| My Very First Day |
| by Aaron Reese |
| I know I'm not being very profound here, but things are not what they used to be.� Just like my grandfather, I too, now remember when none of this stuff was here.� Gas stations did not exist on every corner neighbored by a Starbucks or McDonalds.� Endless plains dominated the landscape when I was a little kid, not the housing subdivisions with strip malls of today.� From the day I was born, the world has become a much bigger, different place. |
| At the Movies |
| One of the major changes that affect my day-to-day life is in that of movies.� What a much grander business they've become.� Movie tickets in the Kansas City area had a going rate of $1.75 on October 12, 1981; now they are nearing $8.00 (Dickinson, etc. A).� Not all of that is due to inflation, either.� I remember the price at $3.50 when I saw Mortal Kombat in 1995.� In half the time, it's doubled in price. |
| Gallipoli (starring Mel Gibson), Stripes, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Superman II and Chariots of Fire could be seen on the day I was born (Dickinson, et al.).� Chariots of Fire, which is simply about two determined long-distance runners, was the top grossing movie of October. It then went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture (Movie Index-1881).� Nowadays, movies don't last a week at the box office if they don't have an uncountable amount of explosions that either kill hundreds of cardboard cutout bad guy or flaunt an immeasurable amount of disgusting gags regarding bodily fluids. |
| While filmmakers in 1981 probably didn?t see that nonsense coming, RCA had a good idea about which electronics systems were on the way to popularity.� At Vidcom, Oct 12, 1981, the company unveiled its prototype VideoDisc player. The item boasted their newly developed CED system (RCA Demonstrates 1-2).� The disc player combined with the CED system helped pave the way for the DVD technology that has become so popular these days. |
| Columbus Day and Reagan |
| Though the film industry has changed along with many other things, thankfully constants can be found.� Columbus Day is on October twelfth.� Not the thirteenth it's on the twelfth. It's always been recognized that Christopher Columbus found the Americas on Oct 12, 1492, but many observed Columbus Day on Oct. 13 anyway. The record books have at least been set straight thanks to Ronald Reagan's signing of the Columbus Day Proclamation on Oct. 9, 1981.� Now, therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Monday, October 12, 1981, as Columbus Day; and I invite the people of this Nation to observe that day in schools, churches, and other suitable places with appropriate ceremonies in his honor (Reagan, Remarks2). |
| This proclamation made my birthday the first federally recognized Columbus Day in the United States.� If it is not remembered by people it will, at least, be recorded correctly in the books thanks to Reagan's appreciation for the day.� Well, either his appreciation, or he just liked creating holidays.� Just three days prior he signed two more proclamations that recognized October 7 as National Guard Day and October 9 as� Leif Erickson Day.� That's right Leif Erickson Day (Reagan, Proclamation 1-2). |
| Floods and Football |
| On top of his holiday making mania, Reagan had a busy week.� He was preparing for his meeting with King of Spain, Juan Carlos, to discuss, among other things, problems in the Middle East some things never change (Daily News) |
| �The day the king arrived, North Texas was being flooded with unprecedented rainfalls.� Abilene, along with Lake Coleman, was evacuated while places like Graham, Gainsville, Mineral Wells and Breckinridge received a record setting pummeling that holds up even to last year's June 6 flood of the same area (Rainfall 1).� Breckinridge took the cake with twenty-one inches of rainfall during the Columbus Day Flood (Columbus 1). |
| Though it was a bad day for Texans, it was a great day for Nebraska football fans.� Their Cornhuskers entered the famous Associated Press top twenty-five ranking.� The team did not leave ranking for three hundred and forty-eight weeks, unmatched by any other team.� Their red reign of terror ended on September 29, 2002 after two so-so seasons. They're just not the team they used to be.� Like the Cornhuskers rise and fall, other things will change and crumble; other things will grow.� Though growth changes everything around it, growth itself seems to remain constant.� When I moved to Lee's Summit, the population of the town was about 32,000, which grew minutely since the date of my birth.� Now its population is nearing 80,000 (Lee's Summit 1). |
| Growth has changed the news and news stories since October 12, 1981.� Looking up current world events for any given date would overwhelm a person with reading material.� The headline news for the newspaper on my 1981 birthday contained speculation on budget cuts and an article about a rapist/stalker.� The attention of the media has shifted to tabloid-like attacks on anyone who has made a name for himself.� In addition to this fall of ethics, journalists seem fascinated and obsessed with school shootings which are on the decline, but were nearly unmentioned in 1981 (Murray). |
| Overall, October 12, 1981 was a pretty normal, boring day in the big scheme of things.� That's really kind of good.� Nothing too horrible is synonymous with the day I was born. |
| Birthday Paper |