Monday, November 9, 2009

Twenty Years?

Good grief! Has it really been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down? I remember the news unfolding while watching AFN (Armed Forces Network TV) while living in Heidelberg, Germany that fall of 1989. Six months later, Sue and I drove to Berlin, just before we went home to the States. People were still visiting the Wall and taking home chunks of it. Us too.



Great hair, Sue...




Lois Ann at Check Point Charlie before crossing into East Berlin.



See, still people writing on the Wall six months later



In the meantime, Becky was going to college in Sheridan, Wyoming. Gram let her drive the old gold Chevy pick up around the Sheridan cemetery. In fact here is part of a letter from Gram....



“Dear Ones, (from Gram’s house, 30 Sept 1989)
I’ve just given Becky her first Driver’s lesson. This is Sat. morning, and we just had GrandDad’s waffles – and she didn’t have any special plans for today, so we went to a couple of garage sales, didn’t buy anything – then I wanted to take her to the cemetery. I told her I wanted to take her before we were suddenly in the trauma of a funeral. So after I took a couple of pictures and west into some family background, I told her I’d let her drive. We had the old Chevy pickup – and what an ideal place… lots of little roads branching off and places to back-up – and she didn’t knock over any tombstones. We may go up there again.” “ You’d have laughed to see that old gold pick up jerking and stopping and starting up at the cemetery. Love from us all, Gram”.

2 comments:

Sue said...

It's amazing to think that such a pivotal event in history occured during my lifetime. Ken Carlson has a great post about it over at his blog:
http://kennethcarlson.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-9th-twenty-years-ago.html

I don't think I ever told you, but our trip to Berlin was such an incredible event in my life. The fact that you had the patience and love to take this smart aleck teenager on an epic trip to understand freedom is pretty amazing. I love you!

Becky in Wyo said...

Funny to think that I was just a few months behind such a huge, historical event. I was much further away, distance and experience, by the time it happened.

Looking at pics of you, I can't help but think, "Holy cow! I'm almost my mother's age when all that happened! I have teenagers of my own now!" Time sure passes.