Where were you?

I remember my parents and grandparents talking about where they were and what they were doing the day JFK was shot. Clearly this was a pivotal event in history. I have my own memories - where I was and what I was doing when John Lennon and Ronald Reagan were shot, and of course on 9/11.

I was in school the day Reagan was shot (March 30, 1981), but I recall babysitting later that night and being glued to the television watching all the coverage. It was surreal - only three months earlier on December 8, 1980 Lennon had been shot. The murder happened at night so I was likely sleeping, but I remember going to school the next day - I only attended that school for four months, but I met my BFF there - and everyone was talking about it between classes and for several days afterward. That Christmas I went with my Noni (maternal grandma) and other relatives to Delaware and they were still talking about it everywhere we went. Lennon had a hit song at the time - "(Just Like) Starting Over" and it was a staple on the radio for months and months.

I was at work on 9/11/2001. I recall someone stopping in my office to say a plane had crashed in New York. Then a short time later someone else said a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. We all rallied around a conference room TV and logged onto the internet to see what was happening. I worked less than a mile away from MOA and officials thought it and the nearby airport could be terrorist targets so these were closed down along with our building around lunchtime. I called the kids' school to see if they were getting out early, but they said they were going to have a full day. So Mrs M and I went out to lunch (my favorite restaurant, Big Bowl) and talked about how scary everything was and how much we appreciated our families. Though we didn't know what exactly was in store, we knew our lives would be changed forever.

We remember -