curiouswombat | Memories of a decade.

Memories of a decade. A few days ago

ozma914 posted his weekly column focussing, this time, on memorable events of the decade. I said, in comments, that I might do the same - so here are the things that I (aided and abetted by Daughter-dear) found came to mind immediately when I thought of the past ten years.

There are two distinct types of 'memorable events' - the 'grand scale', seen on TV, events and the smaller, 'my life' ones. I think I will start with the 'grand scale' - which show it to have been a rather sad decade.

My first mental picture was actually one of the Queen Mother's funeral - at 101 her death in 2002 really did mark the end of... something. A different way of life, I think. And my moment in time is not the cortège, or the service, but her coffin standing in state in Westminster Hall with four, serious, servicemen standing guard, one at each corner. And the picture in my mind is of the when the four soldiers were her four grandsons.

D-d remembered both the month and the year, and watching the funeral on TV in school - so agreed it was one of the memorable events. It was a proper, dignified funeral, such a contrast to Dead Di Day, she says.

We then thought of the attacks on the World Trade Centre - they held a horrifically morbid fascination and we recalled sitting in front of the TV when she got home from school and I got home from work, unable to take our minds off the screen. But we couldn't remember what year it had been - sorry American friends - we even had to take time to work out that it had been September not November, as British media also call the events 9/11 as shorthand, but that, of course, is the 9th of November for us. A quick Google gave us 2001 - and surprised us both as we had guessed 2002... (and what a product of the decade is Googling!)

My next clear mental image is of Rageh Omaar in Baghdad as the air attack began around him - we really had no idea why America was bombing Iraq, or why Tony Blair seemed to think it was a good idea to join in, but Rageh was our hero and our eyes on what was happening.

Almost a part of the same memory is legendary BBC foreign correspondent John Simpson, and his crew, being under attack by American war planes in a 'friendly fire' incident (what a stupid description that is!) and keeping on reporting even as he was lying on the ground injured - until the camera man was killed. That certainly brought home the realities of war. Oh - and also the toppling of that statue in Baghdad and, totally surreally, I remember a man running out of a municipal building clutching a pot-plant.

I began to realise that almost all the big, public, memories are sad and mainly war or terrorist related, as the next thing to my mind, and also next in D-d's list, was the London bombings of 7/7 2005. But not the pictures of the damage, although the image of the bus stays in the mind, but actually the interviews with the people on the streets the next day - especially the elderly gentleman who said something like;

"Terrorists? Call themselves bloody terrorists? Do you see anyone around here who looks terrorised? We've been bombed by the bloody experts we have; Hitler, the IRA... this lot are rank amateurs...!"

After we discussed the London attacks for some time D-d said "Oh! And the idiot who tried to bomb Glasgow airport and got beaten up by Glaswegians as well as setting himself on fire!" I had to admit that I'd almost forgotten that.

The last thing I really remember as a defining moment of the decade was 6th July 2005 - London being awarded the 2012 Olympics - I think it was the only big Good News story of the decade.

Also, oddly, all my 'big memories' are from 2005 or earlier. Perhaps my short-term memory is going?

And then there were the personal memories of the decade

Biggest memory - standing outside a shoe-shop in York when D-d rang to tell me she had got a First in her degree.

Other big memories - D-d getting her A level results, and D-d's graduation!

The other abiding memory of the decade is actually sitting in my car, at the side of the road in Governor's Hill, taking a phone call from my mother in which she said, with some difficulty, that she thought that she had had a stroke. She was right. And she went from being an incredibly active 75 year old to an elderly disabled lady in, well, a stroke. But she is still living alone, still doing her best to live life to the fullest she can, and I am glad that she is still with us.

Actually - I have become the in-between generation - a mother and a daughter.

I am still also a wife - and S2c is the permanent rock in my life - although he never featured solo in the really big memories, he is just so much part of life that I cannot begin to visualise it without him.

He led me to my other really big memory of the past decade - which really is of making my first post on Live journal, after he had been a member for some time. I have learnt so much about other people's lives, in the best possible way, and made some real, genuine, good friends in this place.

He also encouraged me to start writing fanfic - a wonderful hobby - nah - not hobby, it's more a lifestyle!

This has led to a decrease in the production of hand-knitted jumpers etc to zero, I fear, in the second half of the decade...

Anyway - here's to the next ten years, people -

BLEIN VIE NOA...

Or, in English,

glitter-graphics.com

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: A German speaking Gaelic on BBC Alba!

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From:

gillo

I remember Blair being forced out, pretty much like his idol, Maggie. The house-price boom, and the inevitable corollary. And Woolworths going bust.

Personal and family things, though, do seem to stick more in the mind. Like you, I entered the decade with a not-quite teenager, and end it with an assertive young woman I am proud to think of as a friend as well as a daughter. Actually, double that. I think me girls are my greatest achievement of this or any decade.

I started the decade as a sysop on a Mensa forum I now rarely visit. But my online life has become immeasurably richer through LJ - and the delight of meeting LJ friends in RL is an abiding joy.

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Underground, overground, wombatting free...

Memories of a decade.

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