I’ve noted it before, though not necessarily here, that my parents generation had the JFK assassination as a permanent memory. They could still remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news.
My own first experience with the sort of phenomena was, to no one’s surprise, September 11, 2001. I still remember being at work, browsing news sites on my computer when I came across NBC’s site and saw a picture of the Twin Towers with smoke billowing out of it. The headline was simply “Plane crashes into World Trade Center”, or something similarly alarming but unremarkable. I also remember thinking “Great, some yahoo…” The rest, as they say, is history.
I realized at that time that I would have been fine if I never had another memory like that.
Yesterday, I was watching the boy and the lass struggle with the fine art of roller skating when I happened to glance at my Twitter feed. I saw a tweet from our local news stations that “Two powerful explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.” I had early hopes that it was some kind of gas main accident or some such, but it quickly became apparent that the cause was nefarious.
The history of this event is still unfolding. But it’s already another day I won’t ever forget.
One reply on “Another Memory”
Sadly, there are too many of these memories: Newtown, Colorado, Virginia Tech … the world is always looming outside our door … and it’s hard to know how to prepare ..