 |
| The TEV Wahine lists heavily to starboard as it sinks in Wellington Harbour. Lifeboats from the ship can be seen to the left. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
We have had colours and memories as writing exercises, how about momentous occasions in your life...
What are the most momentous occasions you can remember from your childhood, youth and in recent times? Things that have stuck vividly in your memory for years. I'll tell you about a few of mine:
As a child I: as a young Kiwi lad in a young country emerging from its dependence on Britain and things so inately British, still remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second - the pomp and pageantry and the glory of the Empire. Of course there was no television, just radio and a few weeks later the news reels down at the picture theatre - the cinema, the movies! But there was a fly in the ointment, a colonial British one, but still a fly - Ed Hillary.
Do you remember the name? The tall young lean and gangly beekeeper who became the greatest mountaineer in the world when becoming the first man to scale the highest peak in the world along with Sherpa Tensing - Everest. The man who in his own words on radio exclaimed, "We knocked the bastard off". So directly Kiwi.
This momentous occasion pushed the coronation off the news for a few days. We had to wait a few weeks to see this on the news reels as well.
The young Queen has been on her throne for over 50 years now, and the tall gangly beekeeper became a knight - Sir Ed, a legend and an icon in New Zealand, and sadly died just over a year ago.
Later there was the tragedies: Tangiwai: where a volcanic eruption caused lava and mudflows that took out the Tangiwai Bridge just as the Auckland-Wellington Limited Express train went over - dozens were killed. In Maori, 'Tangiwai' means weeping waters; how appropriate.
Then in 1968 the new ferry, Wahine, was caught in one of the worst storms in living memory, and floundered on the rocks and capsized in Wellington Harbour, just a few hundred yards from the safety of the shore. These images were available on television. 51 people died.
There was the image from the Vietnam War - a young Vietnamese girl fleeing from the napalm bombs. So starkly vivid in my memory!
The assassination of John F Kennedy - seen over an over, and over again, as the years roll on. The young president who saved the world from World War 3. It was a visiting policeman on a door to door enquiry who told me about this tragedy.
And so on to 9/11 - another stark memory of those aircraft crashing into the twin towers. I was at home and was called to watch the television with these words I will never forget, just like the image, "They are attacking America!.
And so friends, just some of my personal memories that were etched into my memory banks.
As a child I: as a young Kiwi lad in a young country emerging from its dependence on Britain and things so inately British, still remember the coronation of Queen Elizabeth the Second - the pomp and pageantry and the glory of the Empire. Of course there was no television, just radio and a few weeks later the news reels down at the picture theatre - the cinema, the movies! But there was a fly in the ointment, a colonial British one, but still a fly - Ed Hillary.
Do you remember the name? The tall young lean and gangly beekeeper who became the greatest mountaineer in the world when becoming the first man to scale the highest peak in the world along with Sherpa Tensing - Everest. The man who in his own words on radio exclaimed, "We knocked the bastard off". So directly Kiwi.
This momentous occasion pushed the coronation off the news for a few days. We had to wait a few weeks to see this on the news reels as well.
The young Queen has been on her throne for over 50 years now, and the tall gangly beekeeper became a knight - Sir Ed, a legend and an icon in New Zealand, and sadly died just over a year ago.
Later there was the tragedies: Tangiwai: where a volcanic eruption caused lava and mudflows that took out the Tangiwai Bridge just as the Auckland-Wellington Limited Express train went over - dozens were killed. In Maori, 'Tangiwai' means weeping waters; how appropriate.
Then in 1968 the new ferry, Wahine, was caught in one of the worst storms in living memory, and floundered on the rocks and capsized in Wellington Harbour, just a few hundred yards from the safety of the shore. These images were available on television. 51 people died.
There was the image from the Vietnam War - a young Vietnamese girl fleeing from the napalm bombs. So starkly vivid in my memory!
The assassination of John F Kennedy - seen over an over, and over again, as the years roll on. The young president who saved the world from World War 3. It was a visiting policeman on a door to door enquiry who told me about this tragedy.
And so on to 9/11 - another stark memory of those aircraft crashing into the twin towers. I was at home and was called to watch the television with these words I will never forget, just like the image, "They are attacking America!.
And so friends, just some of my personal memories that were etched into my memory banks.
