<p>I thought it might be interesting to post “where you were” when you first heard about a major historic event.</p>
<p>Feel free to include the many other events, don’t limit yourself to mine… :)</p>
<p>I’ll go first…</p>
<p>When JFK was shot: I was in Kindergarten, we were doing “rug time” and the principal came in and told us. We were then dismissed from class and went home. My entire neighborhood was crying.</p>
<p>The first Shuttle disaster: I was driving to work and was listening to the prep and weather report for the launch on the radio. Shortly after I was in my office, another worker came in and said that the Challenger exploded. Of course, it was shocking and devastating. And, naturally, we grieved for all, but were especially upset over the loss of Christa McAuliffe. </p>
<p>9/11 Attack: I was teaching an Apologetics class at my parish when the church secretary came in and told us to quickly turn on the big TV because a plane had gone into the first tower. We all sat glued to the screen wondering if it was an accident. The answer, of course, came a short time later when we sat horrified as we watched another plane crash into the second tower.</p>
<p>I was at home alone when I heard of all three tragedies, oddly. A friend of mine called me and woke me up on 9/11 and told me to turn on the TV. For the other two, I had already been watching.</p>
<p>I felt the Pentagon blast (9/11) from a suburb in Virginia. My immediate thought was a third of the elementary school had just lost a parent. Not so luckily.</p>
<p>JFK-I was at home, outside playing, and my mother told me to come in. She was crying. I was a year or two prior to kindergarten</p>
<p>Challenger explosion: I was working retail, helping support my ex as he pursued his Master’s degree. I was living in NH at the time, where Crista was from. The manager came out of the office to tell us, and that is all anyone talked about for the rest of the day. The manager kept coming out and giving us updates.</p>
<p>9/11-H and I were getting ready for work and he was watching the morning news. He yelled at me to turn on the TV in the living room just in time to see the second plane hit. Younger D was a baby at the time. I was working for a small newspaper then and went right into work to begin making calls for the local angle. We had a fuzzy old B & W TV there and kept it on all day. The thing that stays with me still though, is the buses. I live in a very diverse area with a number of Muslim residents and the bus route I took also was the main route for many boisterous high school kids. That day the buses were completely silent, no matter where I went or who was riding. It was so eerie. </p>
<p>I’ll add some more-When Reagan was shot-I was a senior in college, in the school paper newsroom and the wire service rang with 5 bells-a major news item. Most of us ran over to the commons to watch the TV’s to follow the story. </p>
<p>While I don’t remember seeing the news of Martin Luther King, I DO remember the news of Bobby Kennedy’s shooting. Again, I was at home, and whatever my siblings and I were watching got interrupted for the announcement. </p>
<p>The moon landing-I was at a friend’s after school-I was in 4th grade. We were playing downstairs with his siblings (glow in the dark catch) and his mom came down and turned on the TV so we could see it.</p>
<p>I remember Walter Cronkite announcing the JFK was elected president. Cronkite said something about God protecting our new president.</p>
<p>I was in math class when JFK was shot. The principal came into class and pulled our teacher out for a minute. She came back crying.</p>
<p>9/11…My husband put on the tv in our bedroom. And suddenly he said…wake up! Something horrible has happened. And we jumped up and started listening. Our school district has a lot of Persians (Jewish, Christian and Muslims), and Arabs. As the news broke during the day as to whom was responsible many mothers and fathers of these kids came running to school in fear that their children would be attacked in retaliation Nope, they just missed a day or two of education.</p>
<p>JFK, I was 6 yrs old and at my aunt’s house. My parents had gone into NYC to see a show and spend the weekend so I wasn’t in school. Sometime after lunch my Aunt came in and told me and my sister to go meet my cousin who was let out of school early. I remember seeing my cousin skipping down the street. I think my parents didn’t come back until the next day but I remember sitting in front of the TV for the next 3 or 4 days. </p>
<p>I was home sick from work when Challenger exploded. I watched it live. </p>
<p>9/11 - I had just put my son on the school bus and had the Today Show on. Saw that live, too. :(</p>
<p>I also was watching when Bobby K got shot. I stayed up late to watch the Cali primary returns.</p>
<p>JFK: I was in the second grade. Someone came into our classroom and told us and hurried out. The nun said “I hope you guys didn’t hear that”. Which I still think was a dumb thing to say.</p>
<p>Challenger: In England walking my boys to school. Many friends came up to me being the only American they knew and telling me how sad they were.</p>
<p>9/11: Driving to the high school for a parent’s meeting. It turned into a pretty useless meeting.</p>
<p>9/11: Was in school and we were sent home after both towers were hit and I watched them both go down later at home with my family. </p>
<p>Michael Jackson’s death: Was eating brunch with friends and I got a text from my sister. </p>
<p>Osama Bin Laden’s death: Watching the Mets/Phillies baseball game with my dead. Just stunning news and I wont forget how the crowd kept up an “USA” chant while the players were just confused and oblivious to the sudden unity. </p>
<p>Columbia Shuttle disaster: Was eating breakfast with family when we heard the breaking news and watched the terrible scenes unfold.</p>
<p>JFK- I was in first grade; we were not told. </p>
<p>Challenger-- At my desk at work. I immediately called my husband who’d done some work on the shuttle’s robotic arm when he worked for Rockwell. He was at another company by then and no one had heard.</p>
<p>9/11-- I first heard in the car. Again called DH; one of the few times I’ve placed a call while driving. I was on my way to the store and when I walked in the footage of the first tower hit was being played on about 20 large screen TVs.</p>
<p>JFK’s assassination – wasn’t born yet.
Challenger disaster – I had just started my very first real job and was in the office with a bunch of people I didn’t know
9/11 – I was sitting in my office in Manhattan unpacking to start the day when my dear friend from Florida called to make sure I was ok. And then all heck broke loose and the next week is seared into my memory in small, postcard-like vignettes.</p>
<p>I was working at job the afternoon of 9/11.
Since then, that job, and my subsequent job both shut down, to go offshore.
That has helped shape my opinion that buying American made products helps Americans have jobs; and my belief that it is good for Americans to have jobs.
I mention that not as a political or macroeconomic debate, but to express that events soon following 9/11 changed me. Before that, I really didn’t give any thought about where a product was purchased.</p>
<p>When Robert Kennedy was killed I was at home. But several of my friends were at the Ambassador Hotel that night. They were all talking about it the next day. The ER doctor was the father of someone I knew. The doctor called the family and said I won’t be coming home tonight…He later said that Kennedy never had a chance of survival, but they tried and tried.</p>
<p>JFK-I was in kindergarten, too. But because it was half-day kindergarten, happened to be at home when I heard the news.</p>
<p>First Challenger Disaster-at work
Second Challenger Disaster-at an indoor waterpark, where a woman sitting next to me mentioned it</p>
<p>9/11-watching t.v. as I got ready for a morning 4th grade parent meeting. I actually saw the second plane flying in on Good Morning America, but because of the camera angle, the first building blocked the impact of the second plane.</p>
<p>JFK, do not remember at all.
Challenger, working in lab in graduate school when my adviser came in and told us he had just heard the saddest news. We had just ordered our space shuttle beakers. Still have mine.
9/11, At home, with homeschooled kids, when husband called from work to tell me. We didn’t get much done that day.</p>
<p>JFK- too young to remember it happening, but I do recall the TV being black and white and no cartoons for days. I was around two, but can describe the room perfectly (it was changed shortly thereafter), I guess boredom made that memory stick.</p>
<p>Challenger- skiing on Mammoth Mountain, a gorgeous sunny day and that news as we got of the chairlift was so sad.</p>
<p>9/11- just getting ready in the morning, but DH was abroad and the locals reaching out was quite sweet, many unsolicited hugs.</p>
<p>Challenger disaster - We were listening to the radio while throwing pots in my high school art class. We all stopped working & went to the library to watch the news reports on TV.</p>
<p>San Francisco Bay Area earthquake (1989) - My 2nd year of college away from home. My roommate & I were both from the Bay Area & we couldn’t reach anyone on the phone. I was terrified because it happened at rush hour & my father commuted through the East Bay where there was major damage, highway collapses, etc. My roommate & I got into a fight with a bunch of guys in our dorm who didn’t want us to switch the TV to the news. They were waiting for the World Series game to start & only agreed to finally switch the channel when we screamed at them that the ball game was cancelled because of the earthquake! (Parents got a message to us later that they were fine - they had gone home from work early to get ready for an evening at the theater, so they were not on the roads at the time.)</p>
<p>9/11 - DH & I were at home in Oregon, got an early-morning phone call from worried relatives overseas. Turned on the TV as the second plane hit. Next phone call was from my parents in California, begging us to not go to work (we’re Muslims; DH is Arab). Spent the day/evening keeping company with our landlady. She was frantic because her husband was in Boston helping move their daughter into her freshman dorm; he was supposed to be on United #175 that morning. About dinner time, she finally got through to him & found out that he had changed his plans in order to stay an extra day with his daughter. So he was safe, but stuck on the east coast for another week as flights were grounded. It was a very emotional time. Many people reached out to our Muslim community with gestures of kindness - interfaith prayer gatherings, offers to escort any of us on errands if we felt threatened, etc.</p>
<p>I will add another one. I was flying from London to Newark when Flight 103 was destroyed. Back in those days they did not have televisions in the airport terminals and of course no way to get news while on the plane. So both my husband and I on the plane and my in-laws who were picking us up at the airport knew nothing. Found out when I got home to many phone calls from concerned friends.</p>
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