Saturday, August 30, 2008

What were you doing when...

Steve, over at Mustard Seed Shavings, invited me to play along with this - and as I'm as busy procrastinating as ever, it seemed like a really good plan

Five events and a chance to record the impact they had on you:


Princess Diana's death - 31 August 1997
The children and I had reluctantly driven back from a wonderful stay with Hon Mum Eirene in Sussex by the Sea, because there was an Open Air United Benefice service and Parish Picnic scheduled for the Sunday, and in our group of three small Cotswold villages the absence of my offspring too easily meant "No children there at all - do not repeat the event"....But early that morning, as I was cooking bacon and eggs for my B&B guests, the phone rang. It was the vicar, to say that the picnic was cancelled, and instead a reflective service would be held in the largest of the churches. Naively, I couldn't quite see what all the drama was about. An unhappy woman had died suddenly. I worried for her sons, was sorry for her family - but completely unprepared for the surge of public grief that overtook Britain that week.

Margaret Thatcher's resignation - 22 November 1990
Packing up our London house, preparatory to our move to Gloucestershire...With one three year old and one not quite one, this was definitely a challenge, so the political events of the day barely penetrated - except when the small HG announced that she thought her best friend's nursery teacher, also affectionately known as Mrs T (such was her name) might be ill as everyone was talking about her...

Attack on the twin towers - 11 September 2001
I was driving up Crickley Hill from Gloucester, where I'd had my pre term interview with the principal of my vicar school, to decide whether or not I wanted to jump a year on the basis of my Reader training. Radio 4 on, for the afternoon play iirc, when
"We interrupt this broadcast..."
At home, a financial advisor was scheduled to discuss pensions options...but the poor man didn't stand a chance as more and more news kept breaking and we kept dashing next door, to the sitting room, for another update.
So hard to believe it was happening...and impossible to grasp its impact on the world.

England's World Cup Semi Final v Germany - 4 July 1990
What?
Sorry.
Missed that.
Very busy being the mum of a pre-schooler and her baby brother (see above) and living in a household of football apathists (If there is no such word, there should be:however I do remember us winning the Rugby World Cup in November 2003. I was driving home having dropped the children at choir, and had to pull into a layby as I recognised I was too overexcited to be safe on the road. I happened to park beside the deer park at Great Barrington, and startled the grazing deer considerably by my yelps of joy and triumph when Jonny Wilkinson scored about half a second before time. Wow! Adrenalin rush just remembering that :-)

President Kennedy's Assassination - 22 November 1963
Oh dear....I was three myself, and don't remember it at all. I do though, recall Churchill's State Funeral two years later,- probably the first public event I noticed (not least because a performance of Peter Pan that I was taken to that afternoon began with a minute's silence and a drum roll, which scared me so much I hid under my seat for the rest of Act 1)....
And I was Christmas shopping in Culpepper's in Cambridge in December 1980 (the branch no longer exists, though the business continues) when I heard about John Lennon. Suddenly everyone seemed to be weeping quietly, and the tinny Christmas carols broadcast everywhere were replaced by "Imagine".

Now I'm supposed to tag 5 people...but I'm not sure who's old enough, or has time enough, or the need to be diverted. Please do feel free to play if so inclined, and let me know in the comments too.

3 comments:

Fiona Marcella said...

I went off the idea of joining in when I got to number 3 but it's this or mow the grass...

Anonymous said...

Done this on my new blog. It's that or the sermon...

Mary Beth said...

I needed that diversion...thanks! 5 am here...

loves, mb