What major historical events do you remember?
Childhood History in the Making
The first world event I remember hearing about on the radio or seeing on television was the budget. History making? Not really? Of national importance possibly. A Labour government I imagine though perhaps not. Hear me out.
The radio, and small portable black and white TV that we might have had at our holiday cottage in Beadnell, kept talking, with trepidation and excitement the forthcoming programme on budgies. I was so thrilled I went around telling everyone, abd rhat I didn’t want to miss the programme on budgies. Imagine my disappointment to find myself stuck in-front of a talking head, the dullest of newscasts
There was nothing historic as a young child, though once, at least sometimes twice, over winter, there would be a heavy and lasting snowfall, and we would take homemade sledges made by my maternal grandfather and sledge on Gosforth Park—snow in England, even in northern England, is now a rarity.
Moon Landings and Mark Spitz
I always thought I watched the first moon landings in the junior common room at Mowden Hall Prep School (a boarding school). Our Maths Teacher, Mr Savage, took us out of class to watch it on a black and white TV. However, Mr Savage didn’t join the school until 1970 or 1971, and I sure went to the school before September 1969 at the earliest.
As a swimmer I was inspired by Mark Spitz.
Three Day Week, Power Cuts and Colour TV
I remember them so vividly at boarding school that I can smell the paraffin lamps just thinking about it – not battery powered but ‘hurricane lamps’ in the dining room, corridors and common rooms. Held by the aptly named Mr Ghost (he was the opposite of scary). It was like reliving the Halloween parties we had each year, organised by Mr Savage (he was kind)
I was aware of The Troubles in Northern Ireland
The builders’ merchants companies my father ran had a showroom in Belfast that was blown up or set on fire. That’s a shocking story to be told as a child, as it felt like a touch of war, the kind of thing I heard about from my maternal grandfather.
The Cold War was above my head
I still thought it was the Cold War because it concerned Siberia or the Arctic. I imagined my Action Man kitted in his snow combat gear and skis. There was a lot of interest in people having a bunker at home, probably with an illustration in the Sunday Times. My grandfather had built an Anderson Shelter in his rockery for my mum and grandmother during the Second World War.
Teenage Years (1970s–early 80s)
I got into the idea EC (1973) abd later the referendum (1975)?
I was 13 and remember the leaflets and kept them. Had they been glued into my scrapbook, I’d still have them, but I kept the loose, and at some point, I’m thinking perhaps 1979, I threw them out. They were like tickets to a venue which we’d never leave.
I was thrilled at the prospect of becoming part of Europe, not knowing what this offered, other than my calling myself European first and British second for the next decade, with a special love for France and all things French.
I was a posh punk (if such a thing is probable or possible)
I became a punk if a boarding school boy could do that. I put a safety pin and a paper clip in one ear. My godmother (and friends) knitted the most incredible punk jumper for my 15th or 16th birthday. I wish I still had it! Where did it go! It was made up of knitting searches, every possible style, and was asymmetrical, with one huge sleeve that could drop to the floor. I have a designer equivalent today, from my son when he was on placement with a Japanese Designer in Paris.
Margaret Thatcher from 1979
Pleased at the historic importance of having a female Prime Minister, we have had a queen and a queen. I never got the ‘women are inferior thing, probably as I had parents who were both university educated. I was apolitical. I could be interested in history, but not politics or current affairs. We weren’t a family to have heavy discussions around the dining table – my father was rarely around, and then our parents separated and divorced. What would we have discussed if my father or mother had led the conversation? Later, with his second wife, my father campaigned for the Liberals, and I recall his being dismissive of a John Knott MP whom he had met a few times. My mother knew the Morpeth MP William Elliot.
The Falklands War (1982)
I’m ashamed that a fiend at Oxford thought it a bright commercial idea to sell T-shirts emblazoned with a Hawker-Harrier with the words ‘made in England, tested in the Falklands’ or others. I followed it closely in the news and was shocked to see British forces deployed in war and massive navy vessels waved off.
Adulthood & Emerging Worldview (1980s–2000s)
Live Aid (1985), the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), or Diana’s death (1997)?
I was in London and went to Live Aid at Wembley. In a naive way, something is thought of as a young teen. Music could be a force of good and bring people together to solve world problems. I was living in France when the wall came down and remember busses of Polish tourists appearing in Central Paris looking like they’d been transported in a Time Machine. I don’t think any of them had money to afford anything. I had wanted to buy rhem a coffee or an ice cream.
The Gulf War (1991) and 9/11 (2001)
“That’s nothing compared to Paschendale,” my maternal grandfather Jack Wilson said as we watched his black and white TV showing local news interviewing a private soldier in the Durham Light Infantry talking about his kit, rations, and experience of desert warfare. I turned this into a short screenplay. I interviewed my grandfather at length and transcribed nearly 3 hours of audio tape (now with the Imperial War Museum)
I may have become a political beast around then. I am embarrassed to admit that I canvassed for the Conservatives in the late 1980s. Later, when I became interested in politics in my fifties, I went from Liberal Democrat to Green and have been an elected councillor for the last six years.
Protests
I’ve always felt an abhorrence for striking as a means to an end. Naively, I think it’s like a child having a strop. Why not resolve the problem with dialogue? I went to London after Brexit to protest twice in those massive events rhat travelled from Hyde Park to Parliament Square.
Personal Reflections and connections
9/11. I watched breakfast TV at home as it unfolded and hit the ‘record button’ on the video player. I have two three-hour tapes showing how the horror unfolded. It felt unreal, like a Hollywood disaster movie, like The Towering Inferno.
Brexit. What an utter shitfest.
There should never have been a Referendum. We elect a government to take the difficult decisions for us.
Vietnam – but not my, or ‘our’ war.
My understanding of “history” evolved.
My father’s home for 17 years was a 12th-century castle steeped in centuries of English history, self-evident in its 12th, 15th and 17th-century structures. I studied history at university and worked for an educational charity commemorating the First World War for a decade. I love to immerse myself in history with a notable interest in things like 1066, the Tudors, the English Civil War, the First World War, Slavery and colonialism.
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