Reply #5: Oh... [View All]

[CBHagman]

I was in kindergarten when JFK was assassinated. I don't remember when I heard the news, but I can still hear the voice of the WOR radio newsman -- I don't remember his name, but his spot appeared on John A. Gambling's show -- discussing the assassination the next morning. I was very troubled by the description and even more troubled by the televised funeral, plus the knowledge that JFK had left a widow and children.

1. I was a university student when Reagan was shot. I remember that I was walking past a men's dorm when some guy stuck his head out the window and shouted, "Someone's taken a shot at Reagan!" I walked right over to the student union to see whether they were broadcasting radio reports.

2. I was in graduate school when the Challenger exploded. An undergraduate student told me about it when we were both riding in an elevator in the humanities building.

3. I had gone out for a morning walk on September 11th and was in an extraordinarily optimistic mood. It was such a beautiful day. Before I went to catch the Metro to work, I heard something on NPR about a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Strangely, I didn't really register how serious that was or the loss of life involved.

Then I got to work and the enormity of the attacks became clear, and rumors were flying about: that BWI (the Baltimore airport) was under attack, that there was a fire on the Mall in DC, etc. People were not only evacuating government buildings but also simply leaving the city; I could see a line of cars, bumper to bumper outside my office window.

That night I went home on a nearly deserted Metro and in an eerily silent city.