Meme: Where Were You When You Heard About…?

The Game Dame tagged me to take part in a current meme making the rounds in Britain. Natalie Americanized it; I think I need to remind her how old I am: Some of her icons aren’t mine. However, I’ll take a stab, regardless, and at the end, I’ll add one that affected me (and my generation) quite a bit.

September 11 Attacks

September 11, 2001: I was getting ready to go to work when our neighbor phoned to tell us to turn on the television. At that time, the second plane had yet to hit. My first thought was of the "wtf?" variety. How the hell does an airliner hit one of the Twin Towers?? As soon as the second hit was reported, I immediately thought, "TERRORISTS."

Shortly after I got to work that morning, we moved a television from our break room to the main floor of the call center. I was fixed on the television: My youngest son had just started his sophomore year at New York University, and his dorm was scant blocks from the World Trade Towers.

I recall thinking, before it actually happened, that if the fire were severe enough, the buildings could essentially implode. Dreadfully, that happened to the first tower just moments later. I was fairly numb throughout the entire drama, including the crash of the third plane in Pennsylvania and the almost-miss of the Pentagon. Once we learned our son was unhurt (evacuated from his dorm, and ended up staying with a roommate’s family for a few days), I went into a bit of shock as I realized just how close I came to losing a son.

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

January 28, 1986: I was stationed in West Germany with my family at the time, with the Air Force. I actually didn’t hear about the explosion until I got to work on the morning of the 29th (which happened to be my wife’s birthday). We had all been anticipating the launch of Challenger, with school-teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard, quite keenly. The rest of the day wasn’t terribly productive, though we still had a mission to perform, and work to do. It took many years for me to be able to celebrate my wife’s birthday without thinking about the tragedy of Challenger.

Hurricane Katrina

August 29, 2005: My oldest son, his wife, and our not-quite-one-year-old granddaughter were living in the Tampa area at that time. Every week or so during the summer seemed to bring a new hurricane bearing down on Florida (and as an Air Force member, I had a clear recollection of the devastation wreaked by Hurricane Andrew a few years earlier in south Florida).

It was clear early on Katrina was going to be a bitch; the big question was where she’d make landfall. While we certainly hoped it wasn’t Florida’s Gulf Coast, we were glad the kids lived a bit inland.

Once Katrina hit New Orleans, I remember watching the reports on CNN, shaking my head at the complete and utter destruction wrought by the storm, and then as if adding insult to injury, the resultant flooding when the levees failed.

Reagan Assassination Attempt

March 30, 1981: We were living in California (Vandenberg AFB), and I’d heard something just before leaving work. Went home and watched all the news coverage. By the time I got home, the President was either still in or just out of surgery. My bigger concern, I recall, was for Jim Brady, the President’s press secretary. I am a strong supporter of an undiluted Brady Bill.

John Lennon’s Death

December 8, 1980: John Lennon was probably my least favorite of the Beatles (for you youngsters, that was the band Sir Paul McCartney was in before he became a knight; in fact, before Wings…umm…never mind). However, in the past couple years, I’ve come to have a much greater appreciation for some of his post-Beatles music.

Notwithstanding, hearing of his murder in New York City came as a huge shock: I became a teenager during Beatlemania, so of course the Fab Four had a huge impact on my life and the world around me. To be honest, though, I simply can’t remember where I was when I learned of his death. I do recall the sight of middle-aged women weeping at the news, though.

Kurt Cobain’s Death

ca. April 5, 1994: I was still in the Air Force in April 1994, about two months shy of retirement. While I wasn’t a fan of Nirvana (and I doubt even then I could tell you what band Cobain was in), quite a few of the younger officers who worked with and for me were pretty familiar with him. Their reactions ranged from shock to "can’t say it surprises me." But to be honest, his death, while it made headlines around the world and was certainly a topic du jour on CNN, it was barely blip on my personal radar.

And as promised, one more from a bit earlier in time:

John F. Kennedy’s Assassination

November 22, 1963: I still can remember this as though it were yesterday. I was in 7th grade; we’d just broken for lunch. Mine was the second lunch period, and as I headed towards my locker, a friend who was coming in from lunch said, "Did you hear the President was shot?" We didn’t have time to chat, but my thought was "maybe the president was shot at." However, when I got to the food court, the radio was tuned to CBS news coverage.

I don’t recall eating anything; about halfway through lunch, Walter Cronkite announced the President’s death. A couple friends and I saw the Vice Principal. We asked him if we could lower the flag to half-staff, but he told us that would be taken care of.

The next day was my mother’s birthday; not one of her happier ones. The day of the President’s funeral was a national day of mourning, and school was canceled. I watched the entire funeral, and developed a serious crush on Caroline Kennedy.¹

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Now it’s my turn to play "tag." So where were you…

• Lassirra
• Fimlys
• Breana
• Maerdred