Flashback Friday
I must have missed when this got started and I don’t know the rules, so I’m just going to take the prompt and run with it.
Where were you when…?
Our parents’ generation can recall exactly what they were doing when JFK was shot – it’s a Cultural moment that defines a generation. What big cultural event occurred during your childhood/youth that you recall clearly, if juvenile-ly? What was its impact on you?
I feel really corny saying this, but I remember with startlingly vivid clarity finding out that Kurt Cobain died. It was in the early-ish afternoon and I was asleep in the car. My mom was driving me to ballet. The announcement came over the radio and it pierced my sleep. I woke up suddenly and gasped and asked my mom to verify what I had just heard. When we got to ballet, I ran and told my friends.
I didn’t dress in black for days afterward and I didn’t participate in any vigils or listen to In Utero while crying in the dark. I was just really bummed about it and angry that people thought it was okay to mock the situation. I thought a lot about Frances Bean, who was just a baby at the time, and how she would never really know her dad or understand how big of an impact he had.
Mostly, I was sad that a figure like Cobain was gone. I think he managed to come to the spotlight and be an idol for people who weren’t finding life to be all it was cracked up to be as they came of age. He got that and sometimes when you’re really young and don’t understand why you feel different, it’s good to know that someone else feels the same way. And that it’s okay to yell, to scream, to be silent, and to give the middle finger to people you’re supposed to respect for no good goddamned reason.
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Aside, here are some things that have made me cry and/or barf in the past day or so:
Reach in and touch the inner cow
A trip to the Creationist Museum. I think a field trip to this museum is in order, lubricated with lots of booze. The existence of this place confirms this shocking epiphany I had last night: people are full of shit.
Angela’s story of finding a small turd on the floor of the bathroom at her work. You don’t want to know how long I sat around wondering how that happened.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:10 pm
I was waiting tables at Eat N’ Park when my friend Joe Bob came in and told me. I remember stopping what I was doing and just staring off into space, but that is about the extent of it. I was 17 – and wearing the last of the hideous EnP skirt uniforms.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:30 pm
Yeah, when i read the question, the first thing i thought of was the death of Kurt Cobain. That and the 9/11 attacks. However, both were post adolescence for me. As far as childhood, the only thing I can think of, but was less impactful than either Cobain or 9/11, was the Challenger explosion.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Yeah, the Challenger explosion is my thing. I was a sophomore or junior in HS and I didn’t even know the shuttle was going up or that there was a teacher on it (not so observant, me) and all of a sudden I was in a classroom where it was on TV blowing up. Then wham, someone is turning the TV off and trying to distract us with a riveting English lesson. Since Ms. McAuliffe was from my state it was at the forefront of our consciousness for a long time afterwards.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Oh, and whatever you did with the page worked. It loads a lot quicker now.
March 21st, 2008 at 2:52 pm
I was seven when the first moon landing happened. My father took pictures of our black-and-white TV as they showed it live.
March 23rd, 2008 at 1:26 am
Oh man, that cow site is, um, um, no words to adequately describe.
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