There’s been a lot of talk today about it being the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion.
It’s gotten me thinking about those “where were you?” moments that we all have in life. Our parents’ generation has the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and when we landed on the moon. Our grandparents have the attack on Pearl Harbor, D-Day and victories in WWII.
Here’s what ours are so far.
Where was I when the Challenger blew up? 28 January 1986
I was in afternoon kindergarten at the time so I was sitting on the horrific blue plaid carpet of our family room in Texas watching the launch all by myself on TV. Other than that I don’t remember anything. And maybe I’m remembering it wrong – I was only 5.
Where was I when I found out that Princess Diana had died? 31 August 1997
I was a senior in high school hanging out at my friend Stephanie’s house. We had just finished watching The Princess Bride on video. It was actually the first time I’d seen the whole thing even though it was such an iconic movie for most people my age and several of her friends had been quoting the whole movie the entire time. Upon turning the video off, the news of her car crash and subsequent death was running as a “breaking news alert” on the TV. We didn’t quite believe it so we tuned to CNN for confirmation and they were running nothing but the story.
And the one no one will ever forget.
Where was I when I heard about the 9/11 terrorist attacks? 11 September 2001
I was a senior in college on 9/11. I happened to not have class on Tuesdays and Thursdays that semester so I was in bed asleep when it all started. I can’t remember if I’d set my alarm or if I just woke up around 9 on my own. I remember my housemate Gina was in her room drying her hair but she had the TV up really loud too which seemed weird. Because of the hair dryer, I couldn’t make out what they were talking about on the TV but I got the overwhelming impression that they were concerned about something. We didn’t have a TV in our room so I went downstairs to get breakfast and watch the TV in the living room. All I had to do was turn the TV on to realize that something was very wrong. It took a bit to understand though because I turned the TV on very shortly after the plane struck the Pentagon. That’s all I knew. I was stunned. I was even more stunned when they cut back to New York as the second plane hit. I still didn’t know that there had been a first plane. Once I had a basic understanding of what was going on – I called my mom. She doesn’t watch TV during the day normally. My brother and sister had already gotten her so she was watching. Unfortunately, she’d had to put the family dog down a few days prior and my dad was in Houston for a conference so she was home alone. And we have family that live and work in NYC. There’s more to the day but that’s my story of how I heard about 9/11.
We were talking about these types of events at lunch the other day. The older teachers were remembering Kennedy too. I also thought of where I was when the Gulf War started. I was talking with Kristen on the phone and I remember having the "we are at war??" conversation with my best friend at the age of 12. Surreal.
ReplyDeleteYou would think that since my brother was in the Gulf War, I would remember when I found out that we were at war but I don't. Weird.
ReplyDeleteChallenger: Could've sworn it was first grade. Remember watching it at school, and the highlight reel on the news at home. Didn't fully appreciate the tragedy at the time, but I do remember hearing inappropriate comments/jokes on the bus not too long aftewards. Sigh... I forget how early kids pick up such things.
ReplyDeleteDesert Storm: I remember waking up early one morning with my sister and flipping on the TV. Instead of getting Mr. Rogers (yeah we were a little old for his show but we had just the one English-language channel at the time so our choices were somewhat limited), we had the initial CNN reports that turned into round-the-clock coverage for weeks on end.
Princess Di: Watching RHPS with several others at my friend Justin's house. Same thing; movie ended and we switched to live TV, and we didn't initially believe the story.
September 11: My friend Jeff and I were riding to class that morning in his truck. The DJ on the radio was trying to relay some of the initial reports but unfortunately, the guy had a bit of a phony-DJ voice and it sounded like an awful attempt at a joke in very poor taste. After hearing Peter Jennings giving an update it became clear that something was wrong and the video coverage on the TVs in the MSC Flag Room left no doubt. My morning class was canceled and my afternoon class dissected the situation. The circuits were jammed but I eventually reached my mom on my cell phone. I ended the day in the apartment paralyzed in a chair with my eyes glued to the TV, mouth likely agape.
I guess it should come as no surprise that all of these involve television.