Tuesday, September 12, 2006

(27) October 5, 1982 First Warning

1982: First Class Stamp $0.20 cents
Tylenol Scare Sweeps the Nation
MTV is launched
Michael Jackson releases "Thriller"
"The Color Purple"is published by Alice Walker
The first Compact Discs appear in record stores
"St. Elsewhere" and "Cheers" debut on TV
John Belushi does of a drug overdose
"Gloria" by Laura Branigan
"Blade Runner" and "E.T." in theaters
The Centers for Disease and Prevention announce
HIV could be transmitted through sexual contact and blood products
447 "HIV" Cancer Deaths in the USA
You all probably notice that starting in 1980 I started including the Aids epidemic in my time capsules. This is not just because I am a lesbian I do this, or to honor those I know that died during this period. In actuality, I am adding this in honor of my mother. In 1982, when the general public didn't even know this crisis was happening, my mother kept me supplied with up to date information she was seeing come through the CDC at the time. I did not hear this disease was sexually transmitted through the community or the media, it was my mother who told me this first. She was concerned for me, and like most microbiologists she understood from the very beginning that this disease would know no limited boundaries. Although most of the men I knew in this period died early in the epidemic, already infected, when I did know information I passed it through the limited channels I had at the time. I would like to hope this may have saved someone, I am sure it probably saved me. Thanks mama.
In the summer of 1982 I took my first trip to New York City from Texas, and it was the first time I saw art and artists I had studied but only seen in reproductions. I spent two weeks crawling across the city going to museums, SOHO, and other quirky places of interest that I had saved from issues of New York Magazine. I bought an amazing pair of blue glitter tennis shoes at Bloomingdale's and lived on food in Chinatown. It was an amazing trip, and thus began my serious love affair with New York.

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