There’s a particular event in high school that has always
stuck with me.
It was the lead-up to the Gulf War – the first one, the one
where George H. W. Bush led a coalition of nearly every country in the world
against Saddam Hussein. Hell, I even remember the graphic CNN put together: it
was like something out of a hockey video game, displaying the U.S. flag “vs.”
the Iraq flag (a rather flippant way to depict war, eh?) except as the U.S.
coalition grew, they’d flip through all the flags of those countries, too.
After a while, I was expecting CNN to change the graphic to “Iraq vs. the
World,” but I suppose that would have portrayed Hussein as some kind of
scrappy underdog.
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| As opposed to however "South Park" portrayed Hussein. |
Anyway, when formal fighting broke out, we had an assembly
in the gym. I think the intent was to talk through everyone’s thoughts and
feelings about going to war, but it all devolved into some kind of bizarre pep
rally with nearly everyone chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” I admit I was
swept up in the moment – hey, I had all the geo-political sophistication of a
teenage boy, don’t judge – when I noticed a couple of my friends across the way
sitting on their hands. They looked miserable, fully dismayed by what was going
on. It froze me, and I spent the remaining minutes of the assembly wondering, What is it they know that I don’t know?
The specific moment that I want to tell you about, the thing
that stuck with me all these years, happened a bit before all the chanting.
Like I said, this was meant to be an assembly, not a pep rally, so a microphone
was handed around to anyone who wanted to give their thoughts on the war. I
imagine the teachers and staff – many of whom still recalled the Vietnam War
era quite vividly – assumed most of us would be freaking out. Instead, the
prevailing mood was “slightly apprehensive but confident that we’d kick all
sorts of ass.” The geo-political sophistication of teenagers, remember.
The lone exception was one girl who stood up, teary-eyed. She
was freaking out because her older brother had signed up for the Army Reserves
for the college scholarship but was now being sent off to the Gulf. “Who would
have thought he’d actually have to go to war?”
she bawled into the microphone.
Well, duh, I
thought, because I also had the sensitivity of a teenage boy. He signed up for the Army, jackass. What did you think would happen?
When I think back to that moment, I’m a lot more sympathetic
to that girl. Sure, the “well, duh” reaction is still in-bound – I mean, the
possibility of going to war has to cross your mind when you sign up for the
Army Reserves – but it had been almost 20 years since we’d deployed our
military like that. For our generation, the idea of actually going to war was
something you read about in history books, like horse-drawn carriages or
network television.
I quickly thought of this moment when hammering out my
missing person mystery. The idea of a reservist surprised to be sent off to the
Gulf War fascinated me, and the thought of him surviving the tour but not
showing up back home felt like an extra layer of tragedy.
There’s a bonus benefit to setting my story in 1991, of
course: no cell phones.
As you can imagine, I ended up doing a whole lot of research
into what went on in 1991. It’s not a year people call out for nostalgic
reflection, but there was a whole lot going on. I’ll close out with a sample of
what I dug up. Think of it as my Now
That’s What I Call 1991 list:
- · The Soviet Union falls apart
- · Jeffrey Dahmer is arrested for multiple murders
- · The Rodney King incident sets off riots and controversy over police brutality
- · Clarence Thomas is confirmed to the Supreme Court
- · Magic Johnson announces that he has HIV
- · Terminator 2 and Silence of the Lambs are released in theaters
- · The first Lollapalooza tour launches
- · Street Fighter II hits arcades
- · Ren & Stimpy debuts
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| And it doesn't get any more 1991 than "Ren & Stimpy" |
