I am one of those people who has trouble remembering dates, and, more specifically, what I was doing on a certain date.
If I were ever to be interrogated by law enforcement, I would be in deep doodoo.
Take last Saturday, for instance. That date I remember. Can't tell you what I was doing on that date but I know why the date is significant to me. It was Dec. 7, and its significance is Dec. 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
That date led to a lot of introspection and the making of a list of four dates important to my generation. I posted that list on Facebook, and then followed up with my reasons why.
Here on Blogspot, I will post each of the four dates and my reasons.
Here's the first:
Response One:
First, I should establish the parameters of “my generation” and, since it’s mine, I choose those of us born in the 1940s who are included in The Silent Generation and whose parents were in The Greatest Generation, plus the Early Baby Boomers.
Those born after—1950s and 1960s and so on, will have names for their generations and might have dates that are significant to them that may differ from mine.
Dec. 7, 1941—The Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
Most of Europe, eastern Asia, and North Africa was consumed by war. FDR was fighting to keep the US out of the war.
The attack, a horrendous intelligence failure, destroyed much of the US naval fleet and planes based in Hawaii, and propelled the US into declaring war against Japan and, subsequently, into the European fray.
This conflict became known as World War II, as it involved most major countries as well as smaller, remote countries such as Greenland and Iceland, a truly world-wide effect.
While we might not remember the day these events occurred at the time, we eventually grew old enough to understand the importance of the date. Many of us had relatives who went off to war.
I was two weeks old on Dec. 7, 1941.