Where I was when ...

November 22, 1963: I was in my 3rd semester at Florida Christian College when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was not in the drama club, but I remember that the fall play was "The Mouse that Roared". The student who played the president looked strikingly like JFK. The play went on as planned.

May 9, 1980: I was driving for United Cab, Tampa, when the Sunshine Skyway Bridge went down. Several people were killed. I usually worked Tampa International Airport - had just returned from an early trip, taking a businessman home not far from TIA. It was raining hard. When I got back to TIA, someone said, "Did you hear? The Bridge went down!" There are a LOT of bridges in the bay area, but in taxi-talk, "The Bridge" meant the Skyway. Any of us could have been on it because we frequently got fares from TIA going to the Sarasota area. It was a long time before I could go over what was left of the bridge (the northbound span was opened to 2-way traffic). After the new bridge was built, I eventually rode over it late one night, alone on my Honda 400 motorcycle.

January 28, 1986: I was senior switchboard operator at the Holiday Inn, downtown Tampa, Florida, when the "Challenger" blew up. I could have seen it if the switchboard had been facing East rather than North. We could still see the smoke for awhile afterward..

November 16, 1989: I was corporate switchboard operator for Raybro Electric (Tampa, Florida) when someone I knew burned down my house. A young man near my son's age, who attended worship when I did, had gotten upset with me. He showed up during my lunch hour that day, and I told him to leave. About 1 p.m., I got a call from my neighbor, telling me to come home, that my house was on fire. The young man, severely mentally ill, had gotten off his medicine, and supposedly was trying to kill himself. When the fire started, he went to my neighbor's, told her to call me, the fire department, and the sheriff. I stood and watched it burn. I can still picture it in my mind's eye. I spent Thanksgiving Day sitting in the ashes, writing inventory for the insurance company.

December 15, 1998: I was on I-20/59 by the Civic Center in downtown Birmingham, going to work at Bruno's corporate office, about 7 a.m., when, without warning, my left retina imploded. I worked the rest of the week, not thinking that if one eye did that, the other could, too.

Odd that I cannot think of where I was when some special GOOD things happened ...