I'm back with another recollection from the 80's. In case you don't know, "zwei" is the number two in German (I didn't know - I had to look it up. I took Spanish).
The Fall of the Berlin Wall (and Communism), November 9, 1989
I was 13 years old, and in eighth grade (junior high). I didn’t experience The Cold War like my parents did. There were no “duck and cover” drills at my school, and I didn’t really live in fear of a mass nuclear attack on America. My memory of the fall of communism is somewhat vague. My parents watched the evening news most nights, so I’m pretty sure the images I remember came from that. What I really remember is that every three years, high school kids from my hometown went to Germany with the German-American Partnership Program (GAPP) and stayed with adopted German families for three weeks in the summer. They visited the Berlin Wall, and several spray painted some graffiti on it. Lots of people did that, and it was somewhat of a tradition, I guess. One year, when the kids from Germany came to stay with their American adopted families, they spray painted graffiti on some bluffs at the lake, and got in big trouble. I remember my mom saying that they (the school officials or local government or whoever was in an uproar over it) were overreacting and that the American kids had spray painted on the Berlin wall, so why would the German kids think that it wasn’t OK to come here and do the same. Anyway, I don’t remember if that happened around the same time as the fall of the wall or not, but I know it was before I was in high school, so it must have been close. Not very exciting, I know, but still – it’s what I remember about that time. As a side note, my 17-year-old cousin, Miranda, is participating in the GAPP program this year (supposedly the last year they’re going to do it). Miranda: Don’t go spray painting anything. :)
Photos from Wikipedia
If you have a recollection about the time surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall, feel free to leave a comment and tell me about it.
The Fall of the Berlin Wall (and Communism), November 9, 1989
I was 13 years old, and in eighth grade (junior high). I didn’t experience The Cold War like my parents did. There were no “duck and cover” drills at my school, and I didn’t really live in fear of a mass nuclear attack on America. My memory of the fall of communism is somewhat vague. My parents watched the evening news most nights, so I’m pretty sure the images I remember came from that. What I really remember is that every three years, high school kids from my hometown went to Germany with the German-American Partnership Program (GAPP) and stayed with adopted German families for three weeks in the summer. They visited the Berlin Wall, and several spray painted some graffiti on it. Lots of people did that, and it was somewhat of a tradition, I guess. One year, when the kids from Germany came to stay with their American adopted families, they spray painted graffiti on some bluffs at the lake, and got in big trouble. I remember my mom saying that they (the school officials or local government or whoever was in an uproar over it) were overreacting and that the American kids had spray painted on the Berlin wall, so why would the German kids think that it wasn’t OK to come here and do the same. Anyway, I don’t remember if that happened around the same time as the fall of the wall or not, but I know it was before I was in high school, so it must have been close. Not very exciting, I know, but still – it’s what I remember about that time. As a side note, my 17-year-old cousin, Miranda, is participating in the GAPP program this year (supposedly the last year they’re going to do it). Miranda: Don’t go spray painting anything. :)
Photos from Wikipedia
If you have a recollection about the time surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall, feel free to leave a comment and tell me about it.
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