Chapter 17 - Historical events you remember & favorite possession

What Important Historical Events do you remember?

Lorraine: I had just voted for the President and my ballot got burned up in a fire at Fir
Grove Grocery. Somebody got mad and burned the ballots.

John: December 7, 1941

Marcella: When I was in high school, the postmaster general came to Kent and shook everybody’s hands. And I remember the death of Roosevelt. Note:  That first response of Marcella’s was in that 1997 interview and dad remarked: That was historical? Everyone laughed.

Arlie: George W. Bush elected President in 2001.

Denny: I remember Stalin dying, Eisenhower being elected, the nuclear bomb testing in Nevada. The SS United States setting a speed record across the Atlantic. The Civil Air Patrol with an air tower up next to the firehall, watching for enemy planes. Lots of talk about fallout shelters. Joe McCarthy on TV, railing on and on about the communist threat. Readers Digest doing articles about Martin Luther King and his links to the communist party and his trips to Cuba. The Watts riots spreading from LA all the way to Seattle in the 70s. The Sputniks, the Cuban missile crises, Kennedy assassinations, Marilyn Monroe death. Cheap leisure suits made out of polyester (actually oil) and lots of Afro hair styes. Men with platform shoes and discos were the rage. Bell bottom pants for men and wide lapels and wide ties.

Joyce: Kennedy assassinations, moon landing, Vietnam war, Berlin Wall coming down, Gulf War, World Trade Center attack, Elvis’ death, and of course – television sets.

Dale: The airlift to West Berlin, the Stockholm/Andrea Dorea collision, the Gary Powers U-2 incident, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of President Kennedy, draft card burning, the Pueblo Affair, the North Korea shoot-down of a US electronic surveillance plane, the Boeing 747 shot down by Russian MIGS, Vietnam war protests, the Ohio State student killings by National guard, the assassination of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. King.  Watergate and the resignation of Nixon, attempted assassination of Reagan, the Wall, the demise of the Soviet Union, the terrorist explosion of a 747 over Lockerbie, the moon landing, Chernobyl, the Challenger tragedy and of course 911.

Janie: Assassination of Kennedy. I was in the doctor’s office finding out I was pregnant.

Jimmy: Mt. St. Helens eruption. All the wars back to Vietnam.

Sue S: I think everyone remembers where they were when President Kennedy was shot and the historic moon landing in July of 1969.

Marlee: I remember getting to watch the moon landing on tv when I was in elementary school.

Cindy: I remember the earthquake of 1965. The first man landing on the moon. I was nine. St. Helens erupting.

Bill: I remember the end of the Vietnam war, Watergate, San Francisco earthquake, Iranian hostages, assassination attempt on Reagan, Clinton scandals, and of course, September 11, 2001.

Sue W: The Nixon election, Gerald Ford taking office, someone taking a shot at Reagan.

 

What is your most Cherished Possession:

 

Lorraine: My great grandmother’s shoes.

Marcella: That table by the front door that belonged to my grandmother, Mary Bell.

Joyce: My computer

Dale: My jade carving called Chameleon and Moth.

Janie: My sewing machine

Jimmy: My ’55 Chevy Wagon that sits in the garage.

Sue S: My sewing machine.

Lill: My sewing machine. It used to be my bicycle but since I’ve reached my 50’s, my mid-life bright sunflower yellow Saturn sports car is #2.

Marlee: My wedding ring

Cindy: My mom’s wedding set

Bill: My mother’s Bible which Grandma Elva gave me during a visit in 1984.

Mary: My pictures

Sue W: All the clay things Catie has made for me on Mother’s Day. My wedding video and the wedding ring. Also the toybox dad made me when I was three, the beaded barrette that the Aragons made for me when I was six, and a quilted doll blanket my mom made when I was 7.