Where were we?

Much is written each 9/11 anniversary, about where we were and what we were doing when we observed/learned of the terrorist attack that killed thousands of people while demolishing the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a portion of the Pentagon building, and while witnesssing (mostly posthumously) the courage of some of the innocent passengers on an airplane flight over Pennsylvania. It got me to thinking of other internationally reported events that stand out in my own mind.

4/12/1945 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies - The event is announced on the public address system while I am in my 2nd grade homeroom class.

11/22/1963 - President John Fitzgerald Kennedy is assassinated - A friend calls to see if I've heard the news (death yet to be announced) while I am baking and decorating cut-out sugar cookies.

2/7/1986 - Maria Corazon Sumulong Cojuangco-Aquino is elected President of the Philippines - A newscast on NPR informs me of the event as I lie in bed, having just awakened.

10/17/1989 - The Loma Prieta earthquake kills 63 people in the San Francisco, California area - I experience the event while driving from my worksite to my apartment in Sunnyvale, California. I am sitting at a red traffic signal, just across a freeway from the apartment complex - about equidistant from the site of a bridge collapse and the epicenter of the 6.9 on the Richter Scale (surface-wave magnitude 7.1) event. Nearly 4,000 people are injured and thousands left homeless.

11/9/1989 - The Berlin Wall "falls" - A newscast on NPR informs me of the event as I am driving from my worksite in Sunnyvale, California to the San Jose, California airport to enable me to spend a weekend at my home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I slow down to compensate for my decreased vision due to the tears in my eyes. A tiny piece of the wall will be gifted to Hunky Husband, mounted on a photo of a rent in the wall taken by HH's brother-in-law for a news agency.

1/17/1991 - Operation Desert Storm is launched - A newscast on NPR informs me of the event as I am in the parking lot, leaving work for the day.

9/11/2001 - Terrorist attack against the USA takes place - Shortly after 3:00pm (local time) as Hunky Husband, Elder Brother, the late Expert Seamstress, and I am returning to our motel from a day of birding in the Tampa, Florida area when I note that flags are flying at half-mast. Elder Brother, who is driving our rental car, asks if I wish him to switch on the radio. When I affirmed the wish, we hear that the Pentagon has been attacked. It is only minutes later that we learn of the full extend of the tragedy that had occurred that day.

 

Comments

[Ole Phat Stu]

I missed the moon landing, being in a submarine at the time.

[Cop Car]

Stu--What were you doing in a submarine? I failed to list a few of the space program events, didn't I? I recall Apollo 13 (one of our daughters stayed at home from school due to illness - I was with her, so we watched on TV) and I recall the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986. I lived in Albuquerque and worked in Los Angeles at the time; but, was in Wichita and had just pulled into the parking lot, where Dudette worked, when I heard the announcement on the radio.