1. Challenger space shuttle exploded (1986):
~In the snack bar at undergrad school having lunch. I'd just called home to check on Elder Son who was home sick and returned to see it blow up. Awful.
2. Berlin Wall falls down (1989):
~I was in grad school, and I have only vague memories of this.
3. Oklahoma City federal building bombing (1995):
~This was in the spring, right? I was in my first year in my tt job...and that's about all I remember.
4. OJ Verdict (1995):
~Teaching. I remember going to class and that's all the students could talk about.
5. Princess Diana dies (1997):
~I walked out to get the newspaper Sunday morning--it was a bright and beautiful morning--and saw the headline. I was sad, but didn't get caught up in the mania like a few people I knew at the time.
6. Columbine massacre (1999):
~Teaching again, but I don't remember how I heard about it. I do remember going to the high school to pick up NSLS and listening to NPR with growing horror as the details came out.
7. JFK Jr. Plane crash (1999):
~Home in Vermont...that's about all I can remember. Once again, I was sad but not caught up in it.
8. Bush/Gore crazy election (2000):
~Still teaching in Vermont. I remember the days going by and wondering HOW LONG it could drag out, and being really depressed by all of it.
9. September 11, (2001):
~In a department meeting--someone came in and said he'd just heard that a plane hit the Twin Towers. We just assumed it was a small plane and a tragic accident. When the meeting was over, I went and checked email and found out about the second plane. We quickly gathered in an empty classroom across from our dept. offices and turned on the TV to see the first tower fall. I had a 10:00 class but it became readily apparent that the kids were too stunned and worried about family and friends to concentrate, so we watched more news coverage. And later classes were canceled for the day.
The Kid was fifth grade at the time, and when I went to pick him up at his afterschool program I was a bit surprised that he hadn't heard what had happened. I still am not sure if the school should've told the kids. I just know when I was a kid, news like that would've been announced over the intercom.
10. Space ship Columbia disintegrates (2003):
~It was a Saturday morning during my first year in seminary, and I was listening to NPR.
11. Hurricane Katrina hits (2005):
~I had just moved here about six weeks earlier. Because I have friends and family in the south, I generally follow hurricane reports, and I remember the long approach of the storm, and the horrendous aftermath.
12. A couple of bonuses for us old folks:
John Kennedy's assassination November 22, 1963
~I was in the fifth grade; all the fifth graders were together to practice Christmas carols (we went to sing at a nursing home) when one of the sixth grade teacher came to the door and called my teacher out. She came in looking very grave and told us that the president had been shot. We went back to our classroom and turned on the radio and heard that he had died. It was also the day of my best friend's birthday party, and the day that I had pizza for the first time ever.
MLK's assassination April 1968
~I was in the ninth grade. I don't remember where I was when I heard, but there was a lot of turmoil where I lived and the National Guard was called up. I wasn't frightened, it just seemed surreal. And very, very sad.
RFK's assassination June 1968
~End of ninth grade; I think it might have been the last day of school. After MLK's assassination I had started paying more attention to politics and was really rooting for RFK to get the Democratic nomination. I was just stunned when he was killed. The combination of those two deaths that year I think was a really traumatic thing for kids my age. That was the end of hope, really, and it wasn't until Obama came along that hope seemed to return in any great sense.
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