Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Wall Came Down...


I have read a lot and seen a lot this past week about the 20th anniversary of the fall of Berlin Wall. There have been NPR radio accounts, Brian Williams sharing his memories, even The Daily Show took a stab at it. So I thought I would reflect on where I was twenty years ago when the wall came down.

November 1989 I was a sophomore at Nampa High School. I was playing trombone in the marching band and the jazz band. I had just convinced my parents to help me purchase a Bach model 36b Trombone. I told them that it would pay for itself as I would get a scholarship for college (which I did). I was working on weekends for my Uncle in his band instrument repair shop, while getting an education on jazz music and the finer points of jazz/fusion. (Uncle Danny really like jazz fusion and passed on a little bit of that to me). I was trying to stay afloat in all my classes, including Spanish 1; my Dad was the teacher (I had to do a lot of extra credit to not drop below a 'C' in that class).

I was trying to figure out who I was. What I liked and did not like. What I wanted to do with my life and where I wanted to go. After all I was only 15. I was not glued to the TV coverage of the wall coming down, but I do remember when it happened, that in social studies they moved in a TV so that we could watch the live TV coverage.

A lot has happened in the 20 years since then for ALL of US.

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