In my lifetime I have experienced several of those events, where you remember precisely where you were when you heard devastating world news:
In third grade when US President Kennedy was assassinated. I know I've told this before, so skip it if you've heard this. I was in the hallway, a punishment for talking in class, go figure, when a big fifth grader walked by and told me the news. I debated whether to tell the teacher, but concluded I was already in enough trouble for talking. A few minutes later we lined up and filed into the auditorium. We were lead in song by the music teacher when the principal interrupted and told us "This is not a good day to sing" and made the sad announcement.
9/11 I woke up to my clock radio alarm (remember those) I hear a plane hit a high-rise building sleepily thinking a small plane had accidentally hit a local Vancouver business tower. I was jolted awake with the news that NY was the target. It was during a time when we didn't subscribe to cable TV, but miraculously discovered we had TV reception for the next four days.
One more. where were you when you heard that Princess Di had died? Blogless Marsha and family were visiting us to celebrate D's birthday. The kids were watching TV and the adults were in the kitchen, when her eldest son bounded up the stairs to deliver the news.
Today is the one year anniversary of the declaration of the existence of a pandemic and the ten year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. I have vivid "where were you when" memories of both.
A year ago on the 11th we were flying to Bali to visit our son and his girlfriend, a place where the covid number totalled one. While in flight the pandemic was declared. Five days later Canadians were called home. At six days the US declared a level 4 travel advisory. That's when we knew it was serious. We had been trying to change our return flight without luck. Finally we were able to get a reservation for day nine of our trip, much sooner than the schedule 28 days.
I remember sobbing at the airport not knowing when we would see our son again. Little did I know that restrictions would include the inability to be with our Canadian based daughters and family members. I recall our layover in the Taipei airport and seeing some passengers in disposable rain type gear with masks, gloves and shields, science fiction turned reality. And now, two million people have been taken by this disease, and still counting, as predictions of a third wave based on the possibility variants not covered by the vaccines will gain momentum.
Ten years ago today I was in San Francisco, joining my daughter on a business trip. We had, of course, access to US TV and CNN was all about the tsunami in Japan. San Francisco was under tsunami alert. A few days later it was my birthday and after a dinner at the Le Cordon Bleu culinary institute, I suffered severe food poisoning. Vivid memories of that trip, indeed.
The IPhone's "On this Day" photo feature reminds us of mostly good times. Next year, here is what i’ll see “On This Day.” This is where I was March 12, 2021:
A liberating mask-not-required bike ride, 40k, Mud Bay Park to Tsawwassen, BC and back. Lunch was on the patio at the Beach Grove Cafe. Oh yeah, Ms.”I’ll never use the throttle setting on my e-bike” caved at 32k. It was our first ride except for around the block.