Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Time Travellers

I recently struck up a conversation with two people about dead presidents. One wanted to know who had been the last president that died before Reagan. (answer..Nixon) The other person stated..."Reagan died??? I thought he died years ago?" I work in a different atmosphere, where there are people in any age range from 18 to 70 and have vastly different perspectives of history. Some people are amazed when I tell them that I wasn't born yet when Kennedy was killed and yet I'm amazed by people not yet born until after the Bicentennial. As a result, the Kennedy's are nothing to me except a group of womanizing rum runners on the pages of history, but to others they are a pillar of either their adolescence or young adulthood. The point is...we are all time travellers in our own way. We each have a perspective of our own history in the small time that we are here. So...enjoy the time you have here...ask older people what they thought about their vision of current events in their youth. Once those perspectives are gone, they are gone forever. On the other hand, don't forget to talk to people younger than you are to get their views of history. Above all, remember to stay on top of current events. You don't want to be the person who says 5 days later..."Reagan died???"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Tom! Leza, here. Your trusty lawyer-friend in the nation's capital. It's been quite a sight the last two days with President Reagan's funeral procession and such. Yesterday (Wednesday), when his casket arrived at Andrews AFB, there was so much concern about the evening rush hour traffic, and how it would be affected by so many road closures for the procession, that the DC offices of the federal government were given 3 hours of liberal leave to get home. And wouldn't you know it! Everybody took advantage of it. Unfortunately, they all did it at the same time! So, instead of having evening rush hour traffic at its normal snail's pace, we had afternoon traffic at a snail's pace. The subways hadn't adjusted their schedule. So, they were only running 4-car trains at off-peak intervals, instead of 6-car trains at peak intervals. Don't forget the heat advisory and the excessive humidity. So, getting home, which normally only takes about 55 minutes, took me 1 hr 45 minutes. I kid you not! All of this, for a dead president. The city was in gridlock. I was glad to finally get home, and watch the funeral procession on TV. In an air-conditioned apartment. And the president (not the dead one) gave the federal government the day off tomorrow (Friday). Something about a national day of mourning. Yeah. I'll be mourning. In my pajamas. With a couple of pillows. And my blanket.

Anonymous said...

Hi Tom,
Lori here. I was getting some work done on my car Wednesday. Sitting in the waiting room watching the funeral coverage on TV. I think they were moving the casket into DC. Anyway, one of the young mechanic helpers came out and asked what was going on. When we told him President Reagan died, he asked 'in the war?'.

It was really kind of scary.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry to say I'm not surprised by Lori's report. It's a sad story....kinda like the "Pacific on the left" tale (see http://iceseren.blogspot.com)

Hey Lori....how is it back in Alaska after hiking around Europe?

Tonight, we went to the coffeehouse for a couple of hours and drank wine, listened to live acoustic music. Wish you were here.

Anonymous said...

It's just like I never left. Not much changed here at work. At least spring is here instead of winter. My trip to Europe was a great break from reality, and a lot of fun.