Winchester Thurston School's alma mater begins "In thy Pillared Portals". So, the school has to have a pillared porch. I was standing there, when Mrs. Lichtenstool, who was carpool mom that day came up and said, "Guess what?"
"What?"
"The president's been shot!"
I thought she was joking.
I remember everyone was saying he was young and strong and would probably survive. When his brother Robert was shot, five years later, they said the same thing.
I brought in the morning paper and discovered that Dr. King had been assasinated.

I had the television on, while I was studying for a final, when Nixon comandeered the airwaves, as he did from time to time, and announced that he was resigning. How's that for irony. I was cramming for a history final, and history was happening right in front of me.
The next day, having aced the final, I was enjoying a celebratory hot fudge sundae. Outside the ice cream parlor, a young man wearing a Nixon mask was panhandling with a tin cup.

On September 11, I was at the local coffee shop, buying my breakfast, when I heard people saying an airplane had crashed into the world trade center. I thought it was a private plane, and considered the many who had been killed in small plane crashes. I was cleaning for a Jewish couple, that day. There was a truck parked near where I parked my car, and a group of men clustered around it, listenning to the radio.
The couple had the television on. I was certain the stories of a second plane and then a plane hitting the Pentagon were rumors. We watched Bush's uninspired speech together. They worried that this would mean Israel would have to make more concessions. I prayed for everyone I knew who was likely to be called up to serve in the military. All day, I was looking down the street to see if anyone was doing anything with the Jewish Comunity Center. It still stands. But that's the way we were thinking on 9/11.