I intentionally avoided posting a September 11 post. So now I'm a day late. :)
Where we were, what we were doing... it will be etched on our memories forever. I'll tell my children about it, in the same way my father has told us times without number where he was when President Kennedy was shot (walking down some stairs at school with the rest of his second-grade class).
So, here are some other moments-- some national, some not-- that are also chisled in stone upon my brain.
Glasgow airport: I was on the computer, and Chad called me into the living room to watch the news. Then I went to send an e-mail to the news station about how to pronounce "Glasgow".
July 7: I was asleep when it happened. One of my coworkers told me when she got to work that there were bombs in London. I was in such a state (to my own surprise as much as theirs) that they took me back to the office to check the news on the internet and let me calm down a bit.
Colombia: We were at a health fair at the Lubbock Civic Centre.
Iraq (the second time): Just finished Wednesday evening services at church.
Columbine: Evening news, one night in Scotland.
The Greenlawn bus accident: Keely's mum called her, then Keely told me. And I had to do my best to be a good friend, because she was obviously hurting. (I'm pretty sure I failed... sorry, Keely.)
Oklahoma City: Evening news, one night in Greenfield. I know it was April, I know I was a junior in high school, but I can't remember the date.
OJ verdict: They pulled out a TV in the hallway during lunch, and I think that's the quietest I ever heard my school be.
WTC 1993: I was at school, I think in biology class.
Iraq (the first time): We were sitting around after dinner-- I think I was reading-- and one of my dad's coworkers called. Then he came into the living room and turned on the news. I remember thinking at the time, I'll remember this moment my whole life.
Lockerbie: I don't actually remember this. Well, I do, but it sloshes around in my memory with the other airplane crashes during my lifetime (except for 9/11, obviously): Pan Am, TWA, ValuJet-- I have a hard time separating them. What I do remember is the 10-year memorial service that I sat and watched, just days before Christmas, my first year in Scotland. And the exhibit that was in the Transport Museum in Glasgow. The bomb that brought that plane down was one the airport officials had been warned to look out for-- too bad we don't learn those lessons until it is much too late.
The Berlin wall: Well, I had to include a happy one, didn't I?
Challenger: Sitting in music class, when I was in second grade, and the principal made the announcement via the tannoy. I don't know why we didn't watch that launch-- we watched every other one-- but since the images from the news that night still give me nightmares 22 years later, I'm glad we didn't see it live. I found it very bothersome when I went to college that many of my textbooks had those same pictures to illustrate various points (there was one in my algebra book, for goodness' sake). One day I asked the girl next to me, "Do you remember that?" as I pointed to the picture. She said, "No," as I had known she would. I had a hard time not saying "Lucky you!" back to her.
Mary Lou Retton: Okay, two happy ones. Maybe I should have put Kerri Strug's vault as well.
Where were you? What were you doing? What moments do you have forever in your mind?
2 comments:
okay, WTC, obviously i got the dates wrong, early 90s, not 80s. What else? Iraq the 2nd time? Newspaper in the SMF airport on the way to the tulsa workshop, took a photo of my sister reading it. OKC. . . 7th grade, I think I was ditching homeroom with some friends? We'd all meet up in the mornings at my friend Jennifer's house (like 10 of us) and walk to school together, or ditch together. one you probably don't remember, Oct 17, 1989, Earthquake. I was at the babysitters, left behind with her 8th grade and K sons while she made a run with some other kids to who knows where? We were watching "out of this world" or "silver spoons" thankfully we'd been through enough earthquake drills to know to get to a doorway. The incident with the bay bridge and watching the made for TV anniversary movie several years later. . . i will never forget that. i was exactly 8.5 years old that day.
I do remember that, but it didn't come to mind when I was making the list. (And just as well, my list was so long.) I was at a Girl Scout meeting, my dad was at home watching the World Series and we got home just in time to see all those pictures of flattened cars. They made us do earthquake drills at school after that... yeah, like we needed them in Central Indiana.
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