The anniversary of Elvis's death made me think about all of the moments in my life that I can remember where I was and what I was doing when they happened.

 

1. The death of Elvis. I was team manager and was at football practice when I heard.

 

2. Reagan being shot. I was bussing tables at Chi Chi's at the time. One guy who was eating, said Reagan deserved it. It nearly led to a fist fight in the dining room.

 

3. The Space shuttle Columbia disaster. I was riding in a news car with Howard Ain and a videographer, heading to a story shoot, as an intern at Channel 12. The pall that fell over the car as we listened to the news was suffocating.

 

4. 9/11/2001. I was walking into work. A friend, who was on a balcony near the entrance, called down and said that tower 1 at the World Trade Center had just been hit by a missile. It was not until several minutes later that I learned it was a plane. I was watching live when the 2nd plane hit.

 

I was too young to remember when Kennedy was killed, though I was alive.

 

What are your milestone memories? Any interesting stories to go along with them?

I would say that the space shuttle Challenger disaster was more of a memorable milestone than Columbia, as with Challenger we saw the explosion. Columbia was on re-entry and I remember the fireball-ish streaks, but not like I remember Challenger.

 

Another for me that is not on the list is the death of Dale Earnhardt, Feb. 18, 2001, at the Daytona 500. I will never forget it, along with the announcement made about his death and his funeral.

1. John Kennedy Assassination 1963

I was 5 years old and this happened to be the first time I got cross the street and go to the corner store while my mother watched me. I didn't know what was going on when she came running to get me and rushed back to our apartment.

 

2. Robert Kennedy Assassination 1968

Remember listening to the accounts and his funeral on the radio in school

 

3. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Assassination 1968

My memory of this is my mother saying,"They finally got him."

 

4. Apollo 1 fire that killed 3 astronauts.

 

5. Man walking on the moon 1969

 

6. Apollo 13 explosion

1) I remember seeing the newsflash about Elvis and running outside to tell my mom.

2) Challenger explosion happened while I was in class at EKU. When I got back to my room my roommate just kept saying, "It blew up, it just blew up."

3) 9/11 my wife called me at work and told me about it. I remember telling people about the first plane crash and everyone was kinda ho-hum about it. After the 2nd crash people started to realize something big was going on.

4) Locally, the biggest story of my life has been the assassination of our Sheriff at a VFD fish fry/fund raiser. He was shot by a sniper from the woods, who was quickly captured. There was so much local phone traffic that land lines nearly crashed. I had heard what sounded like every siren in our county and figured it was a wreck.

Another one, in laws were visiting and my father in law and I just sat there watching that white Bronco for what seemed like hours.

1) 9/11 I was in 4th grade, my gym class was outside and I remember kids yelling out of the windows at us that the U.S. was being bombed.

 

This is really the only thing I can think of at this point that was a milestone moment in history for me.

I would say that the space shuttle Challenger disaster was more of a memorable milestone than Columbia, as with Challenger we saw the explosion. Columbia was on re-entry and I remember the fireball-ish streaks, but not like I remember Challenger.

 

 

Another for me that is not on the list is the death of Dale Earnhardt, Feb. 18, 2001, at the Daytona 500. I will never forget it, along with the announcement made about his death and his funeral.

 

Yes, you are right. I had the name of the shuttle wrong.