World News

There was a headline on CNN yesterday about the Jonestown massacre and it got me thinking. November 19, 2008 is the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown massacre. This is one of the first big world news stories that I remember hearing about as a kid. I was 8 when it happened, and like most 8-year-olds, I was completely and blissfully unaware of what was going on outside of my little world. I was busy with 2nd grade and my My Friend Mandy dolls, and being jealous that my cousin Debbie had a Lite-Brite and I didn’t. It came as quite a shock to learn that there were nasty things out there in the big world.

I don’t have the best memory. Somehow I didn’t get the Van Vechten memory gene that allows one to retain everything from the events of the day right down to the temperature and wind speed. I mostly remember seeing the dozens and dozens of body bags being loaded (or unloaded) on the planes on the news. I got pretty scared about it, although now I don’t know why. It wasn’t like it was going to happen to me. All I remember about it was that a bunch of people were in a cult and their leader was nuts and made them drink poisoned Kool-Aid. I had no idea why this happened or what lead up to it or anything. In fact, I remained in complete ignorance about this until yesterday when I realized it was the 30 year anniversary and remembered how it affected me when I was a kid. I then went and did some Googling and found out that my original 8-year-old assessment was pretty darned accurate, even if it didn’t take into account the socialism, communism, racial and economic equality, politics, and other crazy stuff.

Once the memory vault was opened about news stories from when I was a kid, I remembered what was probably the very first major news story I remember – the crash of a PSA plan in San Diego on September 25, 1978. I don’t remember if I heard the crash or not (now that I’ve read more about it, my memories are getting confused), but I remember seeing the smoke rising up in the sky and that it was smoky for a long time. I remember hearing about the body parts falling from the sky. That creeped me out to no end. Strangely, I don’t remember much more about this. You’d think I would considering the planes fell out of the sky practically in my back yard (okay it was miles and miles away, but still in the next town over) and the news people would have been all over that story like white on rice.

The last big world news story I remember from when I was a kid was Brenda Ann Spencer. Remember her? She was the girl that invented school shootings. On January 29, 1979 (my 9th birthday) this little darling strolled outside her house with a gun and proceeded to kill two people and injure eight other students and a cop at the elementary school across the street. Why did she do such a thing? “I don’t like Mondays,” she said with a shrug. Later on she pulled the “I was abused as a child” defense and then the "I was on drugs" defence.. She’s up for parole for the fifth time in 2009. Want to be she doesn’t get it…again?

So let’s hear your memories of events from childhood. Deb, I particularly interested to hear how these 3 things effected you since you and I are close to the same age and two of these things happened in our home town.