Friday 22 May 2020

Plague 32

I had one of those strange thoughts the other night sort of 2am not sleeping very well thoughts .  What are the things in your life that are part of history you have lived through .

I suppose a Kennedy dying being on the tea time news and my parents being appalled .

Jack and Ivy who lived next door , i adored Jack as a small kid and followed him everywhere, they were the first people i ever saw who were tactile and loved each other, a strange contrast from my parents . Jack lived till well into his 90s surrounded by his prize veg , when i mentioned this to my mother years later , she chimed up that they wernt normal like other people . It seems that a year after his marriage Jack was taken by the Japanese at the fall of singapore he spent the whole war in a prison camp and he survived being castrated by the Japs , he and Ivy seemed like the happiest people i knew as a child . Who knew?

The moon landings , we were really broke at the time and my dad convinced me that they were walking on the moon for a treat on my 6th birthday and i believed that for years and it was the best birthday present .

The little girl running down the road on fire from the Napalm in Vietnam on the six oclock news

Going shopping in the candlelit Finefare  supermarket during the strikes of the 70s , watching the rats run in the piles of rubbish on every street  and the firemen with braziers locked out of the fire stations with the Green Goddess fire engines.

Watching the Poll Tax riots on the TV and being amazed that people behaved like that .

Then came the miners strike and seeing first hand the police doing cavalry charges against protesters , threshing bystanders with batons , i will never forgive or forget that as long as i live .

Lady Dis wedding , we got a day off work for that and spent it watching cricket and drinking cider .

The Falklands seemed unreal but i know to many  people damaged by that conflict and many more since

And now we have served up a global pandemic via the internet , all very medieval , for all the information available to us , i wouldn't even guess at the percentage of the truth out there .
I do wonder what else will be served up in my lifetime ....possibly aliens?

6 comments:

  1. I would add the IRA bombings, Afganistan and the 9/11 terrorist attack on the twin towers. Nothing would surprise me anymore even aliens...

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  2. Aberfan Disaster in Wales
    Heysel Stadium Fire
    JFK Shooting
    Princess Diana's Death, everybody on the London tube line with a newspaper reading any gossip dregged up about her and everyone so so sad then
    The Zebrugger Ferry Sinking.
    All these things still remembered and still gives me a chill to recall
    Crop circles what's that all about then? Aliens landing l say
    Tess x

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  3. I remember the horror of Aberfan well although I was only 8
    Yep, the strikes in the 70s, candles and open fires.
    My first Bridgwater carnival
    The miners strike although we live way down south.
    Living through the Falklands war with a 2 year old, a baby born 14 May and a husband on a Naval Hospital ship on his was to the Falkland Islands. Watching every news broadcast and worrying about friends who had husband's serving on ships in 'bomb alley'. The joy of meeting the ship with both our families on its return.
    The Hyde Park and Regent Park bombings.
    Youngest son waking me up the morning the news of Princess Diana's death was announced.
    Being at work and a customer came in and told us about Jill Dando's shooting.
    9/11 attacks.
    And now the virus!!!
    And fake news......what next.
    Heather

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  4. Hi hun, I remember living with my step dad in the RAF at Charlgrove (near RAF Benson)and we had collections for childrens toys for UK RAF children that had escaped from Cyprus to the UK, fleeing Cyprus from the Turkish invasion and had left everything behind. Then seeing a RAF plane crash whilst at school playing netball in Malta, The Queens Jubilee, receiving a coin and my stepfather playing the British Anthem with the sound up high in Malta. On our return to the UK him going away to man the green goddesses(78?)in a major fire in London, the miners strike and *Arthur Scargill*,Princess Dianas wedding and celebrating in Germany. The Falklands war (my current hubbie was in the RAF and was due to be loaded onto the Sir Gallahad (ship)he was driving a large vehicle. At the last moment he was pulled off, this was later hit and Simon Weston was on board.The Hyde Park *nail bombings*. Band Aid and realising that people were starving :( In 1984 my twin girlies were born and AIDS was rife.I was away at Bath University (Open University for 7 days)we were told about Princess Dianas death.Being at work and a colleagues Mum phoning and advising about 911.Watching on tv people jumping from the building and crying :( Madeliene McCann whilst living in Greece and realising that children aren't safe.As Heather says *the virus*. This has been a huge headache as Hubbie is 70 this month and I have asthma.We have been isolating and haven't seen our twin girlies, their hubbies and our grandbabies since the beginning of March and are seeing them friday!! WAHOOO. In a back garden with 2m distancing. But I can't wait! :) *hugs* Goldensunflowerx

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