I WAS THERE FOR MANY THINGS PROMPT

History’s being made, can you feel it? The bubbles in the atmosphere? The sense that when they pop, the air around them will change? Or else the they’ll float into space, bouncing like sound waves, carrying the news of today into tomorrow?

So where were you when history was laid down? Was the TV playing Nixon in the background while you ate an innocuous chicken dinner? Were you born the day Kennedy was shot? Did you watch the falling Challenger from a classroom full of fifth grade students like you?

This PROMPTuesday, share where you were when. Tell the story any way you want.

This prompt makes me feel so old. I was 33 and at work when the Challenger went down. Someone had the radio on and turned it up so we could all hear. There was no TV in the office, so I didn't see the images until I was home that evening.


I was in the third grade when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. We heard about it at school and I remember being out on the playground and wondering if that meant the Russians were going to come get us. Those were paranoid times - our neighbor had a bomb shelter dug into his back yard. We were allowed to go down to see it. There were cots and canned food and it smelled of the damp.

I was in junior high when Bobby Kennedy was killed. That is the most stinging memory for me. I was at an age when I understood the enormity of his promise and loss to our country. Coming so soon after Dr. King it made me wonder if the world was going mad. I had recently moved and didn't have any friends except for the librarian. She comforted me and lead me to books to read to revive my faith in humanity! That's when I fell in love with Eleanor Roosevelt.

I continued to high school as the Vietnam war raged. I was babysitting for a neighbor when the Chicago police were shown on TV beating protesters outside the 1968 convention. When the shooting of students at Kent State by the National Guard occurred, we asked the principal to move the flag to half staff, and to his credit, he did.

I was so looking forward to the opportunity to vote,to have my point of view represented. I registered the year the 26th Amendment was passed granting 18 year old's the vote.

And this morning I voted for a black man for president and this evening, I heard him speak about the future of this country and I had tears in my eyes. My sister called because she was crying, too, and she knew I would understand. And I do.

VOTING

The 26th amendment, changing the voting age from 21 to 18 passed the year I turned 18. I went to school early on my birthday and registered as a democrat. My parents were staunch republicans. I can't remember if they had a reaction to my party affiliation - but the political fights at the dinner table definitely gave them a clue it was coming.

In 1972, I voted in my first election. I voted for George McGovern. He was the anti-war candidate. Richard Nixon won that election in a landslide - that was the election year of dirty tricks and the Watergate break-in. Interesting times. My best friend revealed to me over a year later that she had voted for Nixon. I was shocked. I could not understand how anyone of our generation could vote for Nixon.

This feels like a similar election year. Emotions are high. Points of view are running to extremes. I was so disheartened to see McCain signs on so many of my neighbors yards that I was in a funk for days. I know that the opportunity to disagree is what makes democracy work (ahem, Bush administration) but I still feel as I did when I was 18 - "How could they?"

I am off to vote as soon as the polls open at 7am. I want that little "I voted" sticker and I am willing to get up early and stand in line to get it!