My brother informed me earlier that today is the 40th anniversary of our family moving from France to the United States.
Well, most of the family, anyway.
It was my mom and brother and I who made the move, while my father stayed behind in France to continue working for another six months or so.
As for the move itself, my own memories are hazy. I remember the color orange, from the street lights and the train that we took to Brussels, where we flew out of. I remember being driven to Liberty, New York, where my grandparents on my mother's side lived. They had a few toy cars to play with, and that was when I thought that this move might not be so bad.
The United States was a very different country back then. Jimmy Carter was still in the White House, and it was still far from certain that Ronald Reagan would ever be president. And even though the United States still enjoyed the highest standard of living in the world still, although it was already slipping a bit, which it would continue to do. The Cold War was still on, the Soviets were in Afghanistan, the Khmer Rouge were in Cambodia, and there was a civil war raging in Rhodesia, which would soon become Zimbabwe. Video games had not yet become a thing, and nobody had ever heard or yet seriously imagined the internet or cell phones. In fact, the house in Liberty still had a rotary phone, and only one large, black and white television, big and bulky, which was how they were back then.
Disco was dying, and all four Beatles were still alive. Nobody could imagine that Seattle would become the temporary center of the music world, and nobody could imagine other musicians who would make it big, such as Michael Jackson (although he was already known for being a part of the Jackson Five), Madonna, Lady Gaga, or Taylor Swift. Boy bands had not yet become a thing.
I was about to turn five, and my brother about to turn eight. September 11th was still just shy of 22 years away, and Donald Trump was not yet a household name, much less in the White House.
Ah, the good old days!
Yeah, it's staggering to realize it's been that long, and the degree to which things have changed since then. In the nitpicking department, Michael Jackson had actually released his "Off The Wall" album roughly a month before the move. He had released a number of solo albums prior to that, but "Off The Wall" was his major commercial breakthrough as a solo artist. Anyway, according to timeanddate.com it's now been 14,610 days since that move. Ça ne nous rajeunit pas...
ReplyDeleteDid not realize all of that about Michael Jackson. Also, had not done the math to realize that it was 14, 610 days (or now, 14,614, to be specific). I only remember clips of memories from that period, or from our departure from France to the United States, particularly. I remember the wheelchair guy falling down the escalators in Brussels. I remember the color orange, and getting to Liberty in what at least felt like the middle of the night. Those toy cars, which felt a bit like a kind of welcome. And that's about it, truth be told.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how memory works. I don't have any recollection of the wheelchair incident. You'd think I would, but I don't. On the other hand I certainly remember the train, the same orange street lights lining the autoroute, and the fact that it was dark by the time we got to the house. As for toys, I don't remember cars so much as Spider-Man. Unless of course I'm confusing that aspect of the day with another occasion, which is entirely possible. Anyway, remember when, as kids, something that had taken place five years earlier was "a long time ago"?
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