On the other hand

[redbird]

A fun part of editing this stuff is the offhand reminders of progress. I just came to "Atoms, for example, can only be seen with the most powerful microscopes."

When I was in eleventh grade, we couldn't see them directly at all.

ETA: I suspect that, as rysmiel suggests, it depends in part on how "see" is interpreted. Kip, I don't actually remember where I was when President Kennedy was shot, but I suspect my mother could tell me.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

For somewhat stretched values of "see", I suppose.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

How long ago was that -- or should I ask?

I have a 1969 book with a photo of carbon atoms in it. It made quite an impression on me at the time -- I was in junior high when I bought it.

Perhaps it's the difference between seeing directly and being able to make a photograph.

[nellorat.livejournal.com]

Similarly, I recently told a student about how I got an offer to join the Army based on my SAT scored (taken with a male-sounding first name), then realizes that's no longer impossible-hence-funny. He, in turn, was astonished that women ever were kept from joining the Army, Navy, etc.

[kate-schaefer.livejournal.com]

But that wasn't impossible then, either. The Army recruited women when we were in our teens. They may have recruited you for a different position than they would have had in mind had they realized that you were a woman.

When I was 19 (I'm two years older than you, by the way), I wanted to join the Air Force. I spent a great deal of time talking to the recruiter, and I was all set. I had decided on the Air Force rather than the Army, Navy, or Marines for a bunch of reasons that make no sense at all based on what I know now. At the end of the conversation, the recruiter told me all I needed was my parent's consent, a signature from either parent, and I could join. I was astounded. I was 19, a full-fledged driving, voting, drinking adult (18-year-olds could drink in many states in those days, remember?). Why would I need parental permission to volunteer to serve my country? Well, he said, I just did. Boys could join at 17 with parental permission, at 18 without it, but girls needed parental permission until they were 21.

My dad refused to sign because I'd be joining as enlisted person rather than as an officer, and my mom wouldn't sign without his permission (they divorced a few years later, but they put up a unified front right up until they stopped). I did something else instead.

(I seem to have taken the magic medication that makes me tell an anecdote a day in other people's LiveJournal accounts. I suppose that's old fart's disease.)

[redbird]

If the anecdotes continue this interesting, keep taking the medication.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite things about being around NOW is that we have made so many advances in so short a time. Twenty years ago, people still thought that OCD originated with bad toilet training. What a world, eh?