It's kinder weird to think that in the time I will be overseas, history will be made. Either we will see the first non-Caucasian elected as leader of the free world or we will see the first female elected as deputy leader of the free world. Whatever happens on November 4 the world will change. Whether it is for good or bad only time will tell.
The two hallmarks in history in my lifetime have been Princess Diana's death and September 11. In my parents' lifetime; JFK's assassination and Man landing on the moon. All of us remember where we were and what we were doing when such events happened. I was extremely hung-over having bacon and eggs at 4 o'clock in the afternoon at Mum's kitchen table when the first news bulletins came across the tv screen that Princess Diana had been in a car accident in Paris. Only half an hour later she was pronounced dead. We all sat there in shock. I rang everyone.
I was on the phone to my friend Christopher when I switched on the television and started channel surfing stumbling across what appeared to be a disaster film; except I couldn't recall which one. I remembered Towering Inferno but that was set in San Francisco with really bad hair….I didn't remember a disaster film being made about the Twin Towers. As the second jet flew into the remaining tower and Sandra Sully's (Channel Ten Newsreader) voiceover interrupted what I was seeing, I soon realised this was no movie.
On July 21 1969 (Australian time) my mum as a young teacher sat with her Grade 1 Class in front of a National black and white television set and saw Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon. Dad didn't see it, he heard it instead on the radio whilst he milked cows in his dairy…….one small step for man. Two weeks later my parents were engaged.
It was a Saturday morning when Australia heard news that JFK had been assassinated on 22 November 1963. My father was 22 and had just bought his first property where he was building a new dairy. He worked on that all day to come back to Nana and Mickey's place to find them dedicating a Rosary to JFK…the first Catholic president. Mum had just woken up and sat with her parents in shock as they listened to the news over the radio. She was 16 years old.
A friend in London is throwing an Obama party in his flat on Tuesday night. I intend to be there, drinking into the wee cold hours of the next morning waiting for history to present itself. I dearly hope I won't be disappointed.
C
The two hallmarks in history in my lifetime have been Princess Diana's death and September 11. In my parents' lifetime; JFK's assassination and Man landing on the moon. All of us remember where we were and what we were doing when such events happened. I was extremely hung-over having bacon and eggs at 4 o'clock in the afternoon at Mum's kitchen table when the first news bulletins came across the tv screen that Princess Diana had been in a car accident in Paris. Only half an hour later she was pronounced dead. We all sat there in shock. I rang everyone.
I was on the phone to my friend Christopher when I switched on the television and started channel surfing stumbling across what appeared to be a disaster film; except I couldn't recall which one. I remembered Towering Inferno but that was set in San Francisco with really bad hair….I didn't remember a disaster film being made about the Twin Towers. As the second jet flew into the remaining tower and Sandra Sully's (Channel Ten Newsreader) voiceover interrupted what I was seeing, I soon realised this was no movie.
On July 21 1969 (Australian time) my mum as a young teacher sat with her Grade 1 Class in front of a National black and white television set and saw Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon. Dad didn't see it, he heard it instead on the radio whilst he milked cows in his dairy…….one small step for man. Two weeks later my parents were engaged.
It was a Saturday morning when Australia heard news that JFK had been assassinated on 22 November 1963. My father was 22 and had just bought his first property where he was building a new dairy. He worked on that all day to come back to Nana and Mickey's place to find them dedicating a Rosary to JFK…the first Catholic president. Mum had just woken up and sat with her parents in shock as they listened to the news over the radio. She was 16 years old.
A friend in London is throwing an Obama party in his flat on Tuesday night. I intend to be there, drinking into the wee cold hours of the next morning waiting for history to present itself. I dearly hope I won't be disappointed.
C
2 comments:
Good grief, I'm your parent's generation...almost.
I was 14 and woke on a Saturday morning to the news on radio of JFK's assassination. Later that morning I had to go play school sport (cricket) over at the Shore School.
I was 20 when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon and I snuck out from my job at the old Government Centre (now Chifley Tower) to watch the historic moment live on a tiny television in the old Qantas building across the road.
We're all nervous, obsessesed wrecks here. A thing there will be riots or mass suicides if Obama loses, I really do.
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