Where were you when...... :)

Parent Cafe
61

<p>mom2collegekids, the media didn’t release news of Diana’s death immediately after the crash for the simple reason that she hadn’t died yet. Time of death was about 3 hours later, and at that point she’d been taken to the hospital.</p>

<p>I think she was actually dead before the stated time of death. I think she was rushed to the hospital where extra attempts were made (because of who she was) before the efforts were abandoned and time of death was set. The spent a couple of hours internally and externally massaging her heart (which was not responsive) and finally gave up and set a time of death.</p>

62

<p>First post from a very long-time lurker - compelled to join in this fascinating post.</p>

<p>Dad’s WWII Pearl Harbor recollection: His extended family was having a gathering at their house when a neighboring farmer who heard the news via radio ran over and told Dad’s family of the bombing.</p>

<p>My own memories:
Kennedy: I was in first grade in a Catholic school and they must have felt we were too young to be told. Went home as normal, Dad took me off bus, sat me on his lap and told me Caroline’s daddy had been shot. I was devastated as we are same age.</p>

<p>Columbine massacre: I was in the hospital one day post-surgery and watching TV from my bed. Felt terrible for the young victims/parents and was already feeling emotional on my own behalf. A very bad day.
Diana’s death: Sitting on the carpet in living room watching TV later than usual; about ready to go to bed when husband drew my attention. We couldn’t believe it; really hard for it to sink in.
9/11: I was an editor in a print newsroom designing the last of my own pages for the day when my editor in chief turned on small TV on his desk after first plane hit. Turned around to watch as second plane came in and I remember saying out loud: ‘well, we’re at war now.’ Hard to keep concentrating on my own job, but we were on deadline.</p>

63

<p>JFK - In Middle School, a principal’s loudspeaker announcement closed the school, which was predominantly African-American. Hallways filled with students, dissolved in tears. I wasn’t used to seeing the boys cry. All of us fairly staggered home. I arrived expecting an empty house, by my parents had closed their office to be home instead. My mom was crying on the bed, watching TV and I curled up with her.</p>

<p>MLK, later that evennig - As a h.s. senior in Baltimore, I had volunteered to work lighting for a theater production at Johns Hopkins U.'s uptown campus. Since nobody called to cancel the show, I went in and began to work the lighting panel. Ten minutes into the show, a Baltimore City policeman walked onto the stage, closing the show without explanation, and sending all home. (I knew he wasn’t in the show.) I turned up the house lights until the audience had all evacuated, then drove home alone. The car radio informed that there were riots and fires breaking out downtown, including on the street of my grandfather’s store. When I got home, I burst into tears to see him safe in our living room.</p>

<p>9/11 - teaching First Grade, reading a library book to children exactly in the same position as President Bush (!). A representative from the school office tapped me on the shoulder to read a clipboard text from the Superintendent, describing “an emergency and plane crash” in NYC and Washington. Strict instructions not to speak of this all day in hallways, lest children overhear. On my break at 11:00 a.m., I left the building to use my cellphone and call my husband for a real explanation. We teachers did not engage in any adult conversation, just kept teaching, which was stressful to repress any thoughts.</p>

<p>I recall boarding these innocent students on buses at 4 p.m., looking up at that blue blue sky (we were 90 miles from NYC) and thinking, “These children’s world will never be the same.” At 4 p.m. I was free to go home and comfort my own children. One had spent the day with classmates, holding onto his shaking classmate whose Dad worked at the WTC, unheard from. By grace of God, the man was one who walked out of the building with only a broken foot, but the wife an son didn’t know that for many hours. The next day, my son refused to eat toaster waffles because the pattern reminded him of the windows on the WTC, and was scared to go to school by bus, so I drove him in on my way to my school.</p>

<p>(I thought I’d write briefly, but this was cathartic. Thanks for the thread.)</p>

64

<p>Columbia - at home watching the news with my family, we knew it was coming but still didn’t believe it. The first Israeli astronaut was on the shuttle, which hit my Israeli-American family especially hard. </p>

<p>9/11 - mom woke my sister and me up, we thought for school only to have her rush us to her bedroom where the tv showed a single smoking tower. She explained the little she knew and we all watched in silence, hoping my uncle (who worked for NYFD) was ok. My sister was born later that week, making it one of the saddest and happiest weeks of my life.</p>

<p>Sandy hook - turned on the morning news after my first class to see CNN and FOX covering the tragic event. Kept the tv on all day. A friend later told me he knew one of the teachers, broke my heart even more. </p>

<p>Bin Laden - I was flying, didn’t know until hours later when I finally got home.</p>

65

<p>m2ck, they were successful at re-starting her heart at the scene of the accident using external CPR, albeit not for long. We don’t know when she actually died. It certainly was before the official time of death, which merely marked the point at which they gave up. But at the time they removed her from the scene, they were still trying.</p>

<p>Of course, your DH was correct in the larger sense. I’m not a doctor, it wasn’t hard to see that there was little chance of her surviving, especially when we saw what the car looked like.</p>

66

<p>Pearl Harbor - My FIL was on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor during the attack. He had recently been transferred off the Arizona after a couple of years assigned on her. Hadn’t wanted to leave, because she was supposed to go back to the states for retrofitting, but he literally drew a short straw and had to leave. Nearly everyone he had served with for two years died that day. I don’t know exactly what he was doing when the attack came, because he didn’t like to talk about it. It hurt too much to lose his buddies. He died last year.</p>

<p>I haven’t asked my parents, but will do so when I see them in a couple of weeks.</p>

67

<p>9/11-I was watching TV when my older sister came in and turned on the news. I don’t think I really understood at the time what it meant (I was only 11 years old) or what would happen because of it.</p>

<p>Bin Laden-We had just finished a staff meeting and my boss told us. We went next door to the campus pizza place and watched the news all night.</p>

<p>Sandy Hook-I was in my office and my building partner, who is from Connecticut, came in to tell me to turn on the news. I turned on the CNN web stream and both of us watched it for the rest of the day. I remember my staff coming into my office for various meetings or just to pop in and say hi and I was crying and had to explain it to them. There was a group of staff members watching the news on the big screen TV in our lobby and there was a horrible air of sadness on the entire building all day.</p>

68

<p>Wow, very cool hearing about what you all remember. My parents were only babies when JFK was shot so they don’t really have memories of that. I’ll contribute though since I’m only 15, I don’t have much to offer up :)</p>

<p>9/11–I was supposed to be at pre-school that day but was sick, so my mom and I were at the drug store getting medicine for me. They had a TV on and I vaguely remember seeing a big building on fire (I’m thinking it was the first one). Then as we were leaving, my dad called my mom and told her another building had collapsed. We used to live in Northern Virginia and my parents had a good friend who lived near the Pentagon and he called my dad about the Pentagon. Very hard to remember, but I do, barely, believe it or not.</p>

<p>Bin Laden–I normally watched the news with my parents but had gone to my room that night and the next morning my mom told me what happened. She then said, “I would have gotten you so you could have heard the news story too but thought you had gone to bed already.” Well, missed out on the breaking news for that.</p>

<p>Sandy Hook–At the end of the school day and had turned on my phone and saw headline “20 feared dead in Connecticut school shooting”. I said “Oh great” and told my friends what happened but didn’t think much of it beyond that, I didn’t realize then what the whole deal was. That night I was out with my youth group for a Christmas thing and later that night heard more about it.</p>