Na na na na, na na na na na, na na na na, na na na na. Sh’s got the look.

My aunt gave me a cassette of Roxette’s Look Sharp! in 1989 and I played it non-stop for ages. 

1989 was also the year Cher worn a mankini and straddled a tank in the name of music with If I Could Turn Back Time and The New Kids on The Block were in the charts with You Got It (The Right Stuff). 

World events of 1989

Continuing its move from communism and the control by the USSR, Estonia raised its national flag on the Pikk Hermann for the first time in 44 years.

A much more well known world event that happened in 1989 was the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

I wasn’t allowed to watch the news when this subject came up, as my mum didn’t want me to see people standing in front of tanks at the age of 7, but I noticed it anyway.

One thing I was allowed to watch on TV was the fall of the Berlin Wall. In fact, I remember walking through the lounge room and being stopped by my mum and told to watch the news reports because it was an historic event and important I pay attention to it. Of course the real end to the USSR wasn’t quite here yet, but the tearing down of the wall was certainly a great symbol of the end to the oppression. 

While the wall was being brought down, the Velvet Revolution was taking place Czechoslovakia. Combining it with the Singing Revolution in Estonia, the Soviet War in Afghanistan, and many more uprisings, the end of the 80s really was an exciting time. I hope the political and social uprisings in the Middle East will have be seen in the same light twenty years later, as the start to more freedom for the people in those areas.

A big event in my life in 1989

Similar to 1985, 1989 was a year that changed my young life forever. In June that year, my younger brother and sister (yes, they’re twins) were born. This time I did understand what was going on before there were two little babies in our lives. I was surprised, or upset. I’m not sure if I was excited either, I can’t remember. I do remember bring them home and getting to play with them, which was fun. I also remember the nappies and crying, which wasn’t fun.

This was the last year of newborns for my mum. She had five kids all up, my older sister, me, Jack and the twins, Peter and Mai.