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Isn't it fascinating when people older than you recount their first hand experiences with important historical events? Here's a few that i've been told:
When my mother was growing up in Yorkshire, there was a period of a few years in the 70s where she and the other women in the area were not allowed out without a male chaperone at night. There was a serial killer on the loose killing women known as the "Yorkshire ripper".
A Palestinian friend who grew up in Kuwait explained how he always felt like a second class citizen until one morning in 1990. He woke up to the noise of soldiers marching. He looked out of the window and saw Iraqi flags everywhere. Saddam Hussain had invaded.
He went on to the street and the soldiers would hug him and other Palestinian Kuwaitis, promising them that they would liberate Palestine. It was surreal because they had never been treated with such warmth by Kuwaitis who at that time were afraid and stayed inside their homes.
A Saudi friend from Jubail told me he went for a walk one morning in 1991. He had his head down as he strolled through the sandy streets. He looked up to see a group white males & females pointing guns at him with tanks behind them.
He had never seen white people before, nor women behind the wheel of a car, let alone holding a gun and dressed in army uniform. They were American soldiers on their way to Khafji. Saddam Hussain had entered Saudi and the Americans were responding to the Saudi call for help.
When I was in grade 6, a Holocaust surviving couple visited my school to share their story. I told them how my Grandfather fought in WW2, was captured by the Nazis, and was a prisoner on a ship that Hitler was on (maybe i'll share this story on my timeline at some point).
I wonder what I will recount one day that someone younger than me will find fascinating. My post 9/11 experiences? The London underground bombings in 05? COVID-19? 10 year old me crying tears of joy after Man U won the treble via Ole's injury time winner against Munich in 99?
