Tonight we had our annual Thanksgiving dinner with the transplanted Americans-living-in-Canada. The crowd is always the same and it’s always great, the food is always amazing, and this year there was a baby to hold. (i love holding babies)
We started talking about how yesterday was the anniversary of the death of JFK. and how everyone who was alive during that generation knows exactly where he or she was. home. school. work. people remember what they were wearing. what those around them were wearing. One of our friends’ fathers was actually thrown out of class because his teacher thought he was lying about the shooting.
now, none of us sitting around the table were alive on November 22nd, 1963, but there are some events and dates that we all know exactly where we were when.
On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds into its flight. I was in my second grade classroom, watching it happen on our tiny 17-inch tv. A bunch of 8-year-olds crowded around a tiny tv watching what was supposed to be a joyous event.
On August 31, 1997 Princess Diana died after a high-speed car accident in Paris. The husband and i were dating…and were at Newtonbrook bowlerama.
On September 11, 2001 American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center, respectively. I was at home, playing on the floor with my 6-month-old baby Emily. We were watching the Today show when Matt Lauer announced the breaking news.
Three tragedies. Three very vivid memories of where i was.
We seem to remember the bad things. the explosions, the deaths. Why do you think that is? Why is it the bad events stick out so much more than the good ones? Why don’t we remember what we were wearing when Michael Jordan led his team to a three-peat championship? Why don’t we remember the day we watched the last episode of Cheers?
Where were you???
oh ali, those are the same events that stand out in my mind…the most vivid being, for some reason, stepping out of my brother’s apartment and seeing the headline of the newspaper “Diana killed” and sobbing hysterically. another one for me is when a friend called during my university dys and told me river phoenix had died.
Oh I forgot what about when OJ was driving the white bronco? I was at a bar with friend, just got back from SF Giants game, everyone in the bar was watching the TV – and sadly I remember when he got aquitted – all crammed into co-workers cubicle at The Learning Compnay (was an animator and developed children’s educational video games)….
I am a tad bit older – Challenger was sophmore spanish, Princess Diana was married – and having large party at our apartment, Sept 11th, woke up by husband to come see what was on TV – he was getting ready for work, my 2 year old son got up also. These things make me stop and realize what I am thankful for – it also brings people together to know we all have this connection about this one time. Your post made me think…..
I remember both good and bad:
Princess Di: in the bath after a camping trip. DH told me after he heard it on the news.
John Lennon: still in bed, woke up upon hearing my Dad shout, “My God! They killed John Lennon” when he picked up the newspaper.
Pope John Paul II shooting: I saw it on the news when home for lunch. Went back to school to tell my catholic friend (it just hit me she went to public school – wonder why?). She accused me of lying.
9/11: watching CNN just getting ready to head to work. While we watched, I saw the 2nd plane coming in – shouted to DH and my little sister “there’s a second plane!”. A surreal day.
Challenger: all I remember is all the bad challenger jokes (how many astronauts can you fit in an ashtray).
Last Cheers: at a bar on Bayview with my sis & a friend
Blue Jays Winning the World Series: the first time, with Jen & Margot at Mr. Greenjean’s in the Eaton Centre, the 2nd time watched on TV from Kingston (I was at Queen’s Homecoming – it was the first year after I graduated).
The Berlin Wall Tear-down: on TV in my house on University Ave in Kingston. 2nd year. Good Times! I was so excited because I had BEEN THERE just 2 years before.
Challenger – I vividly remember coming home at lunch to find my mom sitting on the couch crying.
Princess Di – I was staying at my Aunt’s house & we heard the news & watched for hours & hours, sitting on her bed just sobbing
Sept 11 – We had moved to Minnesota a few months before & I didn’t have to go in to work until around noon, so I had a guy there installing blinds (I know, no blinds for months, the things you do before you have kids). He said to me (in a totally innocent & almost endearing way that frankly only Minnesotan’s can actually get away with) “I have heard that there may be other planes out there & that the Mall of America may be a target. I mean ya why not, if they’re going after symbols of America…It’s right there in the name!” I had to stop myself from laughing on such a somber day!
I was also at a bowling alley when Princess Di had the accident! Nuts, I remember watching the big screen news all night.
9/11 I was still in school and I skipped all my engineering classes that day to watch the news in the cafeteria with most the school.
The other 2 I do not really remember.
Just noticed the John Lennon comment…great story about that. I was in Grade 9 at a girl’s Catholic school. A few months prior to Lennon’s death, the Pope John Paul I had died and the school made a huge fuss and we all complained about having to go to all these masses and prayer services. When Lennon died, girls were crying in the hallways and many approached our principal, Sr. Bonaventure, asking for prayers. She came over the PA and lambasted all of us for our heathen and immoral ways in being so upset about Lennon with nothing about the Pope.
Here’s more dating – Elvis Presley – summer of Grade 6 coming home from the orthdontist stopped at the lights at Finch and Leslie.
Lady Di – in North York General Hospital, jsut following serious abdominal surgery and no nurses anwering the “I gotta pee” calls because they were all watching TV.
Twin towers – at school, just leaving my last class to go to the airport to leave for my honeymoon and thought that the teachers and students were playing a joke on me.
911 – was at work, we all watched on TV there, I remember how sick & scared I felt at that moment
Lady Di – Hubby & I were also dating, we were at a bar
but they showed it on all the TV’s
The OJ Simpson chase – was with the same friends at a dinner party
John Lennon’s death – was in 6th grade when a classmate announced it – now that ages me!!!
I remember all of the same events you do.
But, I also remember the last episode of Cheers – cause it aired on my birthday! And they played it at Skydome. But I didn’t go.
I agree with Haley-O. It makes one stop and think. To take stock of your life and make some decisions. That is how urbanmoms.ca came to be. It is the anniversary of my cousin’s death this week, a wonderful mom lost to her children. Her death gave me pause and inspired and motivated me to create our online community.
Please check out the dedication to her here:
http://urbanmoms.typepad.com/urbanmoms/2007/11/inspiration-fro.html
Space shuttle: In class (grade 7), same as you, the whole school was watching. The teachers were a mess (sad plus the added stress of how to explain this to all us kids). If that happened today they would probably call the parents in and have grief councilors on hand within hours.
Lady Dianna: sitting with a friend having a few drinks, then a few more…
911: At home with my 1 month old. Dazed and confused, thought I was watching a trailer for a movie.
I also remember where I was when I found out Curt Cobain committed suicide.
I was sitting watching TV in a common room while in residence at Western University in London Ontario, we all watched in stunned amazement.
911 .. I too was sitting on the livingroom floor playing with my six month old and watching the today show, immediately I picked up the phone to call my sister who was living 6 blocks from the tower to make sure she was ok. I remember being in a daze that whole day.
I was working on my phd dissertation when 911 happened. And, that was the day I realized I wanted to stop and change my life…. I think these bad things stand out because they’re REAL. They cast into relief the very fragile, vulnerable nature of our existence. Remind us that we have to make the best of the here and now…. etc., etc. I think that’s one of the reasons we remember exactly where we were then, at that particular “here and now”….