a timeless timeline BY CHLOÉ ADAMS
F
ifty-four years. That’s how long my parents have known each other. And in marriage, forty-five years of “get off my side of the bed” and countless spaghetti dinners. Fifty-four years of friendship, happiness, anger, confusion, laughs, cries and everything in between. My mom and dad are (what we call in today’s society) boomers- those born between 1946 and 1964. They grew up right in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement. They are literal walking history and so is their love. I’ve heard countless stories of experiences in their lifetime together that have shaped them, their families and their lives. I often like to think that their stories are a big contribution to American history. Their history, one that has expanded to over half-a-century and just keeps growing, continues to thrive. Fifty-four years of pure, raw, unbreaking love. A lot can happen that only a timeline could tell.
1968
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1970 In college, my parents were friends and started seriously dating about 2-3 years into school. Prior to that, my mom said my dad “chased her.” He befriended her siblings, took her mom out to lunch with them, helped move her into her dorm, and did just about everything under the sun! In fact, he was around so much that some of the alum from her college (SUNY Albany), believe he was a part of their graduating class. Note: He did NOT attend college at SUNY Albany.
1966 My parents met in high school. They attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn, NY. “I was walking to class one morning. I was in ninth grade,” said my mom. “And dad and his friends were standing on the school steps watching me.” I asked my dad if he remembered that moment and he responded, as he was eating his dinner, “Kind of.” They both laughed. They were fourteen. They were in a group called “A Panel of American Youth.” The purpose of the panel was for the youth to express why there was so much hatred and anger in the world during that time.
16
THE SQUEEZE
