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thedrifter
02-06-07, 01:36 PM
Where were you when ...

As I See It , By Robert D. Campbell
Daily News of Newburyport

Have you ever found yourself discussing some profound happening and then ask the other person "that question," namely, "Where were you at that time?" Invariably that question can come back to haunt you because the reply is too often, "I wasn't born yet." As I get older, that response occurs all too readily as I ponder certain dates in my personal history.

Dec. 7, 1941, "a day that will live in infamy," as President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, stands out as an early remembrance. We had several people over to our home in New Jersey for a pre-Christmas gathering and had just finished dinner when we heard on the radio that Hawaii had been bombed by the Japanese. Our family of immigrant Scots echoed, "We are all in it now." For two years of World War II, we had watched movie newsreels of German bombs falling on London and the ship building sites along the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland. On a pre-war visit to my grandmother's third-floor apartment, I sat with her and watched ships gliding by on the Clyde. By Dec. 7, 1941 she had been bombed out twice. One of our guests that day, Pat McCallister, soon joined the Merchant Marines and was washed over the side of his cargo ship off the coast of Murmansk, Russia.

Early on the morning of June 6, 1944, I was awakened at 6 a.m. by my father who was getting ready to leave for work. He had heard a bulletin on the radio, "The Allies have landed on the coast of Normandy; tell all your friends the invasion has begun." This news prompted me to call Jack, my best friend through grade school, high school and still a friend over 60 years later. We all felt that the invasion was a turning point which would soon end the war.

On April 13, 1945, I was getting dressed for an event at our high school when the music on the radio was interrupted to announce, "President Roosevelt has died at Warm Springs, Ga." The news really affected me, even as a 15-year-old youth, because he had been my president for 13 years of my life from his election in 1932 to 1945. Since that time, no presidents have served more than two terms and a number have served only one.

Nov. 22, 1963, while working at our corporate office in New York City, it was announced by our general manager's secretary that John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas, and we were to leave immediately. It was a traumatic time in our nation's history, especially when several days later the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was himself shot down while in custody in a police basement. The world witnessed that shooting worldwide on television, the first of many dastardly events which would cloud our minds forever.

Sept. 11, 2001, we were viciously attacked by terrorists and the world watched in horror as plane after plane was struck down in flight and the Twin Towers were destroyed. Perhaps over 90 percent of the world can relate to where they were on that day because of replays on television. As we retaliated in Iraq and Afghanistan, this was to prove a vastly different engagement of forces due to a fanatical fringe of Islam. The jury is still out as this is written, but the outcome will be long in reaching a decision as to "who" won, if anyone!

Famous or infamous dates are remembered by all, whether a loved one lost in a nightclub fire in West Warwick, a boy or girl shot in Dorchester in the prime of life, a young man or woman killed in a firefight on a dusty road in Iraq or a distant mountain pass in Afghanistan. We all remember where we were when we got the word about ...

Robert D. Campbell, an essayist who lives in Newburyport, believes that a sense of humor is essential.

Ellie

10thzodiac
02-06-07, 01:50 PM
Last week I ran into a young man who just got out of the Marines after serving four years. He told me where he was and what he did. I told him about the "Cuban Missile Crisis" and he asked me when did that happen http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/06.gif

Well, after all it was only almost WW III

Maybe next time someone will ask me who won ?