I truly think I was born in the wrong year - history is so intriging to me.... I would love to sit over several cups of coffee and hear your stories

Wow! I have a feeling this date has the same vivid memories for you that the horrors of 9/11 have for me.  I will always remember where I was when I found out about the disaster.

Thesa:  Take heart, my dear.  Everyone was born in just the right year. In fact, some of us, if not all of us, have been born in several, if not "many" just-the-right-years.  Who knows ?  Not I !  Thesa... you are what... 36 perhaps... maybe 37 at the oldest ?? that would put you being born a year or two before my daughter... 1971 or so.  And... just for you... I would love to sit down... have some coffee at some riverside cafe... and trade stories with you for as long as you'd like.  Sleep well :)

Ruthmarie:  EEveryone has some of those special days that they will always remember.  Two that quickly come to mind for me are November 22, 1963 when Kennedy was shot.  I was on campus at John Carroll University in University Heights, Ohio... a Jesuit University in a suburb of Cleveland.  I was walking along the quadrangle, headed for a class... when some of the dorm students stuck their heads out the window yelling... Kennedy's been shot, Kennedy's been shot.

Another was in 1991 I believe.  I was shopping in the Pentegon City Mall in Arlington, Virginia when one of the restaurant TV's blared out that Bush 41 had invaded Kuwait to smash Saddam Hussein and his goombah' out of the Kuwaiti oil fields and back into Iraq.

The third was was during the Chicago Riots during the Democratic Convention in 1968... but that one will have it's very own post one of these days.  Take care... sleep well !

Add to that list the assassination of Robert F Kennedy (JFK's brother) here in Los Angeles on June 6, 1968 at the Ambassador Hotel.  My partner Bob was there that night.

Cheryl:  Yes... who could ever forget seeing that horrible chaotic scene... I think it was in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel.  It was so incredible when people realized that something like that could actually happen in America.  How all that caused so many of us to "grow up quickly" when we realized how much hate there was in the world... and it was aimed at us.  Heck... is wasn't even as far away as "the world... ," it was in our own back yard.  Cheryl... thanks for commenting.  Take care...

Karen Anne:  Growing up in the DC Metro area, it was all too commonplace for area students to set out for a musuem in the city, and be thwarted by a protest, march, or God only knows what.  I truly think that people, like myself, who grew up here, don't even appreciate the historical aspect that some of these events have.  It's like traffic to us.  Sometimes it's there, other times not.  I'm ashamed to say, I didn't even go to the top of the Monument until I was 23!!!  I was on a lunch break from the newspaper where I worked, and my co-worker (from Philadelphia took me).   

Chris Ann:  I know exactly what you mean... about living there... and just seeing all the stuff that goes on as just another "everyday thing."  When I lived in Alexandria... it sounded so silly... giving directions... ok, drive up the the Pentagon, take a left turn, turn right at the Washington Monument, the pass the Vietnam Memorial... etc, etc.  We just got so used to it as being part of the landscape, it escaped us how people visiting the city saw it.  For us... back in 1968... which was the first visit for all my 88 eighth graders, and for me, too... it was an incredible sight.

Ah 1968!  I was born that year and I'm almost glad I was too young to remember (or know) anything.  Shortly after my birthday MLK goes.  RFK held me (I guess they hold babies on their campaign trails) and shortly thereafter he was gunned down.  We ended the year with the Tet Offensive.  Lovely!

It's interesting to hear your version of traveling to DC because I can't remember the last time I saw a soldier on guard there.  I've spent the last decade playing sports right in front of the White House or Washington Monument and the only 'disturbance' being a tourist not realizing he's walking through the outfield of a softball game.  I don't care for the tension that must have existed but I do wish that we had the passion today that existed back then. 

Tchaka:  It was probably not a real good thing to see, but it really does make one stop and think that if it happened then... it could happen again.  Troops in the streets... Dick Cheney's dream come true ~

Karen Anne-There is a blessing-or curse-that says something like "may you live in interesting times". I remember 1968 very well. I lived in Chicago during the protests at the Democratic Convention that were later called police riots. I was also in Washington DC for a march to protest the Vietnam War. Funny thing was that through all the problems we had as a country, there was a feeling that we could change the world. It was, to quote Charles Dickens, "the best of times it was the worst of times". In many respects we are in the same type of situation now. Hopefully the younger generation can change the world for the better.

Karen Anne -- So you have a few years on me..your recollections are very vivid.

I was a pup in 1968 but I remember the Kennedy and King assassinations and Lyndon Johnson's speech about choosing not to seek another term.  Seeing Nixon elected was gut-wrenching.

Six years later, I was living in Jerusalem, listening to Voice of America report on Nixon's resignation in disgrace.  Things do eventually get better.