My parents got married in '68. They refer to it as the year of disasters: My Lai, MLK, RFK, Prague Spring crushed, Nixon elected, they got married..... ( their joke, still happily married!)

Somehow I missed the entire Challenger thing. It happened just as we were changing classes. Each of my teachers told their other class and I never heard. Until I got home and saw the afternoon paper with a giant picture of the smoke. I was pretty shocked.

We were living in Brazil for 9/11. Every Brazilian I talked to that week was so supportive - even the waitresses and newspaper guys. Of course, everyone at the consulate was very upset by the State/car bomb story. It was very scary being out of the country, but I'm sure it was just as scary being in the country.

On 9/11, I heard and felt it when the planes hit. I was riding a subway when the buildings collapsed.

I burst into tears when we finally heard from you. God that was a hell of a day.

Alexander Bustmante's death was the first big news event that hit me. Irrelevant to everyone here, but a big deal to Jamaicans. JBC (our TV station) didn't start airing programs until the afternoon (maybe even evening), so I don't think they obscured normal programming, but the test pattern was replaced by a picture of our National Hero, and we had the TV on forever, just looking at that static image.

Creepily, they did it when Lennon died too. I had no idea who he was, but it was his picture and "Woman" playing on eternaloop.

Most of these things don't stick me in a specific place. I remember 9/11, sometimes in excruciatingly voyeuristic detail, but when I first heard the first thing? No idea. Same way with the big Jamaican earthquake. I do remember Princess Di...and I remember a friend hearing about the fall of the wall because she learnt of it from an improv skit (which is how I learnt about Princess Di--I just didn't believe it until I got home. Damn, it was a tasteless joke).

My memory is mostly crap. I remember donning the black armband for Bob Marley's death, but not where I was when I heard. I remember my shock at Peter Tosh's death, but I couldn't tell you what country I was in without checking the dates

I do remember watching the TV and seeing the Special News Bulletin for Lennon's death.

The other SNB I remember was for the CTA train falling from the elevated tracks downtown at the corner of State and Lake (what I really remember was being ticked off because they were breaking into the Donny & Marie show--yes, I was an Osmond fan as a kid!).

I did a thing well at work. Not just did a thing on time, or sufficiently, but well. It's been a while since I got to play to my strengths which turn out to not be ones I'd have guessed. But I like giving presentations, even when it's just a run through. I can seduce a crowd.

Take that, my reputed fan club!

Now I just need to tweak the presentation...and all I want to do is sleep, since I got five hours last night and am thinking of nothing other than my face hitting the pillow.

Bah. Lots of fires at work today. Nothing major, but combination of them keeps pushing up my stress level.

I remember EXACTLY where I was for some events. Even if I can't remember how I felt about them or what I was thinking. I was in the checkout line at the Harris Teeter with my sister-in-law in Chapel Hill when I heard about Princess Di. Had just gone over the bridge over the Patapsco on 95 going south when I heard the first 9/11 report.

On 9/11, I heard and felt it when the planes hit. I was riding a subway when the buildings collapsed.

Holy Cow, Tom. I remember our worrying about you; I had forgotten your story. How did you get home that night?

How did you get home that night?

After leaving the subway in midtown, I got above ground, and people were saying the towers had collapsed. I wasn't sure to believe them, there were lots of things that people were saying.

At the time I lived in NJ, and by this time the trains and tunnels had shut down. I made my way across town to the ferry terminal at 42nd street. There was already a huge line. But right next door to the ferry was the Circle Line, and they started using the cruise ships to ferry people across the Hudson. When the boat got out on the water, I could finally look and see what had happened downtown. All I could see were these two big plumes of smoke. I couldn't see if the building I worked (across the street from the WTC) was still standing. The boat was tilting from all the people trying to look out one side. I was home by 2:00pm.