I got to thinking the other day..I've been lucky to hang around for some pretty important events in the last sixty years. In psychology, remembering a special event that sticks in your mind is called a "flashbulb memory." Generally, we can't remember things that happened to us in our lives, unless it's a special event, a landmark, like a wedding, a funeral or special birthday.
That's how it is with the following "flashbulb memories.' I remember where I was, what I was doing because the evnt was so huge I couldn't forget. Like time had frozen, there are certain historic events I'll never forget..such as....
* Kennedy Assassination- Nov. 23, 1963. Everyone seems to know where they were or what they were doing when JFK was shot and killed in Dallas that day.
I was at home that afternoon, maybe sick from school or recuperating from a recent fracture. I had just turned seven years old the week before.
I was in the living room, watching our black-and-white TV, CBS to be exact, when around 12:30 p.m. a Special Bulletin broke into regular programming ( probably a soap opera). Special Bulletins seemed to always bring bad news and this one was no different.
Mom was in the backyard that chilly late fall day, hanging clothes. When she came in I related the enws to her, that President Kennedy had been shot. No one knew of his condition at first, so it was less than an hour later when it was announced that JFK was dead.
My mom was stunned and thought I was joking until she saw for herself: there was newsman Walter Cronkite himself, breaking the shocking news that would change history forever.
I don't remember much of that evening or that weekend, in fact. I do vaguely recall seeing the new President, Lyndon Johnson, arrive in Washington, D.C. that night and speak to the American people.
Bits and pieces of the funeral come to mind, especially the Eternal Flame burning at Arlington National Cemetery, as Kennedy was buried late in the afternoon. What a long, sad couple of days for America.
* The Beatles are here!- 1964. The Beatles arrived in New York City. The country needed some cheering up after the Kennedy assassination, and a little British musical group named the Beatles gave America the tonic it needed to live again.
I remember listening to the radio as the Beatles were flying over the Atlantic that afternoon in February. Like tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, the DJ was giving a blow-by-blow, mile-by-mile account of how close the Beatles were to landing in New York.
I don't remember much of the Ed Sullivan show the Sunday after, only that I watched, as did some 30 million other Americans.
* Challenger Disaster- 1986. I was in class at Montgomery County Community College, completing my final year there, when I came out of class on January 28 that afternoon and heard the Challenger space shuttle had exploded after take-off.
Later that night at home I saw the horrifying film of the explosion.
* Moon Landing- On a happier space note, we were in a hotel room in Oklahoma, my family and I, on our way to visit my Uncle Steve in California, when we witnessed Neil Armstrong stepping on the surface of the moon,on July 20, 1969. "One small step for man..One giant leap for mankind."
* Nixon resigns- 1974. I really didn't understand or care about a thing called Watergate back then. When President Nixon resigned that evening with a speech to the nation, I was with my Uncle Henry on a beautiful summer evening at Brandy wine Racetrack in Delaware, betting on the ponies. Can't remember if I won or not.
* Princess Diana dies- 1997. I loved Princess Di, even back then. I didn't get up at 5:00 a.m. to watch her wedding like my mom did 16 years earlier, but I did have a crush on her. She was always one of the most beautiful women in the world.
I'm not sure what I was doing the night her car crashed in a Paris tunnel. It was evening, and when I first heard the news, I think on the radio or from a friend, I turned on CNN and learned she had died.
I do vividly remember the funeral, from the church where Elton John sang "Goodbye, English Rose' ( the melody was form his "Candle in the Wind"), to the procession through the London streets, with mountains of flowers everywhere, to the arrival at her final resting place, where the actual burial was private.
So many larger-than-life figures, like Princess Di, especially in the 1980s. Pope John Paul II, later St. John Paul, was beloved by all. A warm, friendly pope, my mom saw him when he visited Philadelphia earlier in the 80s. I do remember his signature kissing the ground at each airport after he arrived for a visit. I do remember when he died in 2005. It seemed like days that he was on the verge of death. And I remember the election of a new pope soon after.
Mother Teresa was another major figure I remember. She too would become a saint. I remember she actually visited the Philly area one time. She died within a week of Princess Diana in 1997, and I still can recall the iconic photo when the two most famous women on the planet met.
Another iconic figure was Michael Jackson. from his days with the Jackson 5 to his Thriller success in the 80s, to the allocations of child abuse later, and finally, his death in 2009. Jackson was always in the news for over 30 years of my life.
* Elvis has left the building- Elvis died in August of 1977. It was a really hot day, and I heard the news on a small transistor radio while I was sitting outside that late afternoon. I wasn't a big Elvis fan, so it didn't effect me much, but I do remember the tributes and the fact that nothing would be the same after that day.
* America's Bicentennial- America's 200th birthday, Sunday, July 4, 1976. It was a crystal clear, sunny, blue sky warm day, perfect weather for the usual Independence Day cook-out and extra fireworks that night. In the morning we saw the wagon trains wheel through Phoenixville, on their way to Valley Forge National Park to join a million people who were gathered there to see then Present Gerald Ford speak. The wagon train was a big deal, since it had crossed the country weeks before. To see it wind down Starr St. in person was cool.
Later that afternoon I watched on TV as the tall ships passed by the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.
* Halley's Comet- 1986. A big deal because the famous comet would not zoom by Earth until 2061. I remember all the hype and how disappointed I was when the comet couldn't be seen because of weather conditions and the fact it wasn't on the more viable side of the earth in relation to the sun.
It's suppose to be brighter next time, when I'm 104, on July 28, 2061.
Interestingly enough, writer Mark twin was born within 2 weeks of the comet's arrival in 1835. He died a week after Halley's Comet left the vicinity of Earth in 1910. As Twain himself commented, "I came in with the comet, and I'll probably go out with it too."
He did.
* World Trade Center disaster- Sept. 11, 2001, 9/11 would live in infamy as Pearl Harbor was for the previous generation.
When the twin towers were first hit, I was at work ( I worked for Parkhouse nursing center back then) in the morning. I was talking to one f my resident's family members on the phone. The elderly lady called me, and before she related the reason she had called, she muttered something about watching "the plane hit the building in New York." I had no idea what she was talking about, at first thinking she may be a little confused. After hanging up I alter found out the details from co-workers.
Everyone kept an eye on TV that day, as rumors swirled that the entire country was under attack, and a plane had hit the Pentagon too.
I watched the terrible carnage on the news that night, and was riveted with the newscast until late that night, thinking how will we ever survive and clean up as I watched the building smolder and think of all the lives lost that dreadful day.
What are your memories of these events?
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