"As the years fly past"

format_quote Originally Posted by Danah

Very interesting thread. Reminded me of my father when he start telling us about their old life, he is 5 or 6 years younger than you..May Allah grant you both a healthy long life.
The first year of your life really touched me, I think this was something very common in such era for many people as the life back then was not easy with all wars around.
I am thinking now...what we call PC, Cell phones, Gadgets, Satellite, Digital Cameras will sound very naive to those who will live 70 years later, I am wondering now how we will be telling our stories to next generations. Allah knows what kind of inventions those generations will have.



SubhanAllah, everyone is treated according to his intentions.


You should put all those posts of yours in one pdf file and print a book, or even make it as an E-book.

Perhaps one day. Inshallah

Salam alaykum

Thanks again. When I read your story I learnt about history about your country a lot. And just about history of people.

Today is one of those drab, dreary days that is very conducive for thoughts of memories past. Just been sitting and thinking over how fortunate I have been and the many blessings Allaah(swt) has given me, knowing I am not nor ever will be worthy of any of them.

For some reason I am lost in thought about my life during the 1950's In 1952 we moved to Tariffville, Connecticut. Which I claimed immediately as my home town. Beautiful little town then. Built around a bend in the Farmington river near some white water rapids and small waterfalls. The Southern end of the Metacomet trail and in the middle of the Tunxis forest. We lived in an ancient apartment house that had 4 three story apartments It was originally an Inn built in the mid 1600s. One of the few structures that survived the "King Phillip Wars" of 1675-1676 during which at least half of the towns in the colonies were burned to the ground. King Phillip's actual name was Metacomet. Metacomet trail is the route by which he and his warriors came into the Tariffville/Simsbury area which at the time was called Simsbury Town. Virtually 100% of the town was burned down out of over 500 houses only 2 or 3 were left standing. In terms of percentages the King Phillip wars produced the largest casualties of any war Americans have been in, nearly 80% of all white Americans were killed and over 90% of the homes were destroyed. Even as a kid signs of the old battle were still visible. I found many arrowheads and musket balls out in the plowed fields and the rafters of our old house still had arrow heads embedded in them. It was a fantastic house for a young boy. It also was only three miles, walking distance of Simsbury Airport were I walked to nearly every weekend and began my first love of flying.

1952 late summer began with a bang. My first summer in Tariffville ended. The weekend before the start of the school year 2 friends and myself sneaked out of Sunday school to go "Mountain Climbing" a very high cliff begins at the Edge of the Farmington river and extends upwards about 500 feet over looking Tariffville. That was our challenge. I really do not know how high I was when I slipped and fell. I still remember the fall and rolling and tumbling, bouncing off the face of the cliff. And landing face down at the edge of the river. I was probably unconcious for a few minutes as I was just becoming aware of being on the ground when my friends reached me. My clothes were pretty much shredded, I was covered with bruises and scratches but only had 2 noticeably serious injuries a very bad gash on the side of my head and my left foot was oddly turned. Being typical kids of the time our concern was how were we going to cover up we had sneaked out of Sunday School. I had no immediate problem as my Mother was at work and would not be home until that evening. My worry was the clothes as they were the first new shirt and pants I had ever had and I was supposed to wear them to the first day of school next week. One of the kids said he had gotten several shirts and would bring me one the other kid said he had a pair of pants. I managed to keep my twisted leg hidden by wearing high shoes that we used to call Hi-Cuts, sort of like lace up boots. Well we managed to keep it hidden for several years and it was not known until I finally had some X-rays and it was found I had broken my leg and it had never been set and had completely snapped off a rib that never grew back together. I was in quite a bit of pain for most of 1952 and 1953. Yet, that turned out to be a blessing as a result I developed a very high tolerance for pain, which eventually served me well in my later years.

The 1950s were also the decade when I met some people who greatly influenced my life. Both were close friends of my sixth grade teacher and were frequent visitors at his house and in our town. Although I did not know they were anybody famous. I just knew Albert Einstein and Robert Frost as nice old men who liked sitting on the banks of the river and talking with kids.

The 1950s were also a time of fierce racism, especially in the South. segregation was the law in many states. None of us in Tarriffville had ever seen a black person and sadly we did believe many of the stereotypical views we were taught. Or saw in the movies. When I entered the AF and met my first Black Person, I was surprised to discover he spoke English. There were some sad memories and beliefs I wish I had never encountered. I had faced prejudice because of my oriental background, but it was nothing like what I saw directed against Black people.

It was an interesting era. Who from that time could ever forget the nuclear fall out shelters and the nuclear attack drills we practiced at school. Looking back, did anybody actually believe squatting under our desks or along the wall would save us when the entire country would be vaporized in the event of a full attack. And why did I always have to squat behind Tony W. on the days he had beans for lunch.

It was the time of treason, mistrust and constant living under the threat of Nuclear Annihilation. Any kid knew that a nuclear war would only last 10 minutes and life on earth as we knew it would no longer exist. I believe it was Eisenhower who said, "I do not know what weapons will be used in WW3 but WW4 will have to be fought with sticks and stones" It was a time of fear for American and Russian kids. We grew up expecting to wake up to mushroom clouds.

It was also a time of great opportunity for common physical workers. Overseas high paying jobs were available throughout Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq as they were paying oil field roughnecks over $10,000 a month at a time when the average salary in the US was $250 a month. Many people worked for 3 years came back and retired on those earning. a new car could be bought for $1000 a house was $25,000. It also was the begining of the downfall for American Business. American businesses could not match the pay the foreign companies were paying. The result was the printing of worthless inflated money. A 1950s dime (10 cents) bought about the same amount of goods it takes 5 of our now dollars to buy. That $10,000 back then was very near the same as $50,000 to $75,000 today in terms of buying power.

But looking back there were a few things we could not have, they were not available during the first half of the decade, most vaccines, Computers, color TV. wireless phones, cell phone, digital cameras, MP3 players, jet air travel, fast food restaurants

(Imagine life without KFC, MacDonalds, Pizza Hut, Subway, unleaded gasoline. credit cards, video games, or even 24 hour TV, if you even lived in an area that had TV, who else here can remember the TV test patterns at night when the TV stations signed off for the night?)

format_quote Originally Posted by zakirs

Yeah .. more more more *bangs cup on the table*

LOL..at that..

Nice thread mashaAllah..I didnt know you where 70 years old..my grandfather is like 76..He always tells us how he grew up with difficulty.

The 1970's

This was probably the fastest paced decade of my life and maybe for the world as a whole. It seem like I woke up the Morning of January 1, 1970 and when I went to bed that night it was Dec. 31, 1979. A very fast decade but one of many activities and achievements both personal and for the world.

For myself it was a fast changing time of career shifts, very high income accompanied by very high expenses. I do not recall a minute during that decade I did not have 2 full time jobs and was a full time university student with a few side line part time jobs to cover the cost of my fast growing family. a time of changes in religious beliefs, constant life shifting from rural to urban to metropolitan living. It was a very fast blur. A time of very high personal wealth and very high personal expenses. I am certain I earned and spent more in that one decade then in the other 6 decades of my life combined.

It was also a time of fast activity for the world. Technological advancements were occurring faster than they could be reported. Country borders were changing so fast that before a current world map could be printed, it had changed. Former allies were becoming enemies, former enemies were becoming allies. World religions were in a turmoil. Atheism became popular and not something to be kept private and hidden. Sexual attitudes changed from minute to minute. the beginning of the thought that any thing done among consenting adults should be allowed. But it was also a time of improvement for human rights. But, an accompanying phenomena was the advent of religious realignment, reformation and propagation. In America it was rapidly becoming unpopular for a person to be labeled Christian. This in turn seemed to have a rebound effect in the form of TV Evangelism, massive proselytism and cultism.

In the USA Mainstream Christianity was becoming Passee, the growths were in non-Christian anti establishment religious teachings. It was the fad to become:

Atheist

Agnostic

NOI (in that era only people of African heritage could join the NOI)

Jehovah Witness

Zen Buddhist

Bahai

Mormon

Scientologist (Which I really believe L. Ron Hubbard started as a joke, and did not think anybody would take him serious)

Transcendental Meditation

Moonies

Jim Jones

And countless cults and unknown obscure beliefs.


very strange and fast paced decade.

cool thread uncle woodrow i just love history stories, i think thats why i love being around elderly people i love when they start talking about when they were young and stuff. well i wont call you old i will just call you mature i use to work in a holiday centre where old people would come and stay for like a week.. we had to take care of them. there was an old woman i met, she was german she actually remembers having to hide from the nazi's. she was young girl at the time hitler was in control

Luckily my friend is also german who worked with me since the old lady did not know much english my friend would translate her stories to me. her story was so sad

Originally Posted by Woodrow
Yes from the mid 60s till the mid 70s I was an Evangelical. Have some very funny stories about that era. At the time I did not think they were were funny but now I think they were hilarious. One was when I was in Agadir, Morocco. a rival preacher, from another denomination, was having a tent revival and several hundred if not a 1000 Moroccans attended his revival every night. He did not speak or understand Arabic, but had an interpreter. Each night the Moroccans showed very high levels of enthusiaism. On the next to last night he Asked the crowd to bring their Qurans with them on his last night. They came back the next night. He had them set their "Qurans" in a pile and without warning set them on fire. The people almost started a riot, but he jumped up and handed out Arabic Language Bibles to the crowd, then he discovered the books he burned were not Qurans but were Arabic language bibles and the people that had been coming to his revivals were not Muslim, but were Pentecostal Christians.

LOL thats pretty funny..that guy must have felt really stupid..

The 1980s,

Before I describe the changes I saw take place I should point out this was a very painful decade for me and even now my memories of it are blurred and over shadowed by the grief I felt. I will simply sum my personal tragedies in a few short sentences. The Decade began with my youngest daughter being kidnapped and ended with the loss of my wife. In between I managed to loose every bit of personal property I had and for a while all income and my entire savings.

The good part was my daughter was eventually rescued.



Now for what I can remember in terms of world events.

The sudden discovery of AIDS and it's rapid spread throughout the world. It was quite a scare as nobody knew for certain were it came from or how it spread. It spread quite rapidly and for a long time it was not understood how it was spread.

The introduction and rapid spread of crack cocaine throughout large USA cities. The conspiracy stories and the fears related to it. One conspiracy that seemed to carry a lot of credibility is that crack was invented by somebody in the KKK and the intent was to kill off the Black population in the US, but it got out of control and became popular among white American youths. Looking back at the havoc it caused I can understand why that story seemed so believable.

The war on Drugs, not much different than today's war on terror except the targeted groups were the impoverished inner cities in the USA and the "Drug Lords" of Central and South America, predominately Colombia and Bolivia. This was fillowed by the Washington/Iran contra scandal. "The Iran–Contra affair (Persian: ماجرای مک*فارلین, Spanish: caso Irán-contras) was a political scandal in the United States which came to light in November 1986, during the Reagan administration, in which senior U.S. figures, including President Ronald Reagan, agreed to facilitate the sale of arms to Iran, the subject of an arms embargo. At least some U.S. officials also hoped that the arms sales would secure the release of hostages and allow U.S. intelligence agencies to fund Nicaraguan contras.

The affair began as an operation to improve U.S.-Iranian relations. It was planned that Israel would ship weapons to a relatively moderate, politically influential group of Iranians, and then that the U.S. would then resupply Israel and receive the Israeli payment. The Iranian recipients promised to do everything in their power to achieve the release of six U.S. hostages, who were being held by the Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah, who were unknowingly connected to the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. The plan eventually deteriorated into an arms-for-hostages scheme, in which members of the executive branch sold weapons to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages. Large modifications to the plan were devised by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North of the National Security Council in late 1985, in which a portion of the proceeds from the weapon sales was diverted to fund anti-Sandinista and anti-communist rebels, or Contras, in Nicaragua." SOURCE

This also seems to be the decade during which relationships between the USA and Islamic nations began to fall apart. Prior to this decade, there had been very friendly relations between the USA and Muslims worldwide.

The big technical advance I remember was the development of cable TV. Prior TV viewing was limited to watching channels very near to where you lived and roof tops were cluttered with various types of antennas, Reception was also interrupted by air planes, birds and automobiles. Very poor quality pictures, but free, Cable brought better reception and a very large number of channels, and a monthly TV bill.

I can't remember what i ate yesterday nice post.

My grand dad lived for 103 (1888-1991) years he served in the othman empire as the musician who leads the platoon he played this i don't know Whats called but its made from goat stomac or So ! The problem is i don't remember stories.

But On year 2000 my dad took us to syria to show us where he was borned and where his mom dad lived . They lived in a fortress or citadel in syria, a real historic fortress in (homs) .

He told me that it was a place to live in, many families lived in fortresses back then . There is a small well and a water canal and swimming pool lol. you can still see the metal bowles and the fire poles it's a huge beautiful fortress.

I walked around checking everything and i was trying to visualize how they lived lol . i really felt comfortable somehow i don't know Why its So peacefull. It was a nice trip .