I was thinking about the moon landing in 1969, it was the 40th anniversary a few weeks ago, and where I was at that time (Hershey, PA) and what I was doing. The landing was late at night and we were on a family vacation and since I was young, I went to bed with the promise that my parents would wake me for the landing. Well, my family learned a lessons that night, once Arthur is asleep, he stays asleep. Even at the age of 4 there was no waking me. Well it got me thinking about events in my life and where I was. This is in no order of significance or time.
1. Challenger Disaster – I was in college at the U of Maryland and was walking back to the fraternity house. As I went downstairs to get something to eat, Jay Greenstein told me what had happened. Odd, I haven’t about him in years, but I remember he is the one who told me that.
2. Barack Obama Winning The 2008 election – I was at my friends (Mario and Wendy) apartment in NYC. We were on the 16th floor and you could hear the partying on the street.
3. 9/11 – I was in my apartment in Delray Beach, FL working and watching CNBC when Mark Haynes broke in and asked “is that the World Trade Center”. It was, and the rest of the day was a blur of calls and breaking news.
4. Moon landing – Hershey, PA
5. Bill Buckner missing Mookie Wilsons ground ball – I was at the Vous (The Rendzevous Inn) at the U of Maryland.
6. George Bushes speech announcing we were going to attack Iraq – We were at Outback and no one was really paying attention. I went to the bar TV and watched his speech with a handful of others.
7. OJ Simpson Not Guilty – at my office in Manhattan. We were on 20th between 5th and 6th and our 4th floor office windows opened to 19th street. At that time there was a coffee shop (not starbucks) on the corner and when they made the announcement, we heard the roar coming from the street like we were at the courthouse.
8. First WTC bombing – I worked at an office across from Grand Central and they had a tiny conference room with a TV. We sat in there and watched the news and remember not knowing of Mario got out until late that night when I called his mother.
9. Stock Market Crash 1987 – I was an intern at a brokerage house and that was my first day of work. I had taken the metro into DC from College Park … they sent me home.
10. Hurricane Wilma – most of the country was still focused on Katrina at that time, but I was in the back room of my apartment in Delray Beach, FL, with a radio, cell phone and two cats and a Gin and Tonic. The eye passed right over us, do for about 25 minutes in the middle of the storm, everyone from the complex was outside.
Odd how certain details of these events stick with me when I can’t remember what I had for dinner last night.
