About the same age--as lnhammer occasionally likes to reminds people who start going on about Kids These Days--that we were at D-Day. :-) (Another event that everyone is--or was--sort of expected to have a personal connection to.)
I think I like the moon landing better than either of those.
Yes! :-)
I never thought before about how so many of those "I'll always remember where I was" moments were negatives, rather than positives. Interesting that the moon landing is one of the few exceptions.
ETA: Okay, wait, for a positive I actually do actually remember, there's the collapse of the Berlin Wall ...
The Berlin Wall collapsing always seems like an event which I should have been alive for, but nope, I was born two years later.
I was one of the first post-Cold War kids, though. That's something, I suppose--I was about five months old when the USSR was officially disbanded. (Though it makes my tolerance for Cold War history rather low. I want to go back and tell everyone to stop posturing, already.)
I think being post-cold-war is an excellent thing to be, personally. But maybe that's because I can't say it's an era I particularly miss, myself.
(Though it makes my tolerance for Cold War history rather low. I want to go back and tell everyone to stop posturing, already.)
And that's fascinating, because it comes so close to how I've often felt about baby boomers talking about the 60s (which I effectively just barely missed)--felt for a while like I'd spent my whole life hearing about how things were ever so much better in this time I'd just missed than they ever would be again ...
To me, there's this sort of divide between what people alive today were around to experience and what they weren't. D-Day is very rapidly fading into that latter category. (Though, from my personal point of view, D-Day wasn't that important in my history, as none of my family fought in the war. My grandfather, though, was involved at a very young age in the Spanish Civil War (on the Republican side, I am proud to say (and by Republican, we mean the leftist coalition that opposed the fascists, and nothing to do with the modern American Republican party). He was a secretary for a high-ranking colonel, with the typing skills he picked up from being trained as an accountant keeping him at a desk job and safely out of the actual fighting until the very end. He died a few years ago, and that age moved from "contemporary" to "history" for me.)
It's funny what a difference a few years makes, though. Take the recent hullabaloo about the death of Michael Jackson and so many people being worked up about it, but I'd be hard pressed to name three of his songs, much less recognize them. To some extent, I've never cared much for pop music, but I think that people just a bit older than me were having their formative teen years that set their tastes at the time when he was popular instead of a washed-up has-been. Just missing that window makes for a huge difference in perspective.
(Oh, and -10 for me, to within a week, as I just hit 30 and must now practice distrusting you young folks instead of distrusting old folks. All I need is a lawn, to yell at kids to get off it!)
For some reason a lot of my friends from high school--so, 16/17/18-year-olds--got really worked up over his death, too. But yes, there definitely is a generational aspect in there, and it is a pretty fine line sometimes. Harry Potter fandom seems to work sort of like that too, though I'm still struggling with how to define it exactly.
(For a long time in school they didn't teach us about the Spanish Civil War, I guess because we were too young and innocent or something, but since hearing about it I have been fascinated with it. But it has always been 'history' for me. Then again, my grandparents have never been ones to tell stories about their past, so my personal line is drawn closer to things that my parents experienced.)
It probably also helps that I've seen a fair number of movies set during the Spanish Civil War, which makes the era seem much more real. (In truth, it seems like a positively absurd war, with people going home for lunch breaks during the first few months of it. I guess it just takes a while for it to sink in that your neighbors and coworkers are trying to kill you. Given that it was a class-based conflict as opposed to a regional conflict like the US civil war just made it uglier.)
In retrospect, I realize that my grandfather never really talked much about it, and all the stories I have are secondhand from my father. It still gives me a different perspective, though. When watching Pan's Labyrinth, I had an immediate and visceral hatred of the villainous colonel--these were the assholes that had tried to kill my grandfather, and I take great umbrage at attempts to delete my timeline.
Mm. I wrote all of the papers I wrote because I'd seen Pan's Labyrinth. We did study that war in general but I learned a lot more about it than any of my classmates.
That is awesome about your grandfather. I wrote many papers on the Spanish Civil War in history my senior year of high school.
My father's father was probably doing something political and laywer-y at the time (he ran for state representative? I think and did other such things. He's a democrat.) My mother's father was being a surgeon in WWII.
Not that I don't approve of this plan, but I think a part of it is that you don't always recognize the good historical moments as such at the time. The moon landing is actually pretty unique in that regard.
Just think of what the kids will say in another 25, 50 years when we talk about the most recent presidential election. Even while it was happening it was historic, yes, but also just a part of life, politics as usual. In another 75 years though, what will people say about what it must have been like to have been alive at the time?
True. That was a good night. It was particularly fun being on a college campus that night. Everyone emerged from their dorms and gathered at the spot where people tend to go to party at my school only this time there were drums and people were all crowded in and happy. Then I headed back to the science fiction fantasy association's dorm and celebrated with my friends there.
(er, hi. I don't know you but you seem awesome from the comments that I've seen here. *waves*)
It'll be interesting to see what things the tide of history picks up and which it leaves. For example, I think I have as many friends on facebook in "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet" groups as I do in "When I was your age, Obama was elected President" groups. Not that the two events can be compared in any meaningful or relevant way--but I do wonder.
...and a little surprised that the number is that small. two things have always existed in my universe and I cannot imagine living in a time in which they did not: star wars and photos from the moon
(the pic is of me the year after Jedi came out in what I considered to be Princess Leia braids at the time)
negative 22? I don't think so. let me check the files...
. . .
yep, according to the files, on July 20, 1969 you would have been a 43 year old woman living in Apia, Samoa. You had two grown children (both musically inclined, one living in Cincinnati, the other married and living somewhere in Europe), a dog named François, and a photograph of you as a little girl sitting on the lap of someone who looks a lot like Ernest Hemingway. You died six years later, five days before your fiftieth birthday.
what, you didn't think this was your first time around, did you?
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 01:15 am (UTC)Of course, for my generation it'll probably end up being 9-11.
I think I like the moon landing better than either of those.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:34 am (UTC)Yes! :-)
I never thought before about how so many of those "I'll always remember where I was" moments were negatives, rather than positives. Interesting that the moon landing is one of the few exceptions.
ETA: Okay, wait, for a positive I actually do actually remember, there's the collapse of the Berlin Wall ...
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:21 pm (UTC)I was one of the first post-Cold War kids, though. That's something, I suppose--I was about five months old when the USSR was officially disbanded. (Though it makes my tolerance for Cold War history rather low. I want to go back and tell everyone to stop posturing, already.)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-23 03:48 am (UTC)(Though it makes my tolerance for Cold War history rather low. I want to go back and tell everyone to stop posturing, already.)
And that's fascinating, because it comes so close to how I've often felt about baby boomers talking about the 60s (which I effectively just barely missed)--felt for a while like I'd spent my whole life hearing about how things were ever so much better in this time I'd just missed than they ever would be again ...
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 08:05 am (UTC)It's funny what a difference a few years makes, though. Take the recent hullabaloo about the death of Michael Jackson and so many people being worked up about it, but I'd be hard pressed to name three of his songs, much less recognize them. To some extent, I've never cared much for pop music, but I think that people just a bit older than me were having their formative teen years that set their tastes at the time when he was popular instead of a washed-up has-been. Just missing that window makes for a huge difference in perspective.
(Oh, and -10 for me, to within a week, as I just hit 30 and must now practice distrusting you young folks instead of distrusting old folks. All I need is a lawn, to yell at kids to get off it!)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:26 pm (UTC)For some reason a lot of my friends from high school--so, 16/17/18-year-olds--got really worked up over his death, too. But yes, there definitely is a generational aspect in there, and it is a pretty fine line sometimes. Harry Potter fandom seems to work sort of like that too, though I'm still struggling with how to define it exactly.
(For a long time in school they didn't teach us about the Spanish Civil War, I guess because we were too young and innocent or something, but since hearing about it I have been fascinated with it. But it has always been 'history' for me. Then again, my grandparents have never been ones to tell stories about their past, so my personal line is drawn closer to things that my parents experienced.)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 04:27 pm (UTC)In retrospect, I realize that my grandfather never really talked much about it, and all the stories I have are secondhand from my father. It still gives me a different perspective, though. When watching Pan's Labyrinth, I had an immediate and visceral hatred of the villainous colonel--these were the assholes that had tried to kill my grandfather, and I take great umbrage at attempts to delete my timeline.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 04:35 pm (UTC)My father's father was probably doing something political and laywer-y at the time (he ran for state representative? I think and did other such things. He's a democrat.) My mother's father was being a surgeon in WWII.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:13 am (UTC)(ooh, just accidentally discovered that if you hit shift+tab it goes up! Whee! *does this repeatedly*)
I like the moon landing better than D-Day and 9/11 too. I hope our generation gets a positive memorable event like the moon landings too.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:55 am (UTC)Just think of what the kids will say in another 25, 50 years when we talk about the most recent presidential election. Even while it was happening it was historic, yes, but also just a part of life, politics as usual. In another 75 years though, what will people say about what it must have been like to have been alive at the time?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 06:17 am (UTC)(er, hi. I don't know you but you seem awesome from the comments that I've seen here. *waves*)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:15 pm (UTC)It'll be interesting to see what things the tide of history picks up and which it leaves. For example, I think I have as many friends on facebook in "When I was your age, Pluto was a planet" groups as I do in "When I was your age, Obama was elected President" groups. Not that the two events can be compared in any meaningful or relevant way--but I do wonder.
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 03:51 am (UTC)...and a little surprised that the number is that small. two things have always existed in my universe and I cannot imagine living in a time in which they did not: star wars and photos from the moon
(the pic is of me the year after Jedi came out in what I considered to be Princess Leia braids at the time)
no subject
Date: 2009-07-21 12:15 pm (UTC). . .
yep, according to the files, on July 20, 1969 you would have been a 43 year old woman living in Apia, Samoa. You had two grown children (both musically inclined, one living in Cincinnati, the other married and living somewhere in Europe), a dog named François, and a photograph of you as a little girl sitting on the lap of someone who looks a lot like Ernest Hemingway. You died six years later, five days before your fiftieth birthday.
what, you didn't think this was your first time around, did you?