Gene Notes

Some random and some not-so-random thoughts on family history.

Monday, January 5, 2015

Of Crashes and Other Weird Things

Way back in February and March when I was laid up with the avulsion fracture to my right ankle, I got addicted to CNN. As a result, when there is a report of a plane crash, I automatically tune to CNN. Where else can you hear the same thing day after day, with nothing new to report?  Lately, I've been following the crash of the AirAsia flight that went down after Christmas.

I was surprised to see them run a documentary on plane crash survivors. Not just any survivors, but sole survivors. Since it aired last week, I was glued to the TV, especially the bits about then 4-year old Celia Cichan who was the sole survivor of flight 255 at Detroit Metro airport on August 16, 1987. It was very interesting.

Also, I read on Facebook that Little Jimmy Dickens died. DH and I saw him at the Grand Ole Opry back in November. He sure had a lot of energy for someone who was 93 at the time. And then later of the death of Donna Douglas, or as I knew her, Elly May Clampett.

It's weird just how fast life flies by. Every year is made up of events small and major that are part of the fabric of our lives. Do you record those things in your genealogy?

How many of you recall what you were doing in 1963 when Kennedy was assassinated? It's a major event that occurred in our lives (some of us anyway.) It's not recorded in my genealogy now, because I was 12 when it happened and maybe my memory is faulty about the day. Mostly, I remember the funeral. And of course on every major anniversary of that November day, the footage of the funeral is rolled out. So how much is true memory and how much is influenced by the replaying of the events?

Did our ancestors feel the same way on hearing of the death of George Washington? Or were they shocked by the assassination of Lincoln? I can almost put money on my Confederate ancestors not being shocked or saddened by Lincoln's death as a couple of them were quite disparaging when mentioning him.

Our ancestors didn't have the benefit of television before the 1940s, they relied on letters and newspapers and telegrams.

I often envied my mother's father. Born in 1888, he grew up when cars were new; saw the advent of the airplane and lived to see men on the moon. He was raised on a farm in East Tawas, Michigan and I am sure probably did not see or own a car of his own.

I've grown up with the space program, was an adult when computers and cell phones became normal extensions of our every day lives. Seen pictures from space and the Mars rover.

What new and wonderful things will our children and grandchildren see?

Copyright 2010-2014, ACK for Gene Notes

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