{"id":4239,"date":"2009-11-10T09:47:32","date_gmt":"2009-11-10T09:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scienceblogs.com\/principles\/2009\/11\/10\/where-were-you-when\/"},"modified":"2009-11-10T09:47:32","modified_gmt":"2009-11-10T09:47:32","slug":"where-were-you-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chadorzel.com\/principles\/2009\/11\/10\/where-were-you-when\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Were You When…?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I failed to write something on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall<\/a> yesterday, partly because I think the other six million blog posts on the subject had it pretty well covered. Another factor, though, was the fact that I don’t have the sort of crystal-clear recollection of where I was and what I was doing on that night. I can reconstruct where I must’ve been– I was a college freshman, so I would’ve watched it in the tv room on the second floor of Fayerweather– but I don’t clearly recall the event itself. It’s all mixed together with the endless discussions of What It All Meant that came in the weeks that followed, to the point where I don’t recall what was the event itself, and what was a later recap of the event.<\/p>\n

This is a little embarrassing, as it is one of the Epochal Events of my lifetime. I’m kind of ashamed to admit that I have a clearer recollection of where I was when Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson that same (academic) year (we were in the same tv room, and George D. flipped the tv to HBO (which we didn’t get), so we got the sound without the pictures). But memory’s an odd wossname.<\/p>\n

This does seem like a decent excuse for a reader poll, though. So here’s a partial list of Important Events from my lifetime (at least the part that I can recall clearly– I was around 3 when Nixon resigned, so that doesn’t make the list). These are events that I’ve heard at least one person use in a “I remember where I was when ______” type essay or discussion. Which of them do you remember that way?<\/p>\n