GERERATION X (IT'S ALL ABOUT ME!)

Growing up in the 70s and 80s was a lot different than how kids are growing up today.

The 70s were trying to expand from the 60s. The protests were over and people were trying to come together, to help one another. It was a time of economic recession, stock markets were down, and most families consisted of both the mother and fathers working, to make ends meet. Not very many single parent homes, at least none to speak of. Education was highly stressed, for the development of successful living.

The 70s was a time of Space exploration, and advanced technology. NASA's new space program. IBM invented a new computer. John Glen was the first astronaut to successfully orbit the moon, in 1962, thanks to the first black, female mathematician, Mary Jackson, which paved the way for astronaut Neil Armstrong, in 1969. He went up in the Apollo, and was the first man to walk on the moon, planted the flag and said, "that's one small step for man, one giant leap, for mankind."

Most of those early achievements I don't remember, due to the fact that I wasn't born, till September of 1969, and wasn't aware of the world till around 1975, when I was in kindergarten, Neil Armstrong came to visit our class, it was so cool, and I think that's where the Toy Story got the name Buzz Lightyear, Buzz Aldrin came with him. They told us what it was like to be astronauts, they wore there space suits(probably changed into them in the bathroom). But after that all the boys in class wanted to be astronauts.

With the beginning of the Space Age, all the other countries wanted in on it, they were trying to build the best spaceship to enhance exploration of the galaxy and beyond. To find out if life could exist beyond Earth's hemisphere, and what we could learn from it, as technology improved, more flights were taken.

In 1976, our school celebrated the Bicentennial (1776-1976) Happy Birthday America! we wore red, white, and blue to commemorate the flag and gathered 100 things to put in the time capsule, that they buried in the back of the school yard, and I forgot what year it was supposed to be exhumed.

.......Then the materialistic 80s began....

Four years later, in Washington St, Mount St. Helen's erupted, the first volcanic eruption in over 100 yrs, causing massive destruction, it stayed lit for days and spread ash for over 2000 miles, the lava poured down into the towns, that had been evacuated. The owner, and caretaker of the mountain, Harry R Truman, refused to evacuate, after much warning, the lava overtook his small cabin, at the base, and he perished, along with 56 others. Total devastation.

When I was in the 6th grade, I went with my Girl Scout troop to COSI, in Columbus, Oh., we watched the movie of Mt. Saint Helen, and was given a small one inch plastic box, of ash, for a souvenir. I still have that box, on my shelf.

In the 80s I was finishing elementary school, and moving on to Jr High. A lot was happening in the world, but still a great time to be a kid. I would come home from school, a "latch key kid", do my homework, and go ride my bike to my friends house. Then we would go walk around the neighborhood to try to meet up with other friends, or spy on the boys. They would be playing stick ball or football or some other kind of game, using other types of balls, at the school yard (playground). The only rule was to be home by 5p, when my mom got home from work , so I could help her get dinner. We all ate together, EVERY night. I thought that was the dumbest rule,( boy was I wrong!) I always wanted to eat in my room watching tv or anywhere else, but not at the dinner table, ugh! I miss that now.

The music was great, we had a lot of heavy metal rock bands, Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, all the girls wanted to dress like them, and BIG hair! I thought was the coolest thing, "mall" bangs were a thing too and we all wanted to be Valley Girls, FER Sure! Life was fun, and simple, we knew our neighbors and everyone looked out for each other. We never heard of sex trafficking, or drugs, or cell phones, or laptop computers. We had pay phones and typerwriters, if we wanted to talk to someone,we passed hand written notes,between classes to our friends. Friday and Saturday nights were spent at the skating rink,most everyone had their own roller skates,we were too cool to wear the nerdy rentals. We had sock hops after basketball games, in the gym and when I was in High School,we went to bon fire parties after the football games, there weren't any gangs or school shootings. The economy was doing better,and the Berlin wall was taken down.

Then in 1981, it happened, another launch was planned for April, they finally finished the space shuttle, Columbia, the first rated orbiter, it was the heaviest, of all the others, and the first reusable machine. It had a working Science lab, inside, allowing the astronauts to perform experiments while in space. Everyone was so excited, it was on the news for days, probably overkill, as usual, but the morning of the launch, we all went to the gym for the assembly, they wheeled in a 25 inch color tv. it was kinda hard to see, but we could hear it..3,2,1... Blast Off! The fire came out from the bottom, and we watched it ascending farther and farther up, till it was a mere speck, safely making it past the barrier. The Columbia had made 16 successful missions, with the final one in 1998. In 2003 a piece of foam broke off and exploded upon reentry. The seven crew members were lost, above Texas.

The second Orbiter, in the Space shuttle program was the Challenger, making it's first launch in 1983, two years after the Columbia. This one made nine successful missions, in the course of the next few years, everyone was eating dehydrated ice cream, and following the lives of the astronauts. People were glued to the tv screens, wanting the latest reports of what NASA was doing.

Then in 1986, the first civilian was chosen to go in the next flight. It was a history teacher, from NH, Christa McAuliffe, creating the First Teacher in Space Program, hoping to pave the way for future travels.

Jan, 1986 we had another assembly to watch the launch, we gathered in the auditorium, they had it on the big screen, people were talking and there was a lot of chatter and commotion, then the countdown, 3,2,1, Blast off!! This time it didn't go up like it was supposed to, there was a huge fireball, we didn't know what happened at first, then realized 73 seconds later it exploded. The teachers quieted everyone, we had a moment of silence, and they dismissed us. We were in shock, people hugged their neighbors, some cried, we felt a loss like no other, for people we didn't even know, but all the hype over the last few months, GONE, in a matter of minutes. Seven lives, now over the Atlantic ocean, from the Kennedy Space Center. Just unbelievable. School was dismissed early to let us grieve, or mourn as needed.

I was a junior at that time, and to look back, and think that never in my life could I imagine this stuff happening, I guess it's sort of a blessing, to be a part of that kind of history in the making, and we always thought we had boring lives. WE had a lot of catastrophe, that's for sure, but maybe that made us resilient. But after the space expedition, and the volcanic eruption, what else could happen?

Uh, that's right... 1987, right after graduation, Desert Storm happened, and a lot of my classmates served in that. Wow! That's scary..