Happy Hump Day and

I am just LAZY today.

Do I Remember...

1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (Nov. 22, 1963) Gosh no. I was not even thought of yet ... (almost ten years in the making), but I have seen enough footage to feel like I could have been a part of it.

2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (May 18, 1980) Vaguely. I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade. My teacher had some of the soot in a prescription bottle (hmmm), which I thought was so cool.

3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (January 28, 1986) I was sitting in my English class in 8th grade. My old friend, L, was sitting next to me. Our teacher, who was a TOTAL whack-job, pulled a TV into the room. We were all in complete and utter shock. Then to pass time, she and I started making really dark jokes. It was my generations first REAL disaster that would have effected us (or at least in the Midwest). A grade school was put up, just a year after the disaster, in Christa McAuliffe's (the teacher on board) honor right down the street from where I grew up.

4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (October 17, 1989) Don't quite remember. I do believe I'd said "WHY would anyone live in a place where an earthquake could occur." Um, yea. Famous last words. The aftermath was frightening to watch, that's for sure.

5. When the Berlin Wall fell (November 9, 1989) I was amazed...and also intrigued. Not to mention, Pink Floyd put on a concert there and I watched it on MTV. It was surreal..."tear down the wall..."


6. When the Gulf War began (January 16, 1991) Oh yes. I was sitting with my old high school friends...we'd been the kids (slackers) that had not gone to college right away. We typically hung out and watched "90210" and the "Simpsons" while we drank our underage booze and played poker. The news broke that we were at war. Suddenly, my guy friends got really quiet and all of us girls said we'd marry them to keep them safe. We were scared sh**less to say the least and started to discussing what COULD happen. I guess those were our first "adult" moments.

7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (June 17, 1994)
I was working at the gym. We had a little black and white TV that I brought to the front desk. We watched in anger and in awe as OJ was chased. We were in awe of the people that held signs saying, "SAVE JUICE" and were completely on edge (because let's face it, if you were innocent, why would you be running??). I was obsessed with watching that trial.


8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (April 19, 1995) Definitely. I remember flipping the news on and thinking "What the hell happened?" The aftermath of that was just chilling.

9. When Princess Di was killed (August 31, 1997) Oh, yes. It'd just happened. I was living in the city. My friend called me really early and said, "I know you are interested in these things...did you put the news on?" I flipped on the news and every station had been pre-empted to show photo montages and to discuss what happened.

10. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School (April 20, 1999) I was at work. The head of the company told us to come watch...we ran to our conference room and watched the terror that had occurred.

11. When Bush was first announced President (November 7, 2000) Well, I'd only been in California for a few weeks and my friends here were VERY political and all hated Bush. I already had hated Bush, but was usually surrounded by Bush advocates. I think my mother was the only person I knew that'd voted for him.

12. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (February 28, 2001) God, this is awful. I don't remember at all!

13. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center (September 11, 2001) Of course. It was 6:30 PST. I had just woken up and in typical form, flipped on my news program. I was half asleep as I watched the live footage of the first building. At first, I thought it was in another country. Then I realized it was New York. Seconds later, #2 had gone down. I was petrified and in shock. Then I was really upset as my sister was supposed to have flown around that time. (she lives in NJ and no, she was fine, thank goodness). I called my friends and family to see if everyone was okay. Some friends down the street called. We all got together and discussed how we thought the world was about to change...we were right.

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