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Alcarcalime
Tol Eressea
Dec 10 2011, 1:16am
Post #76 of 134
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it was nothing like Bill Clinton's invasion of Somalia when the cameras and news people were waiting for the marines as they came ashore! The wall to wall coverage does make it seem somehow less believable.
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Magpie
Immortal
Dec 10 2011, 1:26am
Post #77 of 134
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When people want to be insulting...they usually pick pretty direct ways of expressing themselves. :-)
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Maiarmike
Grey Havens
Dec 10 2011, 1:47am
Post #78 of 134
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LOL! Old is just a state of mind. ;)
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I've realized this as I've gotten older. When my grandmother passed away last year of lung cancer at 67, I realized how young she really was. She was so healthy before she got sick, and when she did, she spent the remaining three years fighting off fatigue from treatment to spend as much time with her grandkids as she possibly could. She fought hard to make it to my college graduation, as sick as she was at the time, and I was oblivious to how sick she really was. That was the last significant amount of time she spent with me, so she said a few things that caught me off guard, about taking care of my siblings, and my mom. She passed away less than a month later. That whole experience basically changed the way I've thought about age and health ever since.
(This post was edited by Maiarmike on Dec 10 2011, 1:56am)
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Maiarmike
Grey Havens
Dec 10 2011, 1:49am
Post #79 of 134
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I had a teacher in high school...
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...who was a bit of a mentor to me, and I remember him telling us that he didn't remember the moon landing at all, because he was in the middle of Vietnam at the time, and didn't hear about it until later. That was kind of an eye-opener for us young whipper-snappers at the time.
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Magpie
Immortal
Dec 10 2011, 3:17am
Post #80 of 134
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that old people were kind of born old. I was smarter than that. Logically, I knew better. But, when I was young... all I saw was a person who was old. And I was never going to be old. I might travel through years of existence but I would never be like *that*. Growing older, I realized two things. Some things you have no choice about. And some things aren't that bad about being older. Each phase of our life gives us gifts and if we can glimpse the gifts of those other times through others without having to be in them ourselves then we just have a richer life. I'm sorry about your grandmother. She sounds like a good woman. on a related note... RT wrote a parody to a Rolling Stones song (on Main) and I was walking around the house last night singing, "What a drag it is getting old" and boy was I feeling it yesterday. My husband and I laughed at how old Mick is these days and how he once said, "Never trust anyone over 30". Ah, the young can be so cocky. ;^)
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silneldor
Half-elven
Dec 10 2011, 3:52am
Post #81 of 134
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It is just a bit of jocularity (quoting Father John Mulcahy). I am largely a kidder. And all is meant for good natured fun with people i find dear and highly respect. Carry on:).
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Maiarmike
Grey Havens
Dec 10 2011, 4:20am
Post #82 of 134
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I always enjoy reading your insights Magpie, it's good to see you around here more often lately. Thank you for your kind words about my grandmother, 'Nana' as we called her. She was definitely a saint. Her kids and grandkids were what she lived for.
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willowing
Lorien
Dec 10 2011, 10:18am
Post #83 of 134
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this historic event is not mentioned...
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The release of Nelson Mandela from Robben Island in South Africa to become president of the same country that jailed him. His Christian faith made an impression on me ever since. Since this event we have seen South Africa come back into the international fold after its long years of isolation from the rest of the world. This was a shining light as the twentieth century came to a close. I also remember the 1972 Olympic games where a terrorist group invaded the Israeli team's quarters and a number of athletes killed in the shootout and also the death of Elvis Presley in the same decade. Then there was the guy called Jim Jones who commanded his followers to kill themselves in Guyana. Anyway closer to home in 1967 our country of New Zealand decided it wanted to change its currency so the pounds, shillings and pence were done away with in favour of the dollars and cents. The same decade our own martime disaster when a ferry called the Wahine caught in a terrible storm struck a reef as it entered Wellington harbour and floundered and sank with loss of life.
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Rosie-with-the-ribbons
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Dec 10 2011, 1:07pm
Post #84 of 134
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The thing I remember the most from "big news" was the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise just outside of Zeebrugge in Belgium. It was March 1987 and I was in my final year of elementary school (I was 12 years old). The first hours of the sinking I watched at home on the news. After some days or weeks, I can't remember anymore the exact time, they lifted the ship and we watched that at school with the entire class. The ship sunk just outside of the harbour of Zeebrugge and it was lying on it's side, so it was a really big visual picture, seeing that ship sideways. I had to google it, 193 died that night, just terrible.
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Annael
Immortal
Dec 10 2011, 3:33pm
Post #85 of 134
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I've lived 60 years, yes, but I'm not old yet!
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People in my family live to their 90s and even 100s. Both my parents are still alive, my dad plays tennis three times a week still, we took him hiking for his 85th birthday. I have no plans to be "old" for at least another 20 years and maybe not then. I do a lot of hiking and it's very cheering to see people in their 80s out in the mountains. I plan to be one of them. If I decided to be "old" now I would get so bored so fast . . . However, if you mean "wise elder" I am fine with that!
(This post was edited by Annael on Dec 10 2011, 3:37pm)
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Faenoriel
Tol Eressea
Dec 10 2011, 3:46pm
Post #86 of 134
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I feel myself a complete brat in this company.
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Aunt Dora Baggins
Immortal
Dec 10 2011, 5:10pm
Post #87 of 134
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geographic proximity makes a big difference in how things affect us. My kids were touched by the Big Thompson flood, in which 145 people died, even though it happened before they were born, because their grandparents were survivors. And I remember being so horrified by the murder of Matthew Shepard, partly because he died in the same hospital where my children were born. I'm ashamed that I don't remember the shipwreck you refer to. Our media tends to ignore things that happen far away, I guess. And maybe I do too.
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Elizabeth
Half-elven
Dec 11 2011, 4:49am
Post #88 of 134
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As (apparently) the oldest person here,
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I represent that remark.
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zarabia
Tol Eressea
Dec 11 2011, 6:08am
Post #89 of 134
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Our obsession with youth is so silly
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But I remember when I was in Poland, a friend once called me Aged P (my real name starts with P). At first I was a bit hurt, thinking, "Middle-aged P, maybe, but not Aged P." But the tone in her voice as she saw me approach made it clear she was happy to see me and in no way intended to be hurtful. Plus, Aged P is a lovable character in Great Expectations, so I decided to take it as it was meant, a term of endearment. Now I'm actually fond of the name. I think we Americans are especially guilty of worrying about age; we could learn a lot from other cultures' attitudes about it.
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zarabia
Tol Eressea
Dec 11 2011, 6:34am
Post #90 of 134
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You must be descended from Bullroarer Took:)
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I love that your dad is still hiking and playing tennis at 85! Age really is just a number. Just ask the 83 year old man who performed my neurosurgery at the suggestion of my 30-something doctor.
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Annael
Immortal
Dec 11 2011, 9:13pm
Post #92 of 134
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it's practically the Unitarian Doxology!
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Annael
Immortal
Dec 11 2011, 9:18pm
Post #93 of 134
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quit eating at 104, out of boredom and the fear that nothing else was going to kill her. That did! The really good news is we keep ze little grey cells. My mom plays duplicate bridge several times a week and reports with glee that she always wins. (She does, however, tell us the same stories over and over - the short-term memory's gone a bit wonky.)
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ByThorinsBeard
Rohan
Dec 11 2011, 10:52pm
Post #94 of 134
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I was about 6 at the time. Didn't have a clue what was going on but that's the first for me.
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Dec 12 2011, 12:53am
Post #95 of 134
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The children sang his "Happy Christmas"
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this morning, at our church's annual Christmas Brunch (pot-luck style, and the kids perform individually or in groups while we're eating). He is so greatly missed...
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dernwyn
Forum Admin
/ Moderator
Dec 12 2011, 12:56am
Post #96 of 134
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until the '60s started picking up steam, and many of us were dragged kicking and screaming into reality...amazing how many are still in denial.
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greendragon
Sr. Staff
Dec 12 2011, 6:44am
Post #98 of 134
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Though I only know it from repeat showings. I was old enough to be aware of the Falklands War but we were living overseas at the time so I didn't see the news. But after John Lennon's death, that's probably the next big event I remember. And the Royal Wedding.
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greendragon
Sr. Staff
Dec 12 2011, 6:48am
Post #99 of 134
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Even before I really knew that it was by a Beatle! You know, when I was little I thought that Reagan and Thatcher were the permanent leaders of the US and the UK... That was just the world view I got from the news when I was about four...!
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FantasyFan
Rohan
Dec 12 2011, 5:13pm
Post #100 of 134
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I was five at the time, and don't remember much about it except we were allowed to watch the news on TV, which was not normally done at my house. I remember more that my parents were upset than anything else. I have much clearer memories of the King assassination in 1968. My mom was crying when I got home from school, and she said, "They have killed a very good man."
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