January 1982 - It Starts.

It's January 1982 ... Four days into this new year I will turn 7 years old. 

So in January 1982 I lived with my family in a rented townhouse in Clayton Park.  At this time my family consisted of me, & my brothers MJ and DeeDee. Occasionally the step brother. And of course my dad (the stepdad, hot-mess-alcoholic) and my Sainted Mother.
This part is important. In 1982 my Mother was still alive.  Like most people I measure time in BC/AD or BCE/CE.  But also BMD and AMD, Before Mom Died and After Mom Died.   I don't remember very much about BMD so holding this magazine, published while she was still a living breathing person not just a memory, hits me in some unexpected feels.
Excuse me.... I have something in my eye. I will be right back.
Okay... what else was happening in January 1982...

• The #1 song on the Billboard was Let's Get Physical by Olivia Newton John
• Ozzy Osbourne was getting into some big trouble with a live bat
• Ronald Reagan was the President of the United States
• Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada
• And National Geographic was talking about, in addition to other things, The Two Berlins.   

That's right young'uns once upon a time there was a wall 

(not like Trump's insane wall, well a little like that actually) 

and it divided the German City of Berlin. 

Okay humans.... Here is my first AH HA moment.  Ok it's not AH HA.... It's D'OH! How Did I not know that?!!!  I have always assumed that Berlin was somewhere in the middle and the wall just came down the middle and cut it in twain. But look!! It's WAY over in the east! It's FULLY in the light green and they just took the city and chopped it up... I don't get it?! I know Berlin was the capital but I don't understand. I mean even Trump's wall is at least purposed to be on a border! (Dear god please don't read that as endorsement for Trumps stupid wall!)

Okay I must read more!

Points of interest 

1. The author, Priit Vesilind  (who shares a birthday with me) fled Czechoslovakia as a small child in '44 and actually spent time in a camp for displaced persons in West Germany. This does not come up at all in the article, I just went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

2. As I was reading I had a hard time keeping West GERMANY straight from West BERLIN.  Re-call as I said above, the divided city is well within the boundaries of East Germany but people from West Germany can freely visit the walled city. They have access via three air corridors, four highways and four railways lines. It's so weird!

Post Read

Okay so Vesilind did a pretty good job of explaining the history of the division. This includes repeatedly reminding me (which I needed so I am grateful) that West Berlin was not actually a part of Federal Republic of Germany. It was a  protectorate of the Western allied forces of WW2, USA, UK and France. Happily however it does not get bogged down in the history, which as you know could fill many volumes, it is just enough to provide context.  I think he does a good job of remaining pretty neutral despite the fact that whole of the western world at this time seem to either hate or pity East Berlin. He gives the reader pros and cons about life on both sides of the wall.  I am pleased that this article does not come across as western, pro capitalist propaganda, which would have been very easy to do. 

Spoiler Alert

The wall did not last forever...  It came down in 1989.  At the beginning of the article Priit Vesilind asks the Mayor of East Berlin, Erhard Krack what would happen if the wall came down.  Mr Mayor's response was "What you are asking is a philosophical question. Let's get back to reality." It must have seemed at the time impossible to imagine but here we are today with a whole generation who never new a divided Berlin.   I am willing to bet that there is going to be a NG in 89/90 dedicated to the wall coming down so I am going to wait and talk about unification and reconciliation then but I wanted to let you know that sometimes even the most grandiose dreams can, in fact, become a reality. 

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The next large article is about .... okay well at this point I have no earthly idea what this is about.  It is either about the attack and destruction of a colonial settlement in Virginia by "Indians".  Yes... sadly in 1982 they were still saying "Indian" even in educated circles. 

Or its about the coffin construction in the 17th century, which is exactly as riveting as it sounds. I have now picked up and put down the article about 5 times. I push through to the end but ultimately don't feel like I have learned anything... except perhaps about 17th century coffins. Fun. 

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Speaking of Ozzy Osbourne....which I totally did waaay back when I started this post. The next article in Jan. 82 was about the amazing frog-eating bat of central/south America.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is AWESOME!! You should know in advance that, although I like frogs just fine, I adore bats and I am championing them in this endeavor.  

The bats, fringe-lipped bats or Trachops cirrhosus,  find the male frogs while they are out in the evening crooning to the lady frogs trying to get a little something something. They wait for the singing to start and then swing on in for an all you can eat frog leg buffet. 

The best part of the article are the REMARKABLE pictures. At it's heart NG is a magazine of photo-journalism so the photos have to REALLY carry the story. But remember we are talking 1982! These are not digital, we are talking SLR, film and patience. You don't have the luxury of taking 2000 pictures to get that one. It was most certainly a combo of my mother and NG that turned me on to photography.   The second best thing about this article is how much Merlin Tuttle clearly loves these bats. He speaks with such genuine fondness.  I confess when I looked him up I went down a bit of a rabbit (bat) hole and lost about half an hour watching bat videos on YouTube. 

I am happy to report that despite human encroachment on their habitat the frog eating bat population remains stable. YAY BATS!!

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One final note. Around midweek I was finding the house a bit distracting so I went to Starbucks to read and write.  My copy of NG was on the table next to me visible to all.  A middle age man at the next table said "excuse me" to get my attention. He asked me about the magazine and I explained what I am going, and why, as best I could.  This turned into a half hour conversation with Bill about NG (his collection dates back to the early 60's!!) our childhood consciousness, his is Vietnam as he was born in the 50's. Blogging, apps, the wonder of technology today and more.  He is a middle aged white man and was worried that his intrusion would come off as creepy. This makes me sad and I assured him I was glad he spoke to me, it wasn't creepy at all.  This is the kind of human interaction  that I think makes us human.  Thank you Bill for taking the time to talk to me!!