Comments on: Where Were You When the Berlin Wall Fell?

By: Bittersweet

Bittersweet — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:53:05 +0000

Was she from Hawaii?

By: Bittersweet

Bittersweet — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:50:57 +0000

I was thinking Donald, myself. Stupid Treasury.

By: sigerson

sigerson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:24:28 +0000

In 1989, I was just starting my military service, studying Korean at the language institute in Monterey, California. Soon to ship out for South Korea and military intelligence. I recall pieces of the wall were for sale in the malls and I assumed that they were all fake.

Oh, and in November of 1989, I MARRIED A GIRL NAMED DAWN. True story.

By: sigerson

sigerson — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:19:20 +0000

keeps me warm at night

By: Hez

Hez — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:43:55 +0000

Dawn is my cousin's middle name. I don't think she's too worried about it sounding strippery, though. Her first name is Brandi.

By: Mindpowered

Mindpowered — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:44:38 +0000

I remember Prague in 1995 and masses of what looked like original soviet memorabilia on sale. However a passing dutchman informed me that it was actually manufactured in china for sale to western tourists. All the real soviet stuff was gone by 1991.

By: Mindpowered

Mindpowered — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:40:16 +0000

Again. I had a similar experience. My sat us down and said the biggest event in 20th century history has just happened. We didn't get it.

10 years later, I moved to East Germany and spent a year living among the dispossessed. It was right about that time Ostalgie was starting and we spent our time in a cafe decorated exclusively with DDR memorabilia. My then girlfriend at the time waxed somewhat nostalgic about the life before, as we retired to her huge stalinist apartment block in the NeuStadt

By: SarahHeartburn

SarahHeartburn — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:34:30 +0000

I had just come to live in Madrid that autumn. Remember how different life was before cell phones, email, 24/7 news hysteria? Even more so in Spain, where a lot of people still didn't have phones and there were only 2 TV channels. I was house-sittng for a couple of friends of mine who had gone to Portugal for the weekend (and since they didn't speak Portugese didn't even glance at papers or TV there). When they came back, they said, "Anything new?"
"Yeah, the Berlin Wall has come down and the city and Germany are united". Raucous laughter. "Yeah, ok, what REALLY happened?" It went on like that for about 5 minutes until I showed them the International Herald Tribune. Their faces….

By: jacksonwest

jacksonwest — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:48:08 +0000

My family was hosting a foreign exchange student from Duisburg named Kai, whom I need to email. We had been following the news of defections through neighboring states. It certainly seemed only a matter of time for days if not weeks.

In my vague recollection of the night the wall fell, we were sitting around the living room of our house on Beacon Hill in Seattle glued to the television. I'm fairly center Kai was on the phone for a good long time with his family speaking in excited German. I asked if he had relatives in the East, but I'm not sure what the answer was — though it was probably likely.

Kai's father was an accountant, and if I'm not mistaken his firm actually got the contract to audit East Germany's books. Kai's sister, Vera, who also stayed with us later, is currently living in a beautiful old farm house in what used to be East Germany.

By: mcbeachy

mcbeachy — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:46:11 +0000

I was working for Jackie Onassis at Doubleday. Someone sent her a piece of the wall.

By: BoHan

BoHan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:41:32 +0000

Wow Choire, that was my first year in LA too, working at a big law firm. I sure hope you weren't one of those Shakey's Pizza Boys, because then it would just get too creepy.

By: kneetoe

kneetoe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:41:45 +0000

There is an exact ratio of pieces of the wall to real wall as toothpicks from the cross to true cross.

By: Bittersweet

Bittersweet — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:28:54 +0000

"Never Gonna Give You Up"…?

By: CaptainFantastic

CaptainFantastic — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:27:45 +0000

Yeah, Judith sucks.

By: HiredGoons

HiredGoons — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:00:06 +0000

With her all projecting on to a black lab I was more worried she was a serial killer.

By: HeyThatsMyBike

HeyThatsMyBike — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:51:00 +0000

Undistinguised my ass! It is across the street from an Outback Steakhouse!

By: garge

garge — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:42:24 +0000

Be careful–you may touch off another Waco

By: fairest

fairest — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:38:03 +0000

I was a little bit older than I was when the Challenger exploded.

By: Lionel Mandrake

Lionel Mandrake — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:28:00 +0000

Yes, it would have been, say, "Bust A Move" or "Love Shack".

By: badthings

badthings — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:24:09 +0000

I wrote a college paper in 1991 predicting that there would be a war in Kosovo after the war in Bosnia. Not because I was smart, but because our textbook explained Yugoslavia in such a way that it seemed inevitable.

By: Lionel Mandrake

Lionel Mandrake — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:22:55 +0000

I feel sorry for you. You missed all the good parts.

By: HiredGoons

HiredGoons — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:15:26 +0000

Is anyone really FROM Hawaii? I mean besides Comrade Obama.

By: HiredGoons

HiredGoons — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:14:36 +0000

Vermont – bikini was out April through September, or looking at an Indian Summer, mid-October.

We also had a hot-tub, so she would unexpectedly jump over the fence and hop right in with us.

They moved.

By: carpetblogger

carpetblogger — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:06:30 +0000

actually, today, I am sort of all "fuck the berlin wall."

By: shorty

shorty — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:03:22 +0000

Thank you, that makes me feel both better and worse. Damn you Choire, and these walks down memory lane!