Defining Moments
For my grandfather's generation, it was Pearl Harbor. For my Mother, it was the Kennedy Assassination. Some would say, for mine, it was the Challenger Disaster. I was an adult by then.
But, before that one, I remember that March afternoon when I was sixteen, sitting in DH's classroom, my classmates scattered around the room quietly studying math, when the radio (tuned to NPR, of course), announced that President Reagan had been shot.
What? we all started from our chairs, desperate for more news. The sky outside, already cloudy, somehow seemed darker. Our teachers sat silent, remembering a November day nearly twenty years before. Unbidden, we stopped silent, a prayer in our hearts.
Most of us didn't have television at home, so the only news we got was on radio. Who can forget Alexander Haig's "I am in charge," and all of us looking around thinking, "uh, is that right? Who is in charge, then?"
And later, the relief that the President had survived.
Twenty-five years ago.
But, before that one, I remember that March afternoon when I was sixteen, sitting in DH's classroom, my classmates scattered around the room quietly studying math, when the radio (tuned to NPR, of course), announced that President Reagan had been shot.
What? we all started from our chairs, desperate for more news. The sky outside, already cloudy, somehow seemed darker. Our teachers sat silent, remembering a November day nearly twenty years before. Unbidden, we stopped silent, a prayer in our hearts.
Most of us didn't have television at home, so the only news we got was on radio. Who can forget Alexander Haig's "I am in charge," and all of us looking around thinking, "uh, is that right? Who is in charge, then?"
And later, the relief that the President had survived.
Twenty-five years ago.
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