It's not that they aren't important dates to me. I wouldn't say I don't care. I'm just not good with dates.
I've come up with a mnemonic reminder to remember my husband's birthday, but I still occasionally slip up and say it is two days before the actual date. I have to pause to remember what date my wedding anniversary is compared to my brother's, because they are two days apart.
All of my important dates are programmed to my Google calendar, just like all my phone numbers are programmed to my mobile. We are a society that doesn't have to remember anything thanks to our electronics.
I can't immediately remember when JFK was assassinated because I want even a glimmer yet. I know Pearl Harbor was attacked, but my dad was only a few months old - I have enough trouble remembering his birthday.
But thanks to national trauma, my proximity to the event and the Media's habit of taking a story and playing it over and over and over and... Well, you get the picture... I can tell you where I was today thirteen years ago.
Every generation has a date like this: a date on which practically everyone who was alive can tell you where they were and what they were doing.
News travels fast these days. The Media is covering stories as soon as they happen. Most times, it's easy to get sick of the news stories because they are everywhere: they are plastered on the front page of every newspaper and breaking into our favorite television shows.
It makes me wonder about years past...
I'm sure half the world could tell you what they were doing on the night of April 14 or the morning of the 15th in 1912. Where were you when the Titanic sank? There are a very select few still alive who could tell us where they were those days.
How about April 15, 1865? It wasn't as broadly covered as the OJ Simpson trial verdict - and yes, I can also tell you where I was on October 3, 1995. I'm sure, though, that the majority of the US population could tell you where they were when they found out President Lincoln was assassinated.
Where were you January 28, 1986? Not sure of that date? There are quite a few dates that we may not recognize, but might be very familiar with what happened on that date. The majority of the Roman Empire could tell us where they were when their emperor, Caesar, was assassinated. How many of our younger generations would be able to tell you that this happened on March 15, 44 BC without looking it up on the internet?
Every generation has their important dates that they will remember for the rest of their lives. Today we remember the heroes, the victims and the families of the victims of the disaster at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and United Airlines flight 93.
Today, thirteen years ago, I was driving in to work at Hecht's in Camp Hill, PA, when I heard about the first plane collision. The second was soon announced. No one knew what was going on. When I got to work, there was a dumbfounded confusion. The only news we were getting was coming from our display televisions and from customers coming into the store. The rest of the mall was even worse off - the smaller stores were relying on what they could get from the anchor stores that had televisions. As the day wore on, members of our staff that were military were getting called into service - each running around hectic due to the minimal information we were receiving.
The mall closed early and I headed to my other job at a bar near where I lived. I didn't have to work that day, but I wanted to be near friends. I sat and drank and watched the repeated images of the planes hitting the buildings and the people jumping to save themselves from a worse death by taking their own lives.
We honor those lives today.
And by the way, I watched the verdict of the OJ Simpson trial on the display TVs on the second floor of the Montgomery Ward in Scranton, PA, where I was working. And on January 28, 1986? I was watching the takeoff and explosion of the space shuttle, Challenger, in my fifth grade science teacher's classroom. Where were you?
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