Where Were You?

Two of the blogs I read regularly, Oh The Joys and Her Bad Mother, have entries today for Friday Flashback.  We’re asked to write about “Where Was I When…?”  You know, our version of our parents remembering where they were when they heard Kennedy had been assassinated.

I started thinking about the key events mentioned.  Elvis’ death?  We woke up to the headlines on Sunday morning while visiting my aunt and uncle in Dallas.  But those headlines became more ingrained in my memory later in church that morning when the priest held up the paper with its front page story that screamed, “The King Is Dead.”  His point?  Elvis was not THE king.

The Challenger explosion?  When I get frustrated about Dancer Girl’s teenage self-centeredness, I need to remember my reaction to the Challenger explosion.  I stayed home sick from high school that day.  When I woke up and turned on the tv, ready for a day of indulgent soap opera watching, I became highly annoyed that this tragedy was preempting the scheduled programming.  I like to think that since I was all alone and not a part of the mutual grief that many people report that day, I missed out on what I would have felt had I learned of the accident in a different way. 

The Oklahoma City bombing?  I found out about it when I left school to run an errand that morning.  My main memory, though, is of my neighbor in Houston who was frantic because his wife, the mother of their two-year old son, had business that morning in downtown Oklahoma City–and he couldn’t reach her.  Fortunately, she was fine.

The second space shuttle explosion?  This happened right above the area of Texas where I grew up.  My parents heard it, and my cousin had his moment of fame as the dentist who had a piece of the shuttle come through his office’s roof. 

But none of these major events has that “stop in your tracks, the world has changed forever” feel to it that September 11th does.  Especially for me.  I’ve written before about my personal experience on 9/11.  And, ironically, since we’re travelling today, I’ll let you read it in its original form rather than recounting it again here.  But I will leave you with what I think of every time the events of 9/11 are mentioned: I am so, so fortunate to have what I have today and not to have lost Adventure Guy on that day with the bright blue skies.

Feel free to join in with your own memories.  If you do, be sure to include the link list below and let us know how to find you.

“Where Was I…” posts as of late morning:

Her Bad Mother
Sweetney
Mrs. Flinger
Mamalogues
Whoorl
Oh The Joys
Somewhere In The Suburbs