Growing up in the '80s under the German sky.

April 7, 2018 4:10 PM

Children of 'The Cloud' and Major Tom. The German sky I knew was a shared sky—shared with the Communist East and the Western Allies, with radioactive clouds and acid rain, with Major Tom and Mathias Rust. It was also somewhere we encountered, right above our homes, something far less certain and far more exciting than the heavy exposed-concrete buildings on the ground. Even in K-Town, where only America loomed overhead, the sky contained multitudes: twinkling distant AWACS, protective Pershings, A-10s with their uranium-covered payload, rumbling Galaxies, Miles Davis flying in for his concerts, wounded soldiers airlifting in, burn victims airlifting out. Was it crazy to imagine Major Tom somewhere in between them?
posted by bitmage (3 comments total)

Thank you, that was a good read.
posted by blue shadows at 4:53 PM on April 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

I‘m his age and grew up in Germany. God, those Pausewang books were horrifying. Still give me nightmares. Required school reading, though. Many of my teachers were very politicized and there was so much Holocaust history, so many years discussing the question how the Nazis came to power. I don‘t regret one bit of this. It‘s vital knowledge right about now.
posted by The Toad at 8:24 PM on April 7, 2018 [2 favorites]

Thanks for posting this. I'm a little older than the author, and spent my summers at my grandparents' house in Germany so I know the feeling of ever-present sonic booms, and remember worrying about eating strawberries and other fruit after Chernobyl.

And the English version of 99 Luftbalons is an abomination.
posted by nixxon at 3:21 PM on April 8, 2018