The year is early 1979 and I am 24 years old. The Allatollah Khomeini comes into power in Iran. In the televised streets people are carrying signs bearing Khomeini's picture. He looked like evil personified.

During that time I went to a bar with girlfriends. I am talking to a young man my age and he is from Iran. He is talking about his support of the new leadership. He is saying how he hates America. After a heated debate, I moved on but never forgot the exchange.

on the international political stage the most memorable day for me in South Africa was February 11, 1990, when Nelson Mandela was finally released from 27 years imprisonment. I had been only 12yo when he was imprisoned in 1964, sentenced to spend his life on Robben Island, in view of beautiful Cape Town. http://www.robben-island.org.za/

His release in 1990 was broadcast live on TV (television had finally been introduced in the 1970s, after being previously banned because the ruling govt had declared it subversive)

anyway, watching this gracious man enter his freedom with such dignity and lack of wrath and vengeance at the injustice was deeply moving to me.

August 8, 1974, I was not quite 12 and we had just returned from a family road trip. I did not understand what we were watching but Nixon resigned his office of POTUS and all I remember thinking is that I was glad because he always looked angry to me.

Later, I was thrilled that Gerald Ford put a swimming pool in the Whitehouse. His tomb is nearby and I still haven't visited it.

Know what I just remembered??.

When the Challenger exploded, I was at work. Everybody was called into the boss's office and we all saw Christa McCauliff's mother looking upward and they kept showing this clip over and over.

Saddest thing I ever saw.

Cannot believe it was ALL THOSE YEARS AGO.

In prep. for an upcoming cardiology appt., I've had to note the causes of death of relatives; he wants to know how they died. (What a happy thought. Not.) Anyway, in doing as he asked, I came across a news article about the fatal shooting of my uncle. Because I don't want to advertise his name, or those of innocent relatives, I gave the ugly news a bit of "artistic" embellishment.

I had referenced his death earlier:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/post325389-13.html

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9/11: I turned on the TV just as the first tower fell. I couldn't believe my eyes. I had jury duty that day. I ripped myself away from the TV to check in at the court house. We were on the 5th floor. Confusion was everywhere...and this as far away as you can get except Hawaii.

After we all filtered into the courtroom for jury picking....an aide came in to the Judge. The Judge announced that there were 'Unknown Planes' in the skies heading toward Anchorage. We were evacuated. Scared the hell outta me. We were in one of the taller buildings of the city. Going down the stairs that day I kept thinking about all the people in NYC who had done the same....

We have fly in services for people who want to experiance the bush. These people were left in the wilderness without any form of communications. Around day 5 solo flights went out and dropped newspapers to those on the ground so they would know why they were not being picked up (Planes were grounded).

Never forget.

Late 60s - I was at a friend's house, taking a break from playing outside and watching TV. A news flash comes on the screen showing the police pushing a man in handcuffs into a police car, announcing "Jimmy the Bomber" (Mafia) had been caught. My friend says "Hey, that's my GRANDPA - MOM, GRANDPA'S ON TV!!!!"

Her mom came running into the room and said "You kids go out and play - NOW!"

My friend moved away, but I thought of her years later in 1978 when her grandfather was "officially retired" in the same manner as "Sonny" from "The Godfather." The front page of the newspaper showed his Cadillac riddled with bullets. I felt bad for my friend because she really loved her grandfather.

The Silamar earthquake in the early 1970's.
We lived in a second floor apartment, and during the quake, while I was in the kitchen, the floor opened up and you could see the crack widen across the entire complex. It was surreal.


The Northridge earthquake...Oye Vey...
I ran out of my university office to get out of the building during the quake, and was tossed from one side of the 12'-waide hallway to the other side several times as I was running/stumbling out of the building......only to get outside and watch concrete start to break off of the buildling and fall around us. I just stood there like a deer in the headlights...like an idiot.


9/11 - 9/15:
The absence of commercial air traffic still leaves me with some odd memories. And, the constant F-16 CAPS left so much uncertainty that I will never forget it.


9/16/2001:
The sight of an MD-11 on final approach to Ontario International Airport with two F-16's flanking it all the way to the tarmac and two more F-16's about 1 mile in tow. It was the first commercial aircraft that I saw since 9/11, and I can still see it hanging in the air on final approach. The event actually stopped traffic completely on a major California freeway.

I remember that......she didn't know what was happening at the time (nobody watching did) but you could tell by her expression that she knew it wasn't good.

I cannot imagine anything more horrible than watching in slow motion as your child dies.....

me too Melody....its not something Ill soon forget