November 22, 1963

[Davey Do]

I was 6 years old, in first grade, remember it was a cold rainy day, and we were doing math, learning our ones, tens, and hundreds using blue plastic boards when the announcement came over the loudspeaker.

I didn't know who the President was or where Dallas Texas was, but I knew that this was a very big deal. They let us out of school early.

My brother, who was only 2 years old at the time says he remembers Mom crying when the news came on the TV.

In the days after, I remember watching the funeral possession on the TV's big black and white screen.

We remember things by association and repetition. I am repeatedly reminded of this day at least once a year.

What do you remember of those days? Or what were you told by those who do remember?

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

I was in Mrs. Whitaker's third grade class. She wasn't there when we came back from lunch recess, so we sat down and waited. She returned to our room and had clearly been crying. She told us to gather our things and find our siblings and go home.

At the end of our block stood all the moms. THEY had all been crying too. finally, after we got into our house we were told.

My grandfather was dying of cancer at the time and BEGGED my father to take him to Washington DC for the funeral. (We lived in Indiana)

The next summer, after my grandfather had died, we went to visit family in Richmond- and took a side trip to Arlington. JFK's grave was still covered in grass then, and surrounded by a simple white picket fence on a hillside. Guards stood at attention, and watched while I stuck my hand through the fence and took a handful of that grass.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I was in Kindergarten and since I hated school, the fact we got let out early was a happy time for me. I remember it vaguely.

More so I remember the Challenger disaster - we were living in central IL and I was going to work crossing the bridge between IL and Iowa.

911 - I was working days in our level I trauma center ED and one of the rooms was empty and the last pt had left the TV on so we watched and there was just absolute silence. Soon all the rooms had the TVs on and I just remember the absolute silence

[Davey Do]

I remember it like it was yesterday.

Thanks for sharing your memories, meanmaryjean. Wow. The memory remains strong with me also.

My maternal grandfather and grandmother both passed away around 1965. They were some of the few times that I remember my Mom crying.

What did you do with the handful of grass?

[Davey Do]

I was in Kindergarten and since I hated school, the fact we got let out early was a happy time for me. I remember it vaguely.

More so I remember the Challenger disaster - we were living in central IL and I was going to work crossing the bridge between IL and Iowa.

911 - I was working days in our level I trauma center ED and one of the rooms was empty and the last pt had left the TV on so we watched and there was just absolute silence. Soon all the rooms had the TVs on and I just remember the absolute silence

Yeah, traumaRus, I didn't understand what was taking place but knew this had to be a big deal. We were sitting in the gym waiting for the school buses and I remember feeling like it was a very very dark time.

I was working at Weed Rover Township Hospital in OR as a scrub nurse when the Challenger disaster took place. People were gathered around a TV in the OR waiting room and I think I was coming back from lunch and knew something big was going on.

I worked at Hazelnut community mental health clinic in the crisis/stabilization clinic when I first saw the damaged Twin Towers on TV. I had previously initiated and regularly ran a Good Morning group and that morning had the clients talk about their feelings about the events. The TV was next to me when it showed the Twin Towers falling.

All I could say was, "Oh my God!"

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I was just shy of 5 when JFK was assassinated. I remember my mother and sister crying, and the long funeral procession with the riderless horse. It was a sad, dark time in my memory.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I was not yet born when JFK was assassinated and was only 2 when the Challenger disaster happened but my mom will always remember that she was in 5th grade with JFK and the nuns at her Catholic Elementary school sent all the kids to pray after they heard the news and that she was breast feeding my younger brother when the Challenger exploded. I do very specifically remember Christa McAuliffe's Mom coming to my elementary school in 3rd grade to discuss the disaster. (They were from a town only 20 minutes from where I grew up.)

9/11- I was in Spanish class, second period of the day, my senior year of high school. I remember one of our teachers later in the day telling us that we would always remember where we were when we found out, just like our parents' generation always remembered where they were when they heard JFK had been shot.

I had also left the finish line of the Boston Marathon only 20 minutes before the bombings in 2013. I cannot go to a Boloco without thinking about it (we were eating lunch at one max 1/2 mile away when it happened).

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Thanks for sharing your memories, meanmaryjean. Wow. The memory remains strong with me also.

My maternal grandfather and grandmother both passed away around 1965. They were some of the few times that I remember my Mom crying.

What did you do with the handful of grass?

I put it in the ashtray of the car- and when we got home I had it in my dresser. Not sure after that.

[Julius Seizure]

9/11- ...my senior year of high school. I remember one of our teachers later in the day telling us that we would always remember where we were when we found out, just like our parents' generation always remembered where they were when they heard JFK had been shot.

Same. And they were right.

[Julius Seizure]

A few years ago, my mother and I visited the Sixth Floor Museum (The Texas School Book Depository Building, where the shots were fired from, was converted into a museum).

You could tell how intensely she remembered those events. I saw tears in her eyes several times.

We spent hours in the museum as we read every word on every exhibit. Eventually, the museum closed and they had to ask us to leave.

[AceOfHearts<3]

A few years ago, my mother and I visited the Sixth Floor Museum (The Texas School Book Depository Building, where the shots were fired from, was converted into a museum).

You could tell how intensely she remembered those events. I saw tears in her eyes several times.

We spent hours in the museum as we read every word on every exhibit. Eventually, the museum closed and they had to ask us to leave.

I was recently there myself. There is a very wise quote by JFK outside in the grassy park area in the vicinity of where he was shot. I never hear my family talk about the assassination.

I remember where I was when the Twin Towers were hit. I was in my 2nd period French class when another teacher came in and told us to turn on the TV because a plane had flew into one of the towers. We turned the tv on just in time to see the second tower be hit. It was horrible turning the TV on for days and weeks later- I live on the East coast and there were so many pleas from people looking for missing family or any info, which was simply heart breaking.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

JFK, I was almost 13, in Mr. Seney's science class, he went and got a radio so we could listen. he was also the principal. challenger have no clue, probably sleeping. 9-11, driving around town getting time slips turned in. I remember an article from one of the nursing journals, written by a nurse that was in town with her doc husband for a conference, they were notified and she went to help, but no one came. no patients no survivors, remembering that article still makes me cry.