Where Were You?
When JFK was shot? November 22, 1963
I was waiting for a bus on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco near my workplace at the Mental Health Association at 998 Eddy. I was pregnant with Scott.
When Jerry Garcia died? August 9, 1995
I was listening to my battery powered radio while I ate lunch at my mountain home on Wild Pig Ridge in Tehama County, California. I left immediately for San Francisco.
When the first plane hit the World Trade Center? September 11, 2001
I was at work at my new job as Administrator of the St. Clair County Health Department in Osceola, Missouri. It changed my life there.
I had been in town for only two months after moving from California, and I was still unpacking boxes at home and getting oriented at work. There was a TV in the staff room for watching training videos, and we tuned in to a blurry black and white news account of the terror in New York. At noon, we closed the Health Center and we all went home to watch and cry in our own homes and to touch base with our families.
That was the day my “Slide ‘n Glide Into Retirement” job changed drastically from an easy admin role into a position as a First Responder and member of the State Terrorism Task Force.
I resigned the following August after a year of high pressure demands. For the following two years, I continued to get those “Alert” phone calls in the middle of the night until Missouri finally updated its lists.
On each of these dates, I observe a moment of silence for what was lost.
I was waiting for a bus on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco near my workplace at the Mental Health Association at 998 Eddy. I was pregnant with Scott.
When Jerry Garcia died? August 9, 1995
I was listening to my battery powered radio while I ate lunch at my mountain home on Wild Pig Ridge in Tehama County, California. I left immediately for San Francisco.
When the first plane hit the World Trade Center? September 11, 2001
I was at work at my new job as Administrator of the St. Clair County Health Department in Osceola, Missouri. It changed my life there.
I had been in town for only two months after moving from California, and I was still unpacking boxes at home and getting oriented at work. There was a TV in the staff room for watching training videos, and we tuned in to a blurry black and white news account of the terror in New York. At noon, we closed the Health Center and we all went home to watch and cry in our own homes and to touch base with our families.
That was the day my “Slide ‘n Glide Into Retirement” job changed drastically from an easy admin role into a position as a First Responder and member of the State Terrorism Task Force.
I resigned the following August after a year of high pressure demands. For the following two years, I continued to get those “Alert” phone calls in the middle of the night until Missouri finally updated its lists.
On each of these dates, I observe a moment of silence for what was lost.
posted by Free Spirit at 9:15 AM
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