If you could be personally present to witness a historical event, as your adult self,

[jmowreader]

14. I was there!

The night the Wall opened, I was barracks sergeant ("charge of quarters" or "CQ&quot for my company. Someone came up the stairs from the TV room in the basement: "The Wall just opened! The Wall just opened!" I got my assistant to cover me and ran over to the room at Field Station headquarters where we had a secure phone so I could call the operations officer on the hill and ask what was happening...when I got there, my team chief, who was Field Station staff duty officer that night, was already on it.

After you work a night of CQ you get the next day off, so after my shift was over I ran upstairs, grabbed my 35mm camera and all the film I had, put on my best running-around-in-the-cold clothes, jumped on a train and headed out to Checkpoint Charlie. Total bedlam, in a good way. Everyone was happy including the East German border guards...and those guys were required to be permanently pissed-off. I shot up all the film I had at the checkpoint and at the Brandenburg Gate, then went to this great camera store on Grölmannstrasse and cleaned them out on Agfapan 400 film and Neofin Red developer. (Yes, I am currently kicking myself for shooting this in B&W but that's what I was using at the time.) Then I went to three other camera stores looking for more film. And then I went down there four more times in the same week. And finally I got the Potsdamer Platz opening ceremony.