There are certain events in history that have such a great impact
that people will always remember where they were and what they were
doing when it happened. In my lifetime, there are three or four such
days.
When John Glenn first took his first flight in
space, I was in the 10th grade. His son, David Glenn, attended my high
school. As his father went into orbit, the radio commentary was piped
through out the entire school. I listened to the broadcast in the
school office where I had a class period as an office aide. There was
a collective cheer through out the entire school when Glenn's space
mission ended successfully. After all, he was OUR astronaut.
When
John Kennedy was shot, I was a senior in high school. I was an officer
in the Future Business Leader's of America club. Our big event for the
year was sponsoring the Miss JEB Stuart contest. During my last period
class, English, I had been allowed to go to the stage to do some
decorating for the event which was to be held that evening. The
announcement about the President being shot in Dallas came over the
loud speaker. I immediately returned to my English class and listened
to the rest of the events that transpired. School was released early
and all school events for the next few days were canceled.
When the first lunar landing took place, I was living in a duplex north University Avenue in Provo, Utah. I had only been married a couple of years. We had another couple over just to watch the landing with us. But I was also talking on the phone with a girlfriend who had just gotten engaged. I'm pretty sure that I had to make her wait for a minute or two when Neil Armstrong left the lunar module to step on the moon.
On
September 11, 2001, I was living in Salt Lake. That morning, I had a
Church Building Hosting Board Meeting on the 2nd floor of the Joseph
Smith Memorial Building. The events on the east coast were just
unfolding as I was getting ready to leave for my meeting. By the the
time the meeting started at 9 AM, all the attacks had transpired in New
York, and Washington. Members of the Hosting Board gathered in a
Public Affairs conference room where there was television feed. Our
meeting was forgotten. I watched the towers fall with a large group of
people from Public Affairs and the Hosting Board.
Last
night when news came of bin Laden's death, I was in my son's living
room in Denver watching something mindless on television. My son was
upstairs studying for an exam, the grandkids were in bed, and my DIL
was upstairs with my son. She came running downstairs and told me that
Osama bin Laden was dead. We watched the news together.
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