Jude 2

As I get older, my memory gets sketchy. However, there are a few things that I remember every single detail about like how old I was, where I was, who was there, how I felt, etc.............

I remember, at 9 years old, sitting on the couch in LaGrange, Ky., with my mom when they announced Elvis had died. I didn't understand why my mom would be crying about someone she didn't know.

I remember, at 17 years old, sitting in Mr. Wren's English period together as a class and watching the Challenger launch when it exploded in front of our eyes. Stunned silence.

I remember, at 25 years old, working the night shift when it come over the news that a white Ford Bronco carrying murder suspect O.J. Simpson was “running” from police. Unreal.

I remember, at 28 years old, sitting up in the middle of the night nursing my newborn, when breaking news came over the T.V. that Princess Diana was dead having been killed in a car wreck running from reporters.

I remember, at 33, sitting in my MIL’s family room watching the news coverage of a plane hitting one of the twin towers when I witnessed the second plane hit. I went and woke Scott up and said, “We are under attack!”

What incidents do you remember that you will never forget every single detail of how and when you heard?

I remember going to work this morning.

I remember all the above although the ages rage is vastly different.

I remember at 17 men from the gas company in St. Louis was connecting the stove in our house, when I saw on the TV that president kennedy had been shot, I told them and they refused to believe me.

I can remember at age 5 watching live coverage of men on the moon (it was Apollo 17 in 1972). I was with my mother in the living room of our house.

I can remember watching Watergate hearings on the TV news.

I can remember the evening of the big tornado outbreak on April 3, 1974. I was in first grade and we had just moved to Rogersville, Alabama. I can remember the local Huntsville CBS affiliate (WHNT 19) the next night showing dead children being pulled from the mud (I sneaked back to the edge of the bedroom door where I could see the TV after the anchorman had told viewers that children shouldn't be watching...).

I can remember standing in my sister's bedroom listening to her new DuMont cabinet stereo with 8-track player when the DJ from the local FM rock station (WZYP) announced the Elvis had died, then I yelled out to my mother that they said Elvis was dead. We turned the TV on to WAAY 31 and they had just broken into programming with the news. I was 10.

I was in 8th grade at Oak Park Middle School in Decatur, we were between classes, when Gerald Priest came running into the suite (classrooms are in pods there, with adjoining rooms then lacking walls and classes literally sat next to each other in open space; walls have since been added) and yelling, "President Reagan has been shot!" TVs were wheeled into the middle of suites around the school and we didn't have class while we watched the news coverage for the rest of the day.

I already mentioned in another post about fixing myself some cereal while watching MNF when I heard Howard Cosell announce John Lennon's death. Funny thing was I really wasn't aware of who Lennon was at age 13. The only Beatles I knew by name were Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. I knew Lennon had a new song out -- Starting Over. I liked it, it was catchy, but I had no idea he was, you know, JOHN LENNON.

I was at my sister's house with her and my two nieces on the morning of the Challenger explosion in 1986. I was almost 19. I was off work that day (I think I was working at Auto Shack --- what Auto Zone used to be for you young'uns) and I would often go hang out with her and her two baby girls (my nieces, one of whom is working on her Ph.D. in chemistry in UC Santa Cruz and is a full blown new age liberal these days). They still showed all the launches live then, and we were watching when it exploded. I can remember --- like we all can --- just being completely unnerved by it.

(I can also remember watching the first space shuttle Enterprise being piggy backed on an airplane for its experimental flight and landing. I was at the house of my friend, Tim Sapp, when it came on that afternoon. I guess this was 4th or 5th grade because he moved away while we were in early 6th grade.)

I remember watching the Clarence Thomas hearings in my apartment at TC.

I remember watching the OJ Simpson chase on the news in the office of Holt's Pest Control in Athens, Alabama. My brother was a half-owner of the business and I did termite work two summers there while in college and between college and law school. That was, what, May 1994. June? I can't recall the exact date, but it was that summer. We also talked about it all the time in my first year criminal law class that fall.

I was in law school the night Princess Diana was killed. I guess I was 26. My wife and were watching the coverage on NBC News and CNN. We were calling relatives and just ooohing and aaahhing about it. My wife was teased by some friends that she looked like Diana. And, there was an expression that she'd get that did favor her some. One friend of ours had just been to England a few months before and had brought back a big Diana-faced-shaped greeting card for my wife --- he was the one who always made the joke --- and it was on our refrigerator.

I remember standing in my living room putting on a tie getting ready for work on 9/11/2001, watching the Today Show, when the news broke. I was at a bank in Decatur hours later when they had on TVs in the lobby showing the first tower fall.

My wife woke me from a dead sleep to tell me that Columbia had exploded one Saturday morning.

our entire Contracting Squadron (USAF), gathered around a television set to hear the verdict announcing that O J Simpson was "Not Guilty..." And how one of the black women in the group said that "O J is a murderer and they know it."

when President Richard M Nixon announced that he would be resigning from the Presidency the following day at noon. The first time a sitting President has ever resigned. I was 12 years old in 1974 when this happened.

when the late Bishop Billy D Murray was installed as the General Overseer of the Church of God of Prophecy in August 1990. I came home from my assignment in South Korea ESPECIALLY for that particular General Assembly. I was sitting with my friend Tim Bagwell near Door 23 in the Assembly Tabernacle...about halfway down the aisle. It was one of the most wonderful things I have ever witnessed.

when the Challenger exploded in January, 1986. I was sitting in the living room of Bill and Eleanor Sheeks (then overseer for the Church of God in Alabama) in Bessemer--preparing to attend the funeral of my very favorite aunt in the whole world in Sylacauga. I was absolutely stunned. What a tragedy.

I remember when the First Gulf War was initiated in January 1991...King Olav of Norway died the very same evening. I was stationed in Oslo, at Headquarters, Allied Forces Northern Europe, at the time.

Sunday - May 18 1980. Down at the river fishing when Mt St Helens erupted. I can still vividly remember looking up and seeing the mushroom cloud risinging in the sky.

The Challenger Explosion. I was getting ready for a freshman college class. I can still remember my history instructor that day, dismissing class a few minutes early and telling a few challenger jokes.

I can also vividly remember the day I got married!

Hi my name is ???????? oh my...where am I...everything is fuzzy...why are y'all staring at me...who are you??

I was in Bethany, Nebraska when Elvis Presley appeared on Ed Sullivan.

I was on Selfridge AFB in Mt Clemens, Michigan when President Kennedy was elected.

I was visiting family in Sacramento, California when I first heard the word "Vietnam".

I was on Anderson AFB, Agana, Guam for Cuban missile crisis. I was still on Guam when President Kennedy was assassinated, and when the Beatles made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show.

I was on Little Rock AFB, Arkansas when Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater for president.

I was in Beebe, Arkansas when Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon. I was still there when "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was released.

I was in Kirksville, Missouri when I heard the Beatles had broken up.

I was on Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson Arizona when President Nixon resigned.

I was in Las Vegas, Nevada when Elvis died.

There's more, but that kinda brings it all full circle...

COGOP connection with events. If I remember correctly:

I was at West Virginia COGOP youth camp when Nixon resigned.

I was at COGOP General Assembly when Elvis died. Remember watching the news in our motel room in Chattanooga.

I was at COGOP General Assembly when WV upset Oklahoma in the first game of the seaon. Don't remember the year, but I remember my good friend from OK coming into where I was seated and moaning the fact that he had to listen to me brag.

I was at Alabama COGOP youth camp when O. J. broke loose in his white Bronco episode.