MEMORABLE MOMENTS: Where were you when…

Every generation has those events that are defining moments…those moments when major historical events happen and you know automatically where you were when they happened.   I thought it would be an interesting retrospective to look back at a few of the major events over the last 40 years.  I can think of three chilling events, each of which most of the people my age can tell you exactly where they were when they heard or saw the news. 

Assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan: March 30, 1981.   I was home sick from school that day.   I recall vividly the news coverage.   Back in those days, we didn’t have 24-hour Cable News.  This was probably the first major historic event of my life.   All three major networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, as I recall, had non-stop coverage. 

Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster: January 28, 1986.  We were out of school that day because of snow, so I was at home watching it on TV. The most vivid memory I have of the disaster is my father calling my mother, who was at work and he said, “it…just…blew up.” There was nothing at all on television the rest of the day except coverage of this event. This was a major space shuttle mission because the long-awaited mission of a schoolteacher, Christa McAuliffe, who was to be the first teacher in space.   

The Twin Towers: September 11, 2001:  This terrorist attack occurred on the morning of what is now famously called “9/11”.  I was driving to work when I heard on the radio of a plane crash in New York City, which had hit the Twin Towers, the World Trade Center.   I remember vividly, I was on I-65 North traveling heading into downtown.  I called my partner, Edward, who was still at home and told him to quickly turn on the news—that something major was going on in New York.   As the minutes, hours and days ahead would unfold, we would learn what an incredible act of terror this was, many thousands would lose their lives not only in New York, but in additionally with a plane crash into the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and the crashing of a plane in Pennsylvania field.  

Here’s my confession:  These tragic events have defined a generation.   To those of us who were living when these events occurred, there is no denying their impact.   Like my parents’ generation, who recall the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, the three events above are my generation’s “Where were you when…” And those are things you just never forget.