1980

 I was only 8 in 1980 and in the second grade, Mrs. Rouse. I remember there was a new teacher taking over the third grade class and his name was Mr. Skelton, but to us he was skeleton. 

Another change that year was taking place in the White House. At age 8 I never paid attention to politics. At that age I couldn't tell you who the president was, but the atmosphere surrounding the election of Ronald Reagan really left an impression on this 8-year old, 2nd grade student whose only interest was the burgeoning space shuttle program. 

It was only in later years that I learned why Reagan's election was so celebrated. The country was turning the corner from war and cold war. Jimmy Carter was a highly criticized president unable to deal with Iranian hostage takers. 

40 years later and the parallels are astonishing. A US president unable to deal with a pandemic and highly criticized for his foreign policy being voted out after 1 term. Hey, Biden already has the dementia part down pat. I shouldn't make fun of dementia, because this is really the core of Trump's failure, he didn't know how to be a congenial president. We are, hopefully, turning that corner and away from all the vitriol 

Unlike 1980, I pay attention to what is happening in the world today. We have a lot of healing to do in this country. Healing that hasn't taken place since 9/11. This country has been through a lot of hardships. 

In 1980, Reagan seemed to handle hardships with ease. His relations with the Soviet Union helped end the oppression of communist rule in those Soviet states and the end of The Cold War.  He easily handled a major recession in 1987 by doing,,, nothing. Laissez-faire economics was the way he handled the economy. His opponents called it "Reaganomics" and it was successful. 

My point, in this memoir, is to say when you live long enough you can see that history doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but it can certainly rhyme. 

Let's see what the Democrat's version of Reagan can do for our divided country.