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Coming of Age

Rexedgar

Rexedgar

Yo-Semite!
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I PM’d another poster about three incidents that came during my ‘coming of age.’ They suggested it might be a good topic for debate or discussion. When I came down the on ramp, Harry S Truman was in the last year of his Administration. We were comfortable, but by no means wealthy. There were three events that had a profound impact on the pre teen me.

1) 1964 Kitty Genovese if there is interest you will need to google the name.
2) 1966 Charles Whitman and the Texas University Tower shootings.
3) Richard Speck and the eight nursing students he killed over the course of a few hours


I am seasoned/old, the younger members may be going through some of their own coming of age incidents. Today’s events may be something that stays with someone for the remainder of their days.
I am somewhat ashamed that as the reports unfolded today, I accepted them and there was more of “here we go again,” than there was shock and surprise......

I do not recognize the country that I grew up in and wonder if there are others who feel the same.....gotta be old folks, me thinks.....
 
Rexedgar said:
I PM’d another poster about three incidents that came during my ‘coming of age.’ They suggested it might be a good topic for debate or discussion. When I came down the on ramp, Harry S Truman was in the last year of his Administration. We were comfortable, but by no means wealthy. There were three events that had a profound impact on the pre teen me.

1) 1964 Kitty Genovese if there is interest you will need to google the name.
2) 1966 Charles Whitman and the Texas University Tower shootings.
3) Richard Speck and the eight nursing students he killed over the course of a few hours


I am seasoned/old, the younger members may be going through some of their own coming of age incidents. Today’s events may be something that stays with someone for the remainder of their days.
I am somewhat ashamed that as the reports unfolded today, I accepted them and there was more of “here we go again,” than there was shock and surprise......

I do not recognize the country that I grew up in and wonder if there are others who feel the same.....gotta be old folks, me thinks.....
Click to expand...


Kitty Genovese was the woman in Kew Gardens whose screams were heard by apartment residents, right? I was too young to remember that but I know the story well. As is the case with Speck and Whitman, whose stories I also know well.

I think for me my first interest in "adult" things came when the Iran hostages were captured. I remember following the story closely, and it's what I think made me a Republican because I, like so many, blamed Carter's foreign policy problems. That's why I was a Reagan girl in my first POTUS election in 1980.

But non-politically, I remember the summer of Sam. I grew up in NJ and remember the terror of Son of Sam, and the articles and pictures in our papers. That was when I think I first realized that people could be evil for no reason.
 
Rexedgar said:
I PM’d another poster about three incidents that came during my ‘coming of age.’ They suggested it might be a good topic for debate or discussion. When I came down the on ramp, Harry S Truman was in the last year of his Administration. We were comfortable, but by no means wealthy. There were three events that had a profound impact on the pre teen me.

1) 1964 Kitty Genovese if there is interest you will need to google the name.
2) 1966 Charles Whitman and the Texas University Tower shootings.
3) Richard Speck and the eight nursing students he killed over the course of a few hours


I am seasoned/old, the younger members may be going through some of their own coming of age incidents. Today’s events may be something that stays with someone for the remainder of their days.
I am somewhat ashamed that as the reports unfolded today, I accepted them and there was more of “here we go again,” than there was shock and surprise......

I do not recognize the country that I grew up in and wonder if there are others who feel the same.....gotta be old folks, me thinks.....
Click to expand...

1) I wrote a term paper about the Kitty Genovese incident. Sheeple for sure.

I also have to agree about there not being any "shock" at what happens anymore, other than 9/11.
 
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My coming of age was very different to these. It was a year of my girlfriend and I getting sweaty. Bedroom. Kitchen. Car. Backyard. Woods. Bathroom. She was Co-Captain of the drill team. Good memories. Thanks thread!
 
I wasn't a pre-teen in 2001 (about to turn 10), but obviously that year always stuck with me because of the terror attacks and the Anthrax hysteria that followed a week later. In 2003 and the 2000's the Iraq War and War in Afghanistan. I remember the 2008 presidential campaign well, 2011 Libya, and the 2012 campaign as a teenager.
 
I've been thinking along these lines lately, myself, though I'm a touch younger.

My own Coming of Age list would have to include:

AIDS
The Challenger explosion
The Collapse of the Soviet Union

Whitman and Speck both impacted me (mostly Whitman) as I had an early bout of true crime obsession.

Probably a bit late to do any good, but I hope you've heard Kitty Genovese's murder was misreported and the main thrust of the story (that people callously disregarded her cries for help) has been debunked? I might actually be a good early example of media manipulating the story to give it more punch.
 
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Bodhisattva said:
My coming of age was very different to these. It was a year of my girlfriend and I getting sweaty. Bedroom. Kitchen. Car. Backyard. Woods. Bathroom. She was Co-Captain of the drill team. Good memories. Thanks thread!
Click to expand...


:lamo
 
Bodhisattva said:
My coming of age was very different to these. It was a year of my girlfriend and I getting sweaty. Bedroom. Kitchen. Car. Backyard. Woods. Bathroom. She was Co-Captain of the drill team. Good memories. Thanks thread!
Click to expand...



So you were catching? :lamo
 
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