Berlin Wall

[airboy]

Berlin Wall has been destroyed longer than it was in place this month. 

Celebrating the demise of Communism is a good thing.  Like counting your blessings.

Current Russian autocrats kill, jail, starve, and send to mental institutions far fewer people than the commies did.

[mirth]

Brant got to it first :P

http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=21555.0

[bayonetbrant]

Brant got to it first :P

http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=21555.0

in fairness, my subject line was a little vague.


Airboy is right, we should be celebrating the end of communism

[Sir Slash]

As a youngster I never thought I would live long enough to see the end of the "Cold War". The Cuban Missile Crisis happened when I was about 6 and scared the crap out of me. When Ronnie Reagan began his anti-communist campaigning people thought there would be a Nuke War in about a year but instead they ended-up in Reagan's 'Ash Can of History'. Without nuclear destruction. Reason to celebrate indeed. Vodkas all around!

[mirth]

we should be celebrating the end of communism

In Eastern Europe. It's still around elsewhere ;)

[Sir Slash]

Too true!  :hide:

[Airborne Rifles]

I grew up in West Germany as a missionary kid. My parents traveled secretly behind the Iron Curtain for more than a decade to share the gospel with the people of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and the USSR. Being US citizens, the risk to them was very small. But the people they ministered to and worshiped with needed to make long treks into the mountains or meet in darkened homes in the early hours of the morning to avoid detection, arrest, and imprisonment by the secret police, simply for practicing their faith. State atheism is a jealous god.   

When the wall came down, my dad drove up to Berlin with a sledge hammer and brought back a big chunk of it. I still have a small piece.

[mirth]

I grew up in West Germany as a missionary kid. My parents traveled secretly behind the Iron Curtain for more than a decade to share the gospel with the people of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and the USSR. Being US citizens, the risk to them was very small. But the people they ministered to and worshiped with needed to make long treks into the mountains or meet in darkened homes in the early hours of the morning to avoid detection, arrest, and imprisonment by the secret police, simply for practicing their faith. State atheism is a jealous god.   

When the wall came down, my dad drove up to Berlin with a sledge hammer and brought back a big chunk of it. I still have a small piece.

Awesome  O0

[BanzaiCat]

I remember being scared to death of nuclear war. Of course it didn't help that I devoured books like War Day and watched movies about it (Testament is particularly depressing as hell).

Most of my peers feared it, too. In JROTC they made us do a LOT of presentations. The ones I did on the North African campaign and Barbarossa bored the crap out of them (LOL) so I did one on nuclear war and holy hell were they engaged in it, asking tons of questions. It helped that I had found a copy of a supposed targeting map of San Antonio by the Commies. At the time good ol' SA had five military bases that were all highly important in various ways, so yeah, they would have wiped that city off the earth had that come (thank goodness it did not).

[airboy]

I grew up in West Germany as a missionary kid. My parents traveled secretly behind the Iron Curtain for more than a decade to share the gospel with the people of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and the USSR. Being US citizens, the risk to them was very small. But the people they ministered to and worshiped with needed to make long treks into the mountains or meet in darkened homes in the early hours of the morning to avoid detection, arrest, and imprisonment by the secret police, simply for practicing their faith. State atheism is a jealous god.   

When the wall came down, my dad drove up to Berlin with a sledge hammer and brought back a big chunk of it. I still have a small piece.

Thanks for sharing!

[Gusington]

Great family story, AR.

I am old enough to remember nuclear drills in school and fallout shelters...both of which appear to be making a comeback, but named differently :/

[BanzaiCat]

Gus's fallout shelter is named 'Uncle Paul.' ;D

[Gusington]

My one uncle, who is actually an inch or so shorter than me, is built like a brick shithouse and weighs about 220. He spends about 2 hours in the gym almost every day and is a certified genius. Over the course of his working life he was an 'urban planner' and 'built computers for the government' starting with punchcard tech in the early 1970s. The guy can take an entire car apart and put it back together again, he taught himself to play and build guitars, and he brews his own beer. If anyone can stop a new cold war it's my uncle :)

[bayonetbrant]

I grew up in West Germany as a missionary kid. My parents traveled secretly behind the Iron Curtain for more than a decade to share the gospel with the people of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania, and the USSR. Being US citizens, the risk to them was very small. But the people they ministered to and worshiped with needed to make long treks into the mountains or meet in darkened homes in the early hours of the morning to avoid detection, arrest, and imprisonment by the secret police, simply for practicing their faith. State atheism is a jealous god.   

When the wall came down, my dad drove up to Berlin with a sledge hammer and brought back a big chunk of it. I still have a small piece.

That's pretty awesome.

My dad has a chunk of it at his house.

I don't have a piece of it myself, but I pissed on it at least twice in the 80s.

[bayonetbrant]

And while my dad never would confirm it to me, I always figured if the balloon had gone up in the 80s, I wasn't likely to evacuate with my mom & brother.  I was a pretty independent teenager, but more importantly, spoke fluent German and could pass as a native to a non-native, I was pretty damned good at AFVID and unit symbology, knew my way around the country and a mapbook, and was just generally too useful to be sent home.