Where Were You When JFK Died?

I was just finishing up the leek and potato soup, having a sit and listening to a retrospective of 9/11, and someone was asked where he was when it happened. I stopped reading and thought "I know exactly where I was". Then thought hmmm, how many other events can I say that about? I came up with three: The assassination of JFK, the first moon landing and 9/11. Sure, there are others that are burned in memory, but mostly they are multi-events like the end of the Vietnam War or the invasion of Iraq.

            The assassination of JFK: I was in a class on fungi in the old botany building at the University of Miami. Someone from the lab came in and said "Kennedy has been shot in Texas. Don't know if he's dead" and left. We all went after him, prof too, and spent the next several hours listening to the lab radio and talking quietly.

            Friday July 20th, 1969, three something in the afternoon. All the grad students from the trailer park got together in my trailer complete with many quart bottles of Bud and lots of Charles Chips and watched the landing. We sweated and cheered. We waited for the moonwalk watched for 2+ hours while they walked and bounced around on the moon. The next day they lifted off safely and eventually landed safely. Wow!

            Tuesday September 1th, 2001 I was driving to Thomasville, listening to NPR, when they interrupted the programing to announce that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York. I was just outside of Beachton and hauled ass to campus. Faculty, staff and students were already gathered in the student lounge in front of the big screen TV. We watched as the second plane hit the second tower. And then we watched as each in turn came down. We stayed for hours, welded into a single grieving community. And then for days we watched the reruns of both of those hits.

            Some things you can never forget. Some good things and some bad things. And you know what? You better not EVER forget. Yet. Yet. I have students that look at me like I have two heads when I stop for a moment on December 7th. And many think the Vietnam War is in the dim past. They see the black wall as an artefact. I suppose someday 9/11 will be an artefact. But not in my brain, as long as it lasts.

 

Image: http://www.black-and-right.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/WTC-9-11.jpg