The Day the Berlin Wall Went Down

I'm sure I could research the media coverage of the Berlin Wall being torn down in order to properly put the time and date on this event that took place in my life, but then, it really wouldn't add anything to the story I'm about to tell you.

I was living in Kokomo, Indiana at the time and working for Huffy Service First. It was an assembly company with field technicians all over the United States. It was our job to go to all those retail stores that sold assembled bikes to their customers. We actually assembled anything that came in a box with instructions.

I had been working in Wabash, IN that day and was on my way home after finishing up early. It was a warm day, with a spattering of clouds in the afternoon sky as I turned south on highway 31. The traffic seemed to be a bit more than I was accustomed to driving in, but then I was heading home much earlier than usual too.

After pulling over into the left lane, in order to pass a slower driver, I found myself locked into a pack of drivers being held up by two running side by side up ahead. I was in no hurry, so the delay didn't bother me as much as getting caught running along side a tractor-trailer. The Aerostar van was being buffeted by winds bouncing off the truck.

Suddenly, it felt as though I was being lifted right off the seat of the van. But it wasn't my body being lifted... it was more like my awareness or my soul was being pulled up by some magnetic kind of force. For a brief moment it seemed like everything was a distraction from what I needed to do at that instant. I strained my neck trying to look up at the clouded sky. The music playing in the van, the wind from the window, the steering wheel in my chest, all that traffic... seemed to be blocking out what needed to be reaching me.

I distinctly remember the thought flashing through my mind..."Is this the rapture?" because there was something spiritual about the burst of emotion that accompanied this weird experience.

Then, just as suddenly, the feeling left me. The really scary part about the whole experience was that when I settled back into my seat, feeling quite perplexed by the whole thing. I found myself driving on a deserted highway. There wasn't another vehicle in sight anywhere. Now how could that be? In a matter of what appeared to be only seconds of time everyone that had been driving along with me in that packed bunch had either turned off or drove off and left me? I was still driving nearly 65 miles per hour.

I even checked the rear view mirror to see if perhaps I'd done something really radical that might have caused everyone around me to hit the ditch. There was no sign of anyone in the ditch or on the road at all behind me, and the road ahead was completely clear. I was more than just a little puzzled.

The remainder of the drive home was strange. It was almost like a dream. I finally started seeing some other cars on the highway, but there were so few. The feeling I'd experienced kept flashing through my mind leaving me wondering what it all meant.. In remembering how it made me feel, it was like a wash of emotions passing through me from somewhere else.

When I got home I tried to explain the experience to my wife and became flustered beyond words when she showed no obvious signs of understanding. Finally I walked into the living room and muted the television. The noise seemed to frustrate me even more. And sitting there with the remote in my hand I started flipping through the channels.

I stopped flipping channels when a scene popped up of a newsman standing in the dark. I knew before even unmuting the tv that this was the event that had caused my experience. "This is it!!!" I yelled, more from the excitement of making the connect than anything else.

My wife said something from the kitchen but I didn't understand her as I'd just unmuted and turned the volume up on the tv. The newsman was commenting on the reaction of the masses that had gathered to witness the momentous occasion of the Berlin Wall being taken down. When he said "You'd have had to be here to understand the wave of emotion that washed through the crowds as they started tearing down that wall..." I said aloud, "No.... you wouldn't."

As long as I live I will never truly understand why or how something like this could happen. And I've wondered many times if what happened to me that day might have happened all around the world to others who may or may not have made that connection. I would hate to think it didn't...