What Were You Doing When

What were you doing when…?

Princess Diana died – 31 August 1997
I was seven months pregnant and couldn’t sleep. I went to the den, turned on the fan, and lay down on the couch to watch Saturday Night Live. I thought they were doing a sketch until I realized it was really the news.

The U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union team – 22 February 1980
Sitting in the floor of my parents’ den with my eyes glued to the set. It was the best hockey game EVER.

Anwar Sadat met Menachem Begin in Jerusalem – 19 November 1977
My father called me in the house from playing in the back yard to watch some big jet plane land on a runway and two men shake hands. I was upset because I wasn’t outside on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.

The World Trade Center was attacked – 11 September 2001
I was putting the expenses in a spreadsheet as the chair of the Christmas parade. I thought I heard a gas line explode somewhere in the neighborhood. I walked outside to see if I could see anything. My neighbor called me to come over. She said one of the towers had collapsed. I couldn’t believe it and ran to her house. We were both standing in her living room watching the news report when the second one collapsed.

President Kennedy was assassinated – 22 November 1963
For that one, I’ll have to pass. I wasn’t even a gleam in my father’s eye at that point in history.