In 1986 I was still in catholic school and got passes to leave on the evenings
and weekends to work in a local gas station. Although the passes ate up most of
my wages I still had enough left over to help out a little at home which was
good since my mother hadn't heard anything from my father in years by then. The
Reagan era hit the nuns hard and the convent's Ford Escorts were replaced with
Caddilac Sedan D'villes. Word like charity, socialism, and compassion were as
ugly as the F word. On a fashion front hair was big, shoulders were padded and
neon was as good as a hair color as it was a sign color.
Frank
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2016 12:21 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: scooter dies at 30
In 1986, it was a year after my husband's death. A group from the Ethical
Humanist Society was traveling to Kenya for a tour led by the religious leader
and his wife, who had served in Kenya in the Peace Corps. My friend from
Michigan and I went on that trip. I remember a home for aged women on the
outskirts of Niarobi where women whose husbands had divorced them or who were
disabled, were cared for in a windowless building with an open front, lots of
red dust, and drainage ditches filled with waste, a hospital for mentally ill
people where I was surrounded by Schizophrenic young men who exhibited the same
symptoms that my patients had,at the mental health clinic where I worked in
1961, a lioness, surrounded by her babies, lying on a rock, in the sun, a line
of elephants in the distance, a Massai village with piles of raw cow dung which
would be used to patch the roofs of dwellings and huge clouds of glies. All of
that and more is what blots out the rest of
1986 for me.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2016 10:44 AM
To: blind-democracy
Subject: [blind-democracy] scooter dies at 30
No, not an unsung Freedom Fighter, gunned down by the Forces of Evil.
Just a simple cat. Not even the record holder, but the current oldest living
cat. Oops! Scooter died before receiving the honor. But the point of this
pointless ramble is that I got to thinking about what the world was like, at
least here in the good old USA, back in 1986.
Here's the report. Think about your own world back 30 years ago.
Siamese cat, Scooter, was named the world's oldest living cat by the Guinness
Book of World Records and celebrated his 30th birthday on March 26.
But his owner, Gail Floyd of Mansfield, Texas, said Scooter had died by the
time Guinness conferred its title on April 8.
Veterinarian, Dr Tricia Latimer, said Scooter had lived to the equivalent of
about 136 human years.
Scooter was not Guinness's oldest cat of all time, though. That distinction
belongs to a fellow Texas cat who lived to be 38.
Press Association
******
We can all remember 1986, assuming we're over 35 or so, but it's difficult to
bring up a memory of the world as it was. My boss, Paul DzieDzic, was the head
of a state agency. As director of the Orientation and training Center, I often
rode with Paul from Seattle to Olympia for management meetings. The State of
Washington had not yet approved the use of cellular phones. Along the I-5
corridor there were turnouts with public telephones.
Paul, always half an hour late for a meeting, would fly down the freeway, pull
into a turnout and check with his secretary for messages. Another memory. In
my OTC program we had a communications class. Braille was taught separately
from other communications. We still taught students to use the IBM Selectric,
the state of Art among typewriters. Braille was copied via Therma Form.
We had no computer class. In fact, I was several years away from my first
computer, and I was still using an old manual typewriter. We had no Voice
Mail. My secretary took my calls when I was not in my office, and read them to
me later. I Brailled out what information I needed.
Other memories included: Space Shuttle Challenger Explodes, Human Genome
Project launched, Sweeping tax reform legislation USA, Bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE) hits UK Cattle, Iran-Contra Affair becomes public, Soviet
Nuclear reactor at Chernobyl Explosion causing major Nuclear Fallout, US bombs
Libya
1986 was the first year I took a two week vacation. Cathy and I had not
honeymooned following our marriage in 1982, so we decided that it was high time
to do so. Off to Hawaii we went, along with Cathy's brother and sister-in-law.
I remember hearing the news about the bombing of Libya.
Later that day we received a frantic call from my oldest daughter who was at
our house watching our two younger children. "Have you heard anything about
Libya retaliating? I think I hear bombs going off." Of course it was a rare
thunder storm in the Olympic mountains.
In 1986, Cathy was director of the Para Legal unit for the Seattle prosecuting
attorney's.
In her office was a room containing huge revolving files containing all of the
units records. They were also using Selectrics.
But in spite of all the specific memories, I still can't really get my head
around the sense of 1986, except to say that it was a very different world.
And I wonder what the year 2046 will look like. Of course I would be 111 and
probably not still hanging around.
Maybe no humans will be around.
Carl Jarvis
