I had a favorite year and it was 51 years ago. Hard to believe because it doesn’t feel like it was that long ago.
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in July 1969. I was a new mommy. Home with the baby, I had time to see it. We watched it on CBS. Walter Cronkite wanted to be up there. On the moon. He could barely control his excitement, almost in tears, his voice breaking with emotion. The great Arthur C. Clarke was his guest.
Woodstock was a month. Friends had tickets and were planning to go. I was busy with the baby and wished them well.
I was young, healthy. I just knew we would change the world. Make the world better. I was still of the opinion the world could be changed. We saw the future brightly and full of hope.
How could we — in a mere three years of The Trump Dump — manage to watch a lifetime of our generation’s effort vanish? I remember crying when Obama was elected and now we have this bombastic idiot tearing down everything we thought we’d accomplished. And I’m crying again at all the good, torn to shreds by one evil guy.
From 2016 until today, we’ve discovered the fragility of our democracy. In the face of a viral plague, watching this madman destroy our clean water and air and ignore the cries of the Earth. Tears apart our relationships with our allies and the rest of the world.
Take me back to a better time and place where I am young enough to hope for great things to come in my lifetime. Will life be better again in another 51 years? Will it be better next year?
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Categories: #American-history, Humor, Marilyn Armstrong, Music
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
You can say that again! Too true, Marilyn, and you articulate it beautifully. I’m all for going back to happier times. For me it’d be 13th century! 🙂
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Except for that dratted Black Plague! Oh, wait, that was the 14th century. I think the 12th was better, but the 15th was worse.
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Cue up my Uncle Louie and “What a Wonderful World” to celebrate ’69.
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Indeed, that’s why I went for the 13th century. 🙂 That, and, of course, it’s when my favourite castles were built. 😀
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The coming year HAS to be better.
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You mean 2021? I’m not holding out much hope for 2020.
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I don’t think it could be much worse, but that’s a dangerous thing to say. Things can ALWAYS get worse. I do not wish to tempt fate.
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1969 was a good for us too. Our younger son was born….
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Many of us had children that year. It was a mini-boom for babies. But this won’t be a favorite year for anyone. We got almost 6 inches of snow last night. Weird weather!
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6 inches of snow! Now that is awful!
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Well, it’s melting fast. We knew it would because the asphalt is warm so mostly it stuck to trees and grass. Now, at 5:30, there’s not much left. But the weather for this week is terrible. Storms and wind and rain and cold. New England has horrible weather, especially in the spring.
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Yes — 1969 was a great year — it was also quite tumultuous! Before she died in 2010, my mother told all of us that she “hated this century.” I often wonder what she saw!
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My mother was born in 1910 and died in 1984. She wasn’t thrilled by the 20th century. I think she saw it as a reiteration fo all the bad stuff coming around again. I’m glad she didn’t live to see THIS year!
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There are some things which even he cannot destroy!
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But he will try. If he doesn’t destroy everything, it won’t be for lack of effort.
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Yes, it’s not the lack of trying.
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I too, loved the magic of ’69! My hope is that this virus is a planetary wakeup call that the approaches of the idiot in chief and others are so completely wrong. Maybe we can get our collective selves back to the garden.
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I think we could if we pull together. But will we? We need a government that can see past their own bulging stomachs.
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I am ever hopeful that the next year will bring with it very positive changes
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I have some foggy memories of ’69…. And I will not post a big rant about “He Who Shall Remain Nameless” in your comment section. You already know it.
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There were bad things too, but for me, it was a great year. And I was young, healthy and had the whole world waiting for me.
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1969 was a pretty good year! You are right no one is ever going to pick 2020- it will be a year everyone remembers but even this early in the year there is no saving it- a bummer.
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Yes, I think this one, even more than 2001, will stick in memory. It’s not like any other year in our lifetime. Unless you are a lot more than 100, you’ve never seen anything like this.
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