I recently spent an afternoon immersed in the music of the 60’s. As each golden oldie played, it evoked a flood of memories taking me back to my teen years and making it possible for me to once again experience the sights, sounds, and tastes from my youth. The memories I have are pleasant and filled with good times and good friends. I remember it as a far more simple time. However, there are a host of things that I simply don’t have in my memory bank, and that is the topic for today: The Memories I Don’t Have.
The obvious items missing from my memory include cell phones, mp3 players, computers, calculators, microwave ovens, the Internet, answering machines, email, or text messages. Even television was limited and often programs were in black and white. There were no DVR or DVD players, or for that matter CD’s or music in any form other than records. Of course, these items had to be envisioned, invented, and made available to those of us not on the cutting edge. We made it just fine through our young lives without these items, but I can assure you, I would miss them immensely today.
I don’t remember having any expectations of getting a car on my sixteenth birthday, but I do remember having to beg my mother to let me use the family car to take my friends to drag main. I remember that she always checked the mileage and set a limit on how far I could go.
I don’t remember ever being afraid when I entered Childress High School (unless I hadn’t done my homework) that I would find myself face to face with one of my classmates armed with weapons. I don’t remember anyone killed in our school and I don’t remember anyone being allowed to disrupt the classroom without swift punishment.
I don’t remember that my vocabulary or that of classmates was so limited that only inappropriate words, obscenities, and curse words would constitute a conversation with my peers. I remember that I believed my mother would truly wash my mouth out with soap.
I have no memory in my sheltered cocoon of a life of seeing blatant nudity or drug use, and I don't remember ever having a conversation with my parents about the dangers of sex or the dangers of abusing alcohol or drugs. I do remember that there were things we just didn’t talk about.
I have no memory of ever being told that I could, as a girl or woman, consider becoming anything other than a nurse, teacher, or secretary. I remember wishing I could be a lawyer.
I have no memory of ever being told that the encyclopedia didn’t contain all the things that we needed to know.
I have no memories of cultural diversity in our lives or that there was another high school in Childress other than Childress High School.
I have no memories of world events being a part of my daily life until the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember that my “sheltered cocoon of a life” began to crack open during that time.
I have no memories of eating in a restaurant except on a rare occasion. I do remember my mother cooking hamburgers and wrapping them in waxed paper to take to the drive-in movies so we could eat.
Remember, the topic for today is “The Memories I Don’t Have” and I would love for you to share what you “don’t remember”.
Nicki
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Memories I Don’t Have
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.JPG)
.jpg)
1 comment:
Like Nicki, one of my biggest "don't remember" moments is of EVER being encouraged to consider ANY career besides teacher, secretary, nurse, or "homemaker" ... only in those days, homemaking would never have been called a career. The two exceptions to this were Mr. Morris, and Carol Higley of "The Childress Index" who did encourage me to write, perhaps for a newspaper, perhaps short stories or novels. Any other consideration of or encouragement toward a career in journalism was always along the lines of, "Well, you can always teach ...." And, although I did work for a couple of newspapers after college, when I discovered the disparity in pay between a fledgling FEMALE journalist and a secretary (later paralegal), the choice came down to "Well, duh!"
It was some years later, after I had begun working for lawyers, that it crossed my mind that perhaps I might have been a lawyer, and I was told by several of "my" attorneys over the years that I would have been a good one. However, even ten years after our graduation, there were very few women attorneys in the entire country, and they faced much discrimination and uphill climbing. It is telling to note that Louise Raggio, the first woman admitted to the Texas Bar, was licensed to practice about the time we were in high school. Even then she was not permitted by many male judges (and at that time there were no female judges) to argue her own cases in court, because of a still widespread belief that woman's place was in the home, rather than perhaps the "House."
I don't remember that women were considered seriously as political candidates, much less thinking that one might someday be a strong contender in a race for the Presidency.
I also don't remember there being a place for minorities in politics.
I don't remember there being any discussion or debate about whether "illegal" (the operative word) aliens, of any ethnicity, had any right to be in this country, much less be supported by it.
I don't recall English as a Second Language taught in school, or ballots or other government documents printed in other languages besides English.
I don't remember being afraid that my government would ever, under any circumstances, illegally wiretap or covertly investigate its own citizens. Of course, the Nixon Presidency helped disabuse me of that notion, but until the past few years, I had thought that era an absolute aberration, never to be repeated.
I don't recall ever being concerned that our great country would ever refuse to abide by the Geneva Conventions (and, yes, I knew what they were even back in the early 60s), or would be involved with illegal torture and detainment, or the suspension of habeas corpus, or the trampling of the Bill of Rights.
I don't remember having to worry whether newspapers, radio and television were reporting actual, objective news and facts, or whether they might "slant" their reporting to bolster their own political agenda or demonize those with opposing viewpoints.
I surely don't remember that a differing political view would cause one to be labeled a "traitor" and be pretty much told to "Love it or or get the hell out," rather than try to change things within the framework of our Constitution.
I do not remember in those halcyon days that gerrymandering was ever looked on as a legitimate way to tip the political balance to one party or another. Indeed, I recall being told in Civics class of the evils of gerrymandering.
I certainly don't remember ever being afraid that the ballots cast by American citizens in an election would ever be stolen, or not counted, or compromised by "rigged" voting machines.
And I have absolutely no memory from that time of thinking that our government supposedly of, by and for WE THE PEOPLE would EVER lie to us. Perhaps that was the most naive notion of all.
Post a Comment