I thought somebody may have mentioned arguably America's greatest or most controversial President. Nobody any thoughts oh him or his actions, his ideals or his death?
I remember the day he was assassinated. I was in third grade, and the dismissal bell had just rung. As we got up to spill into the hall, some kid ran into the classroom and blurted out that someone had shot the President. I punched the kid for telling such an awful lie. There are some events you remember your entire life with crystalline clarity.
I'm a little young for the JFK assassination, but I remember being in school in third grade and we were all crowded around a television to watch Christa McAuliffe be the first teacher in space. Of course it wasn't meant to be, as we watched in horror as the Challenger space shuttle exploded.
I'm way too young to remember it, and I actually don't know much about JFK other than some of his most controversial stuff (Cuba, the Cold War). Whenever I hear about the JFK assassination, I automatically think conspiracy theories.
I remember that event in perfect clarity also. I was reheating homemade chili (I even remember which recipe) in the kitchenette, and was watching the launch on the portable TV the receptionist/head of security had brought in. I watched in shock as the vapor trail split, and hoped against hope that the crew ha survived inside the orbiter itself. Christa's sister was a friend and colleague in that company.
It was 50 years ago, and it seems so to me. And yet, we still don't 'know' and probably never will, what actually happened. Of course I remember where I was at the time it was announced—first that he'd been shot, and then a little while later that he was dead. I was 14 years old, in 7th hour study hall. I remember the Challenger, of course, but couldn't tell you where I was or what I was doing at the time. It was a hugely shocking moment, but somehow not quite the same. It was an accident. With Kennedy's assassination, a whole window opened up on how things 'are,' and the fact that Camelot didn't exist after all. It was the start of a whole new world, really. And several months later ...the Beatles appeared on my radar too. BIG big changes all round.
Let's see, JFK assassinated the year before I was born, Challenger: I went to a friends house and he had it recorded. 9/11, I was on my way to work (second shift, so I slept through the moment as it happened), in fact I was approaching the downtown interchange as I was attempting to block out what I was hearing, but I remember thinking it was some terrible joke, until I got to work and looked on the internet.
For 9/11, I was 2000 miles from home in Phoenix, attending a company training week. I turned on the TV that morning as the Today show was reporting that a small plane had apparently stuck the World Trade Center. They still hadn't grasped the scale. As I watched, a second plane appeared, also oln a collision path, and I thought, "Damn. This is no accident." I was "stranded" all week. The class unanimously voted to go ahead with the training, because no one would be going anywhere anyway. We finished a day early, but since I couldn't leave yet anyway, I sent the extra day hiking and taking photographs in a desert reservation. The only things in the sky all week were birds and military aircraft. And people stopped being petty and selfish for the duration.
