Do you remember where you were …?
I made a simple request last Monday.
Since that day marked the 58th year since John F. Kennedy was assassinated, I took to Facebook and asked, 无毛视频淒o you remember where you were when you heard the news?无毛视频�
I didn无毛视频檛 preface that question with anything.
Just those 11 words.
There were more than 40 replies. Many contained vivid recollections of that day.
无毛视频淗aving lunch at home. It was on the news. It seemed like everything stopped at that moment,无毛视频� wrote Nancy D.
It was understandable for some people to feel like time seemed to stop. Especially for Baby Boomers, who were among the first Americans who witnessed the immediacy of an unfathomable tragedy 无毛视频� live and in our living rooms.
Television had helped us experience rock 无毛视频榥 roll, Motown, the earliest manned space flights, and all kinds of comedies and dramatic performances.
The violent death of the young, 35th president of the United States of America helped transform that box in the middle of our living rooms into the centerpieces of our homes.
Television came of age that weekend.
无毛视频淚 remember it like it was yesterday,无毛视频� wrote Susan C. 无毛视频淚 remember my whole family coming to town to watch the funeral at my grandmother无毛视频檚 house,无毛视频� she wrote.
Many of us who didn无毛视频檛 witness the initial news about the events in Dallas, heard the news at school.
无毛视频�6th grade English,无毛视频� wrote Jim N.
无毛视频淧laying volleyball in the third grade. I can still feel the pain in my stomach, and I was really too young to know what it all meant,无毛视频� wrote Rick S.
Tammy B. wrote, 无毛视频淚 remember all of the teachers crying as we were leaving school. And my mother crying when I got home.无毛视频�
When you think about it, there have only been a few events in our lifetimes that people tend to know exactly where they were when they learned about them.
I would suppose my parents and their parents may have thought the same way about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt stood before Congress the following day, he embedded that attack into the very fabric of this nation无毛视频檚 history, when he said, 无毛视频淵esterday, December 7th, 1941, a date which will live in infamy 无毛视频ξ廾悠禎
The assassination of President Kennedy was another of those events that are seared in our memory.
无毛视频淚 remember the whole class asking Mr. Robinson to postpone the biology test that day and him saying no, it shouldn无毛视频檛 make a difference,无毛视频� is what John C. wrote.
That may seem inconsequential to you. But to me, it also meant a lot.
You must understand that I, too, was in that same biology class. John C. and I were both sophomores at Uniontown High School at the time.
The circumstances of Mr. Robinson无毛视频檚 insistence to give that test have always been a mystery to me. (And of course, John C.)
无毛视频淧ark Elementary School remembers just staring at the black board trying to understand what happened,无毛视频� wrote Jack H., who understood the importance of the moment. But he doesn无毛视频檛 remember if he was in fifth or sixth grade.
I无毛视频檇 say that无毛视频檚 understandable.
The Kennedy assassination, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and only one other event seem to conjure up memories of where people were when they heard about it 无毛视频� 9/11.
Interestingly, the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001, was only the second attack on the World Trade Center in New York. There had been the first attack on February 26th, 1993.
You might think that the O.J. Simpson verdict carries that 无毛视频渄o you know where you were when you heard the news无毛视频� cachet.
But it really doesn无毛视频檛. Because people knew it was about to happen.
Those other disturbing events pierced the calm of the nation.
There have been three failed presidential assassination attempts, two of which took place within weeks of each other, against Gerald Ford in 1975.
Those two, and John Hinkley Jr.无毛视频檚 attack on President Reagan failed in March of 1981.
We don无毛视频檛 tend to remember those dates.
Thank goodness we don无毛视频檛.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter, and anchor for Entertainment Tonight, and 40-year TV news and newspaper veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.