276 Highlights of a boomer's life

Highlights of a Boomer's Life

Well, Savvy Readers, 2020 was a heck of a year and 2021 does not seem to be shaping up without being fraught with its share of scary events. It is only January! 

I am feeling a bit claustrophobic after nearly a year of isolation and a whole lot fearful for our country. I wanted to see if, perhaps, I was making too much of the “now” and minimizing my memories of “then.”

 I have done a timeline of events that I remember having some sort of impact on my life or stuck in my memory in the past seventy years. I am the quintessential “boomer” – born in 1946 and graduated high school in 1964. (Wow! How did I get so old?) 

Don’t feel an obligation to read every item but I was indeed struck by how much has happened in my lifetime. It might be interesting to see how much you remember and what events you think I forgot! Some are just interesting, but much of it is sad and a bit scary. Seems like every new and exciting event has an equal number of sad or catastrophic ones. Maybe we just get used to what is happening without thinking too far in the future as we go about our daily routines. Maybe every generation feels this way? Maybe?

1946: ENIAC--the first computer; AT&T car phones; Dr. Spock’s Common Sense Baby and Child Care; I am born.

1948: Supreme Court rules religious education in schools is unconstitutional (most schools ignored for a long time).

1950: The first TV remote was called the “Lazy Bones.”

1953: The CIA uses LSD in human research trials. 

1954: Polio vaccine; Disneyland breaks ground in California. 

1956: Elvis appears on Ed Sullivan’s show; American Bandstand with Dick Clark begins.

1958: Khrushchev becomes Russian premier.

1959: I am 13 and have to watch the news every evening (yep, whole family): Big Year, though: NASA selects seven astronauts; first Barbie dolls; international flights on Pan Am; Khrushchev not allowed into Disneyland (no idea why I remembered this).

1960: Another big year: Civil Rights Sit-In at Woolworth’s in N.C.; Civil Rights Bill passed; first contraceptive pills on the market; JFK elected 35th President.

1961: Berlin Wall built; Alan Sheperd first American in space; Bay of Pigs near catastrophe.

1962: Marilyn Monroe found dead in bed; first Wal-Mart opens. 

1963: MLK delivers “I Have A Dream” in front of Lincoln memorial; JFK assassinated; census = U.S. 190 million (2020 listed at 331 million); Equal Pay Act (whatever happened to it?); March on Washington. 

1964: MLK receives Nobel Peace Prize; Beetles appear on Ed Sullivan show; World’s Fair in NY; Head Start education program for young children; Gulf of Tonkin Resolution allowed President Johnson actively into Vietnam; I graduate from high school.

1965: Voting Rights Act (still a bit of trouble with this one); Watts Riots in L.A.

1966: Huey Newton and Bobby Seale start the Black Panther Party.

1968: Vietnam – remember Mi Lai? MLK assassinated; I graduate from William & Mary; Chicago Seven at Democratic Convention (I went to school with Rennie Davis’s brother and sister.). 

1971: Kent State students protest Vietnam and National Guard opens fire; Nixon visits China. 

1972: Roe v. Wade (and it’s still an issue!); Watergate scandal; Munich Olympics--Palestinians attack Israeli athletes.

1974: Nixon resigns over Watergate; Ford becomes President and pardons Nixon.

1975: End of U.S. in Vietnam War--Saigon falls, becomes Ho Chi Minh City. 

1979: Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident.

1980: Ronald Reagan elected President. 

1981: Sandra Day O’Connor--first woman on Supreme Court; AIDS diagnosed.

1985: Gorbachev becomes Russian leader. 

1986: Space shuttle Challenger explodes--seen live on TV (we were on a ski trip taking a break in snack bar and saw it on TV); Chernobyl nuclear plant explodes in Ukraine.

1987: Stock market drops over 500 points – worst in history – Black Monday (which I still don’t understand). 

1988: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda; George Bush elected President; Libyans blow up plane over Scotland. 

1989: (a volatile year!): Exxon Valdez spills 11 million gallons oil off Alaska; Tiananmen Square; Berliners continue tearing down wall; U.S. invades Panama to get rid of Noriega.

1991: Rodney King beaten; Soviet Union dissolved. 

1993: NAFTA--free trade agreement U.S./Canada/Mexico; NYC bombing of World Trade Center; Toni Morrison first Black to receive Nobel Prize for Literature. 

1994: Nelson Mandela sworn in as President of S. Africa; Oklahoma bombing.

1995: O.J. Simpson trial--not guilty. 

1996: Dolly the sheep is cloned. 

1998: President Clinton impeached. 

1999: Clinton acquitted; Panama Canal transferred to Panama. 

2000: No clear winner between Bush and Gore--Bush wins due to Supreme Court ruling. 

2001: 9/11 bombing of World Trade Center and later Pentagon. 

2003: U.S. and Britain wage war against Iraq; Columbia space shuttle explodes on re-entry. 

2004: Four hurricanes devastate south coast. 

2005: Hurricane Katrina wrecks Mississippi and Louisiana; Justice Rehnquist dies, O’Connor resigns, John Roberts becomes Chief Justice.

2007: Nancy Pelosi becomes first woman speaker of the House of Representatives; mass shootings at Virginia Tech. 

2008: Barack Obama elected first Black President. 

2010: Instagram founded. 

2011: Osama Bin Laden killed by Navy Seals. 

2012: Obama re-elected; Sandy Hook Elementary School killings; Hurricane Sandy ravages east coast.

2013: Black Lives Matter emerges as a political movement; Boston Marathon killings; Supreme Court strikes down “defense of marriage” act. 

2015: Same-sex marriage allowed in all 50 states. 

2016: Donald Trump elected President over Hillary Clinton. 

2017: White supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia; three more devastating hurricanes--Maria, Irma, and Harvey; film producer Harvey Weinstein accused of sexual harassment and #ME TOO MOVEMENT begins.

2018: Steven Hawking dies; Stan Lee dies; George H.W. Bush dies. 

2019: Government shutdown (seems partly due to Trump wanting money for Mexican border wall); first photo of a black hole; shootings continue: Virginia Beach, Dallas, South California, El Paso, Dayton, Ohio; Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein found dead in prison cell; impeachment against Trump for presidential abuses of power.

2020: Coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and global shut-down; a Black man, George Floyd, killed during police arrest – protests and riots follow; Biden and Harris elected with Harris being first woman and first Black to hold v-p office; first COVID-19 vaccines given; two of my heroes die: Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Alex Trebek. 

2021: Trump supporters storm and enter Capital with riots and looting; Trump second impeachment– “high crimes and misdemeanors”; Biden/Harris inauguration.

And What Is Next?

(The information was collected from various websites: digitalhistory.uh.edu, pbs.org/americanmasters, historynewsnetwork.org, Infoplease.com/history, Wikipedia.org/u.s.history and a variety of google searches which give one/two sentence descriptors)

Here’s to better times! 

                               Glenne

P.S. We got a Christmas card today that was mailed December 18. 

275 What a day – Jan. 6

What a day – Jan. 6

My shock and bewilderment began in the afternoon of Jan. 6 and continued throughout the evening. These feelings prevail and probably will for months, if not years, to come. It is so hard to process what happened.

We try very hard not to be political in our writing of these blogs. I am speaking, not of politics, but what was witnessed by all of us on this day of despair.

Watching the spectacle through the eyes of the TV cameras was alarming, sobering, and depressing. I could not believe what I was seeing. Washington DC was under siege by its own people. This couldn’t be true. They could not have entered the building, which has been closed to the public during the pandemic. But the cameras did not lie. There they were, streaming through the majestic halls of the nation’s center of government.

It was so hard to believe. Those of you, like me, who visit the city often remember how the guards at the door look you over so carefully, poke a wooden stick through your handbag, and motion you in once the process is complete. This is true of all the buildings during non-pandemic times, so what was different this time. The guards are very professional but stern and maintain an air of authority.

I find it hard to believe that something was not amiss that day. How could this breach happen with these dedicated individuals at the door!

Living about 60 miles from the nation’s capital, we frequent the city on many, many occasions. In fact this past Thanksgiving, we took a drive just to get out from our stay-at-home situation to the city. It was a nice day with little traffic, as we thought would be the case.

What we saw could have been a warning of what was to come. The fencing around the White House was alarming. We had always strolled in the area where the holiday trees were decorated, but this year it was closed off. 

When we walked on the other side of the beautiful building, again we were shut off. Ugly fences surrounded the majestic structure with signs of warning to stay out. 

Police patrolled all around the perimeter. We thought what is the reason for all of this? We have visited the city for more than 50 years and have never seen this type of restriction.

Little did we know, this type of barrier would be needed, but not at the White House. We were upset that day but had no idea of what was to come. Fences of this type would have helped stop the insurrection that took place at the Capitol. Why was it left so vulnerable! Hopefully, the answers will come soon.

When our country was attacked on 9/11, we grieved together and blamed the foreign powers. But this time, the destruction and assault were by our own citizens to stop the tabulating of the electoral college.

As I watched it all play out, I thought of other situations of lockdowns and attacks. I hope the congressional leaders who were present during this horrible event will think of the schools and how children, teachers, and staff feel when they go into lockdown and aren’t sure what is happening, as well as others who are involved in attacks at stores, malls, etc.

Hopefully, these leaders will do more now than offer thoughts and prayers when this occurs.

I guess I should have been better prepared for what I saw on that terrible afternoon. One warning was when I received hazard pay for the first time in my life. I have worked as an election official for several years since I retired. This year we meticulously followed all the CDC pandemic guidelines. I never felt unsafe and helped run a secure, flawless election in the state of Virginia. 

A month or so after receiving the regular pay, I was mailed an extra check labeled “hazard pay.” I was shocked! Now I know why this was done. I guess we were taking our lives in our hands, not only for the virus but for what others may have done. 

This terrible event will be remembered in the annals of history as a threat to our democracy. I never felt the democracy was in danger, and the congressional members who went ahead with the electoral vote were proof that the democracy prevailed. 

I have always felt such pride whenever I visited the Capitol, especially statuary hall. It is a majestic area that invokes the enormity of the history of our nation. And on that horrible day, here were people who were storming the area, taking selfies, and acting extremely irreverent. 

The democracy will prevail; I know deep in my heart. But I warn my children, their children, their friends, and all other citizens below the age of 50, beware of this type of event that can happen and be ready to defend our nation.

I continue to shed tears as I have done almost daily during the pandemic, but these tears were for our nation that must stand tall and proud. 

                                           Frances