Do you know where you were at this time 6 years ago?
I remember being at work. I was writting a Visual Basic script. The timestamp of the file was between the airplane strikes on the WTC towers.
Some events – almost always disasters – seem to stick in our memories and shape our lives.
My grandparents remember Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941).
Many baby boomers (like my mother) remember vividly the Day the Music Died (February 3, 1959) when the plane carrying Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bobber crashed killing all on board. Their parents don’t remember this one, though.
Boomers also remember (and their parents as well) what they were doing when they found out JFK had been assassinated. (Very few remember that CS Lewis and Aldous Huxley also died on the same day – November 22, 1963).
My mother (as well as anyone over 40, I’m sure) also vividly remembers when Reagan was shot on March 30, 1981.
I remember exactly what I was doing when I saw the Challenger space shuttle disintegrate during take off on January 28, 1986. (But, I don’t remember Columbia – do you? Seems like the second time something happens, it is not as shocking, not as memorable.)
And then there is September 11, 2001. What were you doing when you found out?