2 posts tagged “youth”

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Twenty years ago tonight....

I was 18 years old and walking home to my apartment on Franklin Avenue in Boise from work as a waiter at Plush Pippin on State Street. As I zipped along the street, Eric, who was Wendy Belcher's boyfriend (my first boyfriend Jerry and I lived with her), was playing football in the field at Boise High and he saw me passing at shouted out: "The Wall fell down, maaaaaan! Those Germans are freeeeee!"


I was like: "Huh?"

So he shouted: "The Berlin Wall! It's been knocked down! It's over, maaaaaaan!"

And that's all I remember. I vaguely recall a conversation later that evening with someone much older than me who talked about how this was an historical moment and that I would remember this night. Who was that? Russ? Josh?

I did know a lot about Germany since I started studying German when I was 12 years old. But I was much more interested in German language and literature and not so much about politics. Then (I was only 18!). So I didn't quite know what an important process had started that night.

We had all these friends who lived in (what we called) "the Franklin house," a huge old mansion a few doors down from our apartment. I do remember being up in Heather and her sister's attic apartment, holding their kitten, and listening to them talk about Germany and all the changes these developments would lead to. Haha, my most vivid impression of that old house, though, is the "water wars" that were constantly going on (the water pressure was terrible and everyone had to fight to be in the shower first or there would be no pressure anywhere in the apartment) and how STDs made their rounds throughout the entire building (we called Mindy "Clamindy" and Lea "Gonnolea" haha). All these straight kids screwing each other non-stop. In our apartment, we just had our crazy roommate, Wendy (who kept a mannequin, Mona, dressed up in the living room year round: at Christmas, she'd be decked out in slutty Christmas clothes, in summer, slutty summer clothes, etc etc) and her boyfriend Eric. They'd get drunk and beat the shit out of each other (not him beating her, them beating each other). Oy. How long did Jerry and I live there? Six months? 

Woops, got sidetracked wallowing in the past. The Berlin Wall. In the long run, I guess this hasn't really affected me personally very much. Or who knows, maybe the hand of history is so far reaching that its effects are impossible to truly understand on an individual level.

All I can think about now, these 20 years later, is my own life and how far I've come since that November night so long ago. It seems like I've lived 10 different lives since then, many countries, a few relationships, many friendships. 

Here is the Franklin house today. It looks similar but much more upscale. When I lived there, it was full of poor young students and stoners. It was practically falling apart. Our place (just a few doors down on the other side of the street) has been torn down and replaced by an office building. Too bad, too. It was such a beautiful place: it had this sun room in the back overlooking the garden that was one of the most beautiful rooms I've ever lived in. It was my favorite place to sit with a book. 

Ah, well. Time marches on. As the Chinese say, "You can't welcome the new until you get rid of the old."

Franklin house, Boise, Idaho

2 comments Tags: history, germany, youth, boise, berlin

only a semi-depressing thought...

i remember when i was young--in my early 20s--the world seemed stocked full of people who were older than me; i felt as if the "action," so to speak, was all done by "older" people. and everyone was older: waitresses, teachers, hairdressers, newscasters, shop assistants. i could start any new job and feel sure that my boss would be some old man or woman. i remember watching woody allen movies and feeling that the characters were ancient, that the things they were experiencing (love affairs, promotions, divorces, etc) were all things that would happen some day in my distant future when i was old.

tonight, watching woody allen's melinda and melinda (a delightful, if flawed, movie), it struck me that these people are MY AGE! i mean, they are slightly older than me, but i  have more in common with them than i would with a group of 21 year olds! when did this happen? i'm only 36, it's true, but when did everyone "grow up"?

if the tv happens to be on a soap opera during the day, i wonder to myself: when did the actors on these things get so YOUNG? when i walk around mcgill, i am often struck with the thought: wow, the students look like teenagers! recently we were out, a group of us, and i was referring to a guy across the room, say around 25 or 26, and i actually found myself referring to him as "that kid over there!"

age just washes over you, doesn't it?

when does "middle age" officially begin? 

6 comments Tags: youth, growing up, middle age
mcco12

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