We’ve been hearing, this week, about the twentieth anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down.
In my mind, I have a memory of a political event. It is one of two things: Either the fall of the Berlin Wall; or the Soviet coup attempt. If it is the former, I was ten. For the later, I was almost twelve. Now, as I’m writing, I think it was the coup. But the Wall fall anniversary is what reminded me of it, so I’m going to write this now, instead of in two years.
Here is what I remember:
I was at my friend’s house, in the car, about to go home. My friend’s mom was in the car, about to leave. On the radio they announced the event [Berlin Wall/coup]. At which point my friend’s mom, jumped out of the car and ran in to tell her husband.
I don’t think I really understood the significance of either event. But the fact that it couldn’t wait until my friend’s mom returned home, ten minutes later, made it different than other “news.” It was important. It was something that couldn’t wait.
This is the first memory I have of a political event that caused a significant reaction from a close adult. I think that is the foundation for its relevance in my childhood memory. Politics exist all around us. Who knows what makes us remember this rather than that, or the other. The only other political memories previous to it that I can think of are seeing Oliver North on TV, asking my dad who it was (I think because he had a military uniform on), getting an answer, and not really knowing or understanding anything about it until much, much later; hearing about “Star Wars,” (I don’t know the year); and my dad voting for Jesse Jackson in 1988. These were just passing moment, however. They do not carry any meaning or importance in my memory. Because of my friend’s mom’s reaction to that news on the radio, that event was different.
So I wonder what will be/is my students’ first political memory? They are too young to remember September 11. We read Time for Kids. They hear about things, as I did. Maybe more. What will be the thing they first remember? It is highly likely that it could be the election of Obama. They would have been eight or nine at the time (already a year ago, you know). I wonder if the reactions of the adults in their lives, positive or negative, may have resulted in the searing of that event’s importance into their memories.
And what will be the next thing they remember?
And what will the Corbchops’ first be?
And will they think back on it, twenty years from now?
Great questions. Two thing stand out from grade school. Someone throwing up on the classroom floor, and the janitor putting some kind of sawdust on it, and Reagan getting shot, so a TV was wheeled in on an AV cart and we watched ABC News with Frank Somebody-or-Other. I can clearly remember that it was ABC News, not NBC or CBS…. memory is a strange, delicious thing.