful as well….it was the first time I'd seen the vulnerable side of mum.

3.A teacher falsely accused you of something.

Absolute horror. I was such a suck at school. I was terrified of getting into trouble. I never did anything wrong and any such accusation usually caused me to burst into tears; which I did in Mrs Ferguson's Year 5 when she accused my having not completed weekend homework. I was her top student but incredibly shy: I didn't start coming out of my shell til the following year. My family and I had been to the Sunshine Coast for a long weekend holiday and my mother had written a note to Mrs Ferguson prior to the holiday asking her to excuse any homework she had planned for me that weekend, as I would be away. Mrs Ferguson didn't seem to have a problem with this request prior to my going away, but did afterwards. When I got back on the Tuesday after the long weekend, she asked people to hand in their homework. I was the only one who didn't: pretty ironic considering I was probably the only one in the class who consistently did their homework. Anyway when she questioned why I had not done my homework and I referred her to my mother's note, she dragged me out of my desk and humiliated me in front of the entire class. It was truly quite horrible and it still sends shudders up my spine. There was something sinister behind her actions. I never forgave her for it. And to this day I haven't told my parents that story. Strange huh?

4.The Challenger space shuttle tragedy.
Shock and sadness. As I recall it was about 5.30 in the morning Qld time when it happened and it was one of the few occasions that I had decided to go and help dad milk the cows……..we were still on the dairy farm in Christmas Creek then. We were sitting down watching it live on telly eating our porridge when the Challenger blasted off. When it started to break apart, Dad said, "That doesn't look right" and the camera crew focussed in on the school teacher's (who was on the challenger about to be the first civilian in space) parents who appeared to be as confused as we were as to what was happening. It then dawned on everyone that The Challenger had exploded.
5.You bought your first piece of designer anything.

A Pierre Cardin tie for my cousin's 21st about 20 years ago. It was pink with grey diagonal stripes. I wonder where that is now………it would be fashionable again.

6.The first time you heard a) Little Red Corvette, b) Billie Jean, or c) Material Girl.

All in my cousin Trish's bedroom………the discotheque of Christmas Creek!

7.You first fell in love.

Taking and holding my left hand as I was driving him home.

8.You walked out of a movie.

Crocodile Dundee 3………do I really have to explain this?

9.The Chernobyl disaster.

I don't know…..all I know is that it convinced my mother not to buy a microwave for another 15 years.

10.A beloved idol disappointed you.
I guess I never regarded them as idols but still they were VERY disappointing live. The Scissor Sisters at the Sydney Entertainment Centre last year……so bland and dull!

11.You first questioned the truth behind whatever religion you were brought up with.I was lucky that I was brought up to question all things including religion and one's faith.

In my childhood, I largely had a positive religious experience. I was brought up Catholic. My father's side, traditional Rural Australian Irish Catholic and my mother's side, Working Class Far North Queensland Catholic. It was that combination of these sides of Catholicism that gave me a healthy realistic grasp on my faith. From the rhythmic traditional spirituality of my father's parents' daily ritual of the Rosary to my mother's father's daily work in charities which lead to my work in social justice. I still pray……… as much as all my education and logic suggests how utterly ridiculous it is to put one's faith in a being I've never seen or met. I don't know why………I still like to go and sit in a church every so often….it calms me down and perhaps connects me to my past. I remember my nana with her slow Irish whisper being two words behind everyone else in the congregation while reciting the Rosary on a Saturday night before Mass. I remember my grandad delivering literally the thousands of meals he delivered for Meals On Wheels over 40 years…all for his local parish. I know organised religion has a lot to answer for and as a gay man, I'm not looked on favourably by any religion but Catholicism gave me a lot more than it took in my childhood. I like to think of it as a crazy old uncle with whom I don't see eye to eye but still like to have a nice few quiet ales every so often
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12.The first time anyone asked you to dance.
Nicole Stonehouse asked me to the annual lunchtime disco at Beaudesert Primary School. I was in Grade One. She was the prettiest and smartest girl in my grade and I was so thrilled that she asked me. We both tore up the dance floor and consequently were both named respectively Disco King and Disco Queen for 1981. I've still got the trophy!

13.You suffered your first broken bone.
I was two. All I remember is climbing over the back fence on the farm and thinking how smart I was……

14.The first time you heard the word "blog".

Somewhere around the same time I discovered Gaydar.

C