I have already mentioned this event in a previous Friday's FIVE! but it is one of those events that also must be included in this Friday's FIVE! On Friday, November 22, 1963 I was a 5 year old kindergarten student already home from school. We were close friends with our neighbors, The Blaughers - and my Mom and Charlotte Blaugher carpooled for the 1/2 day school schedule and would often trade off caring for child care. On this day, Kim Blaugher was at my house. We had a deal with each other - if we were at my house, we played house and dolls... if we were at his house, we would play airplanes and war games and 12 O'Clock High. We were playing house in the family room of my home when the Special News Report came on our black and white TV. I remember the event was significant because mother sat in her rocker with her face in her hands and cried. It was the first of many assignations that would have an impact our lives. I also remember the assignation of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Lee Harvey Oswald and John Lennon.
On July 20, 1969 - I was 11 years old and my family was gathered around a small black and white TV with rabbit ears and poor reception... right here where I live now, at Yellow Creek Lake. Apollo 11 had landed on the moon and Neil Armstrong had actually walked on the surface of the moon - "The Eagle has Landed" "One Small Step for (a) Man, One Giant Leap for Mankind" .
I remember my parents being glued to the TV - which rarely happened at the lake. We didn't use the TV at the lake much. Most of our summer evenings were spent with our friends, The Ward family. Daddy and Don Ward would hold "Hootenany's" with their banjo and guitar and entertain all of us - but this evening, the entertainment was world history. I can remember being able to see the clear evening sky at the lake - the moon always seems brighter, the sky seems more clear than in other places... I had a new perspective of the clear moon that night...
a man had walked on the moon.
July 29, 1981 - I was a young stay at home mother. I woke up in the wee hours of the morning just to see the television coverage of the fairytale wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. I remember that she would not 'obey' in her vows... and I remember her amazing 25 foot train. I was 23 years old - and had a 14 month old baby...and the fairytale event was mesmerizing to this young, hoosier mother. August 21. 1997 - the day Princess Diana was killed in a car crash is also a vivid memory. Steve and I were at the home of Ronnie and Marsha Vermillion and we thought it was a joke. We soon learned that it was the truth... and although the Prince and Princess had long since divorced - the fascination with Princess Diana had continued... but her untimely death was the ultimate end of the fairy tale.
January 28, 1986... was a Tuesday. I was a 28 year old mother working for part time for Weight Watchers - I had two Weight Watcher classes....a Tuesday AM and a Tuesday PM. I had returned from my Tuesday AM class just in time to watch the coverage of the Space Shuttle Challenger lift off. This was an especially exciting space shuttle because crew member Christa McAulliffe was the first member of the Teacher in Space Program. Seventy Three seconds into the Space Shuttle Challenger flight, the space shuttle exploded leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida. Disintegration of the shuttle stack began after an O-ring seal in its right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The live coverage was intense and the plume of white smoke was evidence of the tragedy we had all witnessed. I can remember praying for a miracle with the rest of the nation... however - the entire country would grieve over the deaths that happened before our eyes.
Tuesday, September 11, 2001... I was a 43 year old recently divorced, career oriented mother. I was in Orlando, Florida at a CARF conference. I had been at attending the conference in the morning - and it was on one of the conference 'breaks' between classes that we learned of the attacks.The September 11 attacks were a series of coordinated suicide attacks by al-Qaeda. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board and many others working in the building. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying at least two nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon and a fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania.
It was a day that changed the entire United States -
My life was changed... I was in Florida - and the airspace had been declared closed by the President for the rest of the week. I was not able to return home to my family until early Sunday morning It was during that time in Florida that I knew I needed to make life changing decisions. Life was too short and the reality of our imortality was a lesson we all learned at that time. I had been dating someone else and I knew at that time - my heart and my love was truly with Bruce Lankenau and I needed to be with him. We began seeing each other after I was finally able to return to Indiana... and by Christmas we were engaged and by February 14, 2002 - we were married.
These events are certainly memorable for all of us - and each of us has a story for where we were... and what we remembered.... Still to this day - I think of these days on the anniversary of the events and the memories of where I was and what I was doing lingers on....
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