So where were you?

Every generation asks that question after a traumatic event...the Challenger explosion...9/11...etc.  For my earliest recollection, it was JFK's assassination.  I was 15, sitting in geometry class when we heard commotion in the hallway and girls crying.  It soon became known what had happened in Dallas on a Friday around noon.  I think everyone was glued to the TV over the weekend and on Monday there was no school so we could watch the funeral.  It left a huge impact on my life.  This vital man with so much of life ahead of him and in an instant, it was over.   I realized for the second time in my life how fragile life is.  The first time was the death of the Mosier boys, 2 neighborhood boys who died in a car accident  when I was only 12.  Grief is hard for a young person.  It's hard to know what is "normal"...what is "acceptable" but I soon learned that grief is something that one doesn't just get over...it takes a long time.  After watching some of the footage this past week of Kennedy's death, I still had eyes that welled up remembering the sadness of 50 years ago and how it intruded on my generation and its innocence.