Earliest Big Event You Remember

[Harvey]

20 years from now I wonder how many will answer the Covid pandemic.

I wonder if it will have that kind of life.

I remember a specific MOMENT from the MLK march. An image. It's clear in my head. Like the snowbanks or the riderless horse.

Does Covid have a specific moment?

 

[Campgottagopee]

I certainly think it will for some? I would imagine being hit with this your senior year (HS or College) would leave a lasting impression on you? Missing your last ___________ (fill in the blank) would suck. Maybe not. I know I'll never forget being forced to leave work. That wasn't a good feeling at all.

I guess time will tell.

Pretty cool topic

 

[Brownski]

Junior is in exactly that situation. Everything to do with graduation was delayed, ad hoc, filled with uncertainty. Eventually they got through it all but it was just chaos. I’m sure it’ll stand out in my kids memories.

 

[Warp daddy]

Camp i think you are right on target . This " event" may well be a moment for many as you point out .

1.Pre mature loss of friends or loved ones
2.Loss of a "life milestone events" as u say like graduations, or attending large weddings , or funerals ,or even athletic seasons
3. Truncated employment and disrupted future plans
4. Separation anxiety or even in worst case death of loved one who you cannot see or visit in their terminal state .
5 . For some unfortunately they may well be Dis - Intermediated in mid to late career by AI or other innovative tech advances that affect mfg , distribution, accounting and back office functions .

This might well be the predicted " Fourth Turn" whatever it is we will deal with it as Americans always have adapted eventually

 

[D.B. Cooper]

Aside from the really obvious (Sept. 11), I think the most shocking to me was the bombing that started the first Gulf war. I remember driving at the time with the news on thinking, "Damn. War." Although it wasn't the biggest war, I never thought I would see something like that.

 

[MarzNC]

Does Covid have a specific moment?

For a little kid who suddenly isn't going to preschool any more, or a kid who was looking forward to Kindergarten, probably will have a distinct memory associated with the start of the pandemic for their family.

I'm sure there are kids who were under age 5 and lived in or near NYC who will never forget 9/11. While there are others around the country who were probably not that aware of what happened until weeks or months later. As an adult who to watched it happen on live TV, I know I was far more connected to that event than my husband. He was born and raised in the midwest, mostly near Chicago.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

20 years from now I wonder how many will answer the Covid pandemic.

My parents and most of their siblings were old enough to remember yhe 1918 flu pandemic. I never heard any of them mention it. I think that was forgotten becasue people wanted to forget it. The same will happen with COVID.

mm

 

[Cornhead]

I remember being woken up to watch Neil Armstrong descend the ladder on the LEM. I was 8, well not quite, 7yrs 10 mths.

 

[MarzNC]

My parents and most of their siblings were old enough to remember yhe 1918 flu pandemic. I never heard any of them mention it. I think that was forgotten becasue people wanted to forget it. The same will happen with COVID.

mm

Maybe, maybe not. For decades after 1918 the Internet and Wikipedia wasn't even in science fiction books.

Back in May I came across an article about a man who created a 1918 memorial in Vermont. For anyone who wants to know more, here's an article from 2018 that explains some differences between cultural memories and memorials related to the Black Plague, the AIDS epidemic, and the 1918 flu pandemic.

Oct 2018, Wellcome Collection in London
Why the 1918 Spanish flu defied both memory and imagination
Books, music, artworks and memorials help ensure that victims of pandemics are remembered. But while the Black Death, AIDS and Ebola outbreaks are firmly part of our collective cultural memory, the Spanish flu outbreak has not been. Medical historian and author Mark Honigsbaum explains why.

Why the 1918 Spanish flu defied both memory and imagination

The Black Death, AIDS and Ebola outbreaks are part of our collective cultural memory, but the Spanish flu outbreak has not been.

wellcomecollection.org

 

[Warp daddy]

Boy we heard about the 1918 pandemic it took my grandfather a young man of 32 who left an immigrant wife with 4 young kids .My dad was the eldest male at 9 and was the man of the family all during the depression . My grandmother and grandfather owned a tailor shop and gramma carried on then worked for a fine Women's Department store .

All 4 kids got advanced degrees and became something : My dad was an Insurance Company Director, My uncle became CEO of Pepperidge farms / Chef Boyardee and American Home Foods inc, ,one aunt became Dean of Nursing at a college and the other aunt was Executive Director of NYC Catholic Charities .

Inspite of the tragedy ,Gramma was just an awesome woman who was active and YOUNG AT HEART till the end .She lived her days out in Florida and Lake Placid in the summer where she worked for Frances Brewster a high end womens store in placid and Palm Beach . She was a beach lover so the college kids knew her as Granny and often asked her to mend their stuff. She was a piece of work with a heart of gold and a wicked sense of humor .She remarried in later life to a retired man.

One kinda sad little vignette about how this pandemic affected my 9 year old dad : My dad when i was a man appologized to me for absolutely no reason at all, he thought he was not a good dad because he HAD NO ROLE MODEL DAD growing up and had no childhood ( he was a fabulous role model and very caring , we kids and his grandkids JB and his sister loved him .

But my grandpa was gone before my time , i miss not having EITHER grandpa . My moms father died in 1936 when she was about to leave for college .So that 1918 pandemic and its residual aftermath affected our family as it did many others back in the day .