One of those moments

Have you ever had one of those moments? The time where some big event happens and you know that you will always remember where and when you were when you heard the news.

They are usually huge events in history, though some can be deeply personal events as well. People talk about the place they were when Kennedy was shot, when they pulled out of Vietnam, Nixon's impeachment, the Challenger explosion, the list goes on. Kent State, D-Day, Oklahoma City Bombing, Columbine ...

I have two that quickly come to mind for me. While I know of events and knew when they happened there are very few picture moments of where I was. I am too young to remember where I was when the Challenger blew up, I remember hearing and talking about it. The first picture for me is in 1991 at the beginning of the first Gulf War. My family and I were out to eat at Snuffy's Malt Shop in Roseville, MN. I remember it most because they announced over the radio in the Restaurant that the use of force to remove Iraq from Kuwait had been authorized. I see that the date is Jan. 12 and now am wondering if we were out to eat for my Birthday, Jan. 11.

The second is 9/11, I remember this better. I was standing in the middle of my dorm room at Iowa State, in Knapp Tower, my small 14 inch tv was on my dresser and I had turned it on as I got ready for class. I believe that it was right after or before the second plane hit, both towers were still standing. I saw what was happening and called my parents to tell them to turn on the TV. They already had it on. I don't know why I went to classes that day. I think only one actaully tried to do anything, the others were cancelled or we just watched the TV in the room. I remember trying to get every paper that I could and reading them while in the cafeteria, I think the papers are still stored somewhere at home. It is sort of an Ironic twist that the tower that I was in, Knapp, while I watched the twin towers fall was itself part of a series of 4 towers in sets of two. And about 3 years ago they imploded Knapp and its sister tower Vance.

The point of this post is not to bring up old feelings of memories of bad times, it seems like the majority of these picture moments are of times of great sadness or shock. The point is that I added one last night.

Sitting in my chair, watching the Daily Show/Colbert Report election speacial, while flipping to CNN or MSNBC, occasionally Fox or C-span, at 10:00 as California, Oregon and Washington closed, Jon Stewert, barely containing his own excitement announced that Barack Obama would be the next president of the United States. This is one of those moments, and a great one at that. The first Black President of the United States. This is one of those times where I am proud to be an American, we have not solved the race issue, but this is one step along the way.

Daily Show/Colbert Report "The Moment"



McCain's Concession Speech



Obama's Acceptance Speech