Murder and Fire: A Dark Night

My dad walked into the house on the evening of January 10, 1983. The week before, I turned seven years old. I don’t recall what I did on my birthday, only that I had cake and ice cream while watching the Rose Bowl. It was a yearly tradition for me. Dad came through the garage…

“The Longest Week” at 35: The First Major Story I Remembered As A Kid

What was the first major news story I was aware of as a kid? It happened thirty-five years ago today.

The Longest Week

My grandfather was watching a television show on a late humid-soaked Sunday night, July 12, 1981.  My grandparents lived in a well-kept home where my mother and her siblings grew up in on the east side of Waterloo, Iowa, near downtown.  As he was getting ready to go to bed, Grandma and him heard several loud “bangs”,…