My, of my, it has been 25 years.
I remember where I was. I was just coming home from work, had stopped at the corner grocery store to buy something, the TV was on, I was only half paying attention and didn't get it. Only when I got home did my wife (ex numero dos) tell me. I was stunned.
After I had watched the television footage several times and it had sunk in I remember wondering, "Are other people as stunned as I am? Maybe I'm reacting over-dramatically." I called my parents who at that time wintered in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. They had seen it live as it turned out, New Smyrna not being far from Cape Canaveral. "Awful," "Yes, terrible," they said. Tentatively, almost sheepishly, I said it reminded me of JFK's assassination. "Oh, absolutely Ben. We thought the same thing."
Bad day.
