Reply #31: Lemme See [View All]

[Burma Jones]

JFK - Don't really remember, I was barely 4. Kinda remember my parents being upset.

John Lennon - Was coming back from a rehearsal of a play I was in at College, Buried Child by Sam Shepherd and sat down in the living room of the Frat House I was staying in over the Winter Break. I had just heard "shot and killed in New York before Channel 9 in Chicago went to commercial. One of my friends came in and asked "what's up in the world?" I said "some big shot just got killed in New York." After the commercials, the photo of John Lennon from the White Album inserts appeared on the screen and then I knew.

Reagan - Heard about it between classes. Didn't really give it much thought besides wondering what sort of President Bush I might make.

Challenger - Was at work when someone came into the office I shared with three other analysts and said the shuttle blew up. We went over to the bar next door to drink and watch TV the rest of the day. My Mom was the Secretary for the chief if Shuttle Operations and knew some of the Astronauts socially, I had a long phone conversation with her that evening.....

9/11 - was living up in Bedford, NY, my Wife had the kids down in Rye for my son's speech therapist. I was going to the grocery store on that sparkling beautiful morning and had the radio tuned to the "Sports Guys" on WNEW. They were going on and on about a plane crashing into the WTC and that they could see smoke etc. I thought it was a hoax, so I tuned to 1010 WINS and heard the same story. I turned around, went back home tuned into CNN and watched. I tried to reach my Wife, but you could forget any and all cell phone service. My little brother was at NYU and watched most of it happen from Washington Square. We had friends who lived and/or worked in lower Manhattan. Wife got back from Speech and we all hugged and freaked out some and started monitoring our Emails for word of friends and family. Finally, at about 2 in the afternoon, the emails started to appear saying people were OK. We did not lose any friends or family, we lost a couple people we knew professionally and friends of ours did lose good friends that day. At about 5 that afternoon, I went to the grocery store in Scott's Corners and it was dark for some reason and the only sound you heard was the cash registers and squeaky grocery cart wheels. Everyone whispered for days and days afterwards. I was supposed to be at Pace University to start my Doctoral Program the next day with 4 intense 12 hour days. As some of our class were coming up from DC, and the Delaware Memorial Bridge was closed - although I believe they still attempted to collect tolls - we skipped the first day. It was surreal though, we were all in class trying to concentrate while some of us were getting calls about going back in and re-wiring the communications infrastructure and one of our classmates, an Indian, was going on about how the Hindus and the Christians should get together and kill all the Muslims and one of our professors telling us it was all our own fault that this happened.....

It's funny, when we started into Afghanistan, I was at the Giants Redskins game at Giants Stadium. Planes landing at Newark were flying close enough for us to see the windows and airline name. That was unsettling. Then, before halftime, air traffic stopped and people started to say we had attacked Afghanistan. Now, there wasn't any acknowledgment from the PA guy or the Jumbotron, but the info was coming from all the radios and tiny TVs people had. The rest of the game was odd, you were sort of paying attention, but you were really trying to find out what the hell was going on.