An important thing to ask your older relatives is what they remember about historic events in their life time. In that spirit, I’m going to record here one of my memories:
On June 4, 1989, my mother and I were in London, wrapping up our genealogy tour of Great Britain. We woke up and turned on the television (will our great grandchildren ask what that was?) and saw a man standing in front of a tank while the BBC announcer explained the uprising going on in Tianamen Square. We watched in horror and fascination as the drama unfolded.
This was a moment in history we witnessed after two weeks of exploring our family history back to the 1600s. That we were thousands of miles from home watching events even farther away made us feel citizens of the world, and at the same time, homesick.
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