General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Rambling thoughts as I approach 70 years old [View all]quabbin
(47 posts)I can relate to your post. I too recently reached the 70-year milepost. Spending time looking back over one's lifetime seems to be a part of the aging process. I was 10 years old in the fifth grade when JFK was murdered. My teacher started crying when the announcement came over the PA system. For me the horror of that day was amplified when I returned home from school to find that a terrible event had also occurred in my neighborhood. Just up the street from my home a car carrying three nuns (also biological sisters) and their driver crashed through the guardrail on a reservoir causeway. All four people drowned. Several people dove into the water in an attempt to rescue them, but it was too late. The events of that day are burned into my memory. I also remember Walter Cronkite reporting the troop losses from Viet Nam every night on the evening news. One of my high school classmates left school our senior year and enlisted in the Marine Corp. He was sent to Viet Nam. He was in country five months when he was killed by a land mine. The assassinations of JFK, MLK, and RFK will haunt our generation to the end of our days. I look back and wonder how things would be better today if we hadn't lost those great men to treachery. I find myself now telling all the young people I meet that life passes by faster than they can ever imagine. It's a good thing to share your life's memories otherwise, "All those moments will be lost like tears in rain." - Roy Batty-Blade Runner. All the best to you.