On Monday October 20th, 1969… I was born. I honestly think that might have been the first of my “one of those days” lol. Looking back onto that day at takemeback.to makes me wonder if by chance the day that I was born was a kind of weird divine life reading/plan smashed together on a lark by the powers that be. Because looking at the information is like staring at a blueprint of irony.
I mean think about it, Monty Python’s Flying Circus was the big thing on TV, The Temptations were popular in music, the President of the US was Richard Nixon, and I was born on a Monday.
And what happened in my life? I grew up to be a bank robber (a thief though unlike Nixion I never said I wasn’t) because of the temptation of all that money I ended up on an adventure right out of a Monty Python skit and ended up with a comedy movie being done about the whole thing and all it’s flubs. Coincidence? It makes you wonder because after all, I was born on a Monday.
Sure other cool things happened, like:
- Elvis Presley. Yes, I was alive and enjoying one of the greatest singers the world has ever seen and then one day he was just gone. I remember watching the funeral and news coverage of Elvis. Everyone was shocked, it was like thousands of voices all shouted “No” in disbelief at the same time and watched in horror as one of their favorites, a person that felt like a part of all our families was just suddenly not there anymore. I was devastated.
- NASA-Skylab: This was a huge effort from Nasa and they had this neat “report from skylab from CBS’ This huge space station was so beyond cool for a youngster who loved science. I mean, I was in awe! They were testing things like how long a person could be in space, growing plants, the experience of prolonged weightlessness. I followed the whole 24 weeks, bought the collectors edition stamp and all that, lol.
- NASA- The 1st Space Shuttle launch. Yeah, NASA strikes again with mans ingenuity and desire to explore, it’s thrilling to watch and so of course I was glued to the TV on the 12th of April, 1981. The young adventurer in me like many others was enraptured at the idea of a time when space travel might be commonplace someday. It’s like the world got a little smaller and the universe a bit closer.
- NASA- The shuttle explosion: I was at home one day sick as a dog watching “The Price is Right” and they interruped Bob Barker, and I knew if they were cutting Bob it had to be huge. They showed it over and over and I sat there completely dumbstruck that something so horrible could happen to some of my childhood heros. It brought it home to me on how dangerous an undertaking can be even with a thinktank of geniuses putting a plan together.
- The Berlin Wall- I remember Ronald Regan being on TV and saying “mr. gorbachau take down this wall” and I saw people attacking the wall, tearing it down,and then one day it was gone. It was a moment in time that showed that people could come togher and right a wrong.
- Cable TV- I remember the hype of TV with no commercials, all kinds of packages based on your entertainment interests, and best of all there were remote controls. I remember my mother complaining about the price, I think it was around $30 a month, which to be fair was a decent bit of change at that time but cable was awesome because no more static TV shows, no fiddling with antenna, and again a remote control so one didn’t need to walk across the room to change the channel.
- The Gas Crunch – If you think gas prices are crappy right now lemme tell you about the time when gas prices doubled and then tripled and then the prices never went back down. Yeah, one day it was like 40 cents a gallon and the next it was near a whole Dollar, if you could find it. When the whole thing first started there were gas stations running out of gas, telling people they could only buy X amount of gallons, lines at the pump that went up the block, etc., it was ridiculous. Really I think the US cut off it’s nose to spite it’s face in this instance because suddenly everyone was ditching their American made cars and trucks and buying those cheap little Honda cars from overseas;,they were after all a well made vehicle, dependable, and got more miles to the gallon than that old pickup truck.
- The Concorde- I watched the world shrink a bit further with transcontinental super sonic flight and lemme tell ya, the Concorde was a sexy looking machine with sleek lines and swept wings. The 747’s that came along were ugly duckling by comparison.
- Star Wars- I remember standing in line at the theater for like 45 minutes to see Star Wars. I was a bit unsure of what all the hype was about at first but it was that day that science fiction became a part of me and hundreds of thousands of people’s imaginations plugged into The Force. The sounds, the special effects, the story…It. Was. Awesome. Nothing like the more recent ones that I won’t comment on.
As I reflect on all the things I have seen, people I have met, places I have gone, things I have done & accomplished; even with the bad times and the boring bits of regular life, well, I truly cant complain. Yeah, it hasn’t been all rainbows and unicorns , or roses (whatever) but it hasn’t been all gloom and doom either. My scars and tattoos all have a story, some good, some bad, and so do my experiences. I look back and see how I have grown and changed as a human, and what I have learned and can share from my life experiences. The biggest thing I can share is that I am far from perfect but trying to strike the best balance possible even while occasionally failing. I just keep getting up though and trying something else because I can and so can you, the only time that you won’t move forward is when you decide not to. To those who have read all of this Thank You , I look forward to my next 50 years and sharing them with you .
Hugs and kisses~ Dave
