June 6th, 1944. D-Day. My father (who was, thankfully, stationed in England throughout WW II) told of passing an American barracks on D-Day and having American soldiers hail him so he could listen to an account of it on their radio.
Nor was that the only historic event, or history-related event, our family experienced. My mother often spoke of being taken to London to see the German airship, the Graf Zeppelin, when she was eleven or twelve. (In Hyde park, she said, so probably the July 1932 good will tour.) At the age of fourteen, I got to see Canada’s Centennial Train, which made a stop in Kelowna, B.C. early in 1967 (the year after we arrived there from England), and on July 17th, 1995, my son and I were in Disneyland for its fortieth anniversary.
While observing history, and commemorations of history, as noted above, our family was also making history, albeit just in the sense of acquiring memories to share with future family members.
Get your kids to ponder what current happenings they might be likely to remember with sufficient interest to want to pass them on to their children.
