# Where were you when Reagan was shot? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 19, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223 "2011-03-19T02:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/61 "2011-03-20T12:45:56Z")
I was at work, in an office that was largely black. One of my co-workers, a black man, came in happily exclaiming “Hey! They shot your white president!” I explained that I didn’t feel much ownership of him. The whole modern view of Reagan as hero is pretty baffling to me. Throughout his presidency I saw a man entrenched in antiprogressive ignorance, who illegally smuggled weapons to Iran and gave the proceeds to Nicaraguan guerillas, who called ketchup a vegetable, who filled his cabinet with Apocalyptic Christians eager to celebrate humanity’s divine domination of the environment, who denied AIDS and in effect helped the epidemic spread. I saw someone apparently senile who consulted astrologers. I don’t think it would be helpful if we made it a habit to try to assassinate Presidents who did this kind of thing, and don’t advocate shooting anybody. But, I did think it would be better for our country to end his administration, and that that good would outweigh the evil of his death. Bad Presidents are a pretty awful thing for the world to abide. ---
**Author:** ![foxymoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d26b3c/32.png) [@foxymoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foxymoron)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/62 "2011-03-20T13:53:53Z")
I was staying home from school, pretending to be sick because I didn’t want to represent my class in the school spelling bee. (Second grade.) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/63 "2011-03-20T14:38:11Z")
> [@foxymoron](#): > > I was staying home from school, pretending to be sick because I didn’t want to represent my class in the school spelling bee. (Second grade.) Hey, I did that in the eighth grade, to my eternal shame. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/64 "2011-03-20T15:08:02Z")
I was a High School Junior in chemistry class. The principal announced it over the rarely used PA system. He was all emotional and over the top and said that it looked like Reagan survived but that we still didn’t know yet. The teacher looked bemused during the announcement, probably over the principal’s reaction and then continued class without a word on the subject. The teacher was a college student in the 60’s and his indifference was obvious. We students didn’t care either except to try, unsuccessfully, to use the event to try to weasel out of more work that day. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/65 "2011-03-20T15:52:40Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > The whole modern view of Reagan as hero is pretty baffling to me. Throughout his presidency I saw a man entrenched in antiprogressive ignorance, who illegally smuggled weapons to Iran and gave the proceeds to Nicaraguan guerillas, who called ketchup a vegetable, who filled his cabinet with Apocalyptic Christians eager to celebrate humanity’s divine domination of the environment, who denied AIDS and in effect helped the epidemic spread. I saw someone apparently senile who consulted astrologers. > > I don’t think it would be helpful if we made it a habit to try to assassinate Presidents who did this kind of thing, and don’t advocate shooting anybody. But, I did think it would be better for our country to end his administration, and that that good would outweigh the evil of his death. Bad Presidents are a pretty awful thing for the world to abide. And don’t forget his stance on pollution: it was caused by trees. He was not a good President and not a good father. Hell, he wasn’t even a good actor. I do find pleasure in the fact that he is the sole President who belonged to a union (SAG). That must have smarted. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/66 "2011-03-20T16:08:17Z")
I had stayed home from middleschool sick with flu. I remember my Mom waking me up by yelling up the stairs that Reagan had been shot. I think I said, “Good. Now let me get back to sleep!” :eek: In hind-sight, that probably wasn’t a very nice thing to say, but I was a kid and sick with a fever. _He got better…_ ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/67 "2011-03-20T17:25:28Z")
In the school nurse’s office. I had woken up that morning with a nasty heat rash due to the previous niight being uncommonly warm and humid for March and it wasn’t until almost the last period before a teacher noticed how covered with hives I was. The news of the shooting came over the radio while I was waiting in the office and all I could think of was the zero curse. I had to stay home from school for two weeks, take cold baths every day and smear Benadryl cream (I think that’s what it was) all over myself. ---
**Author:** ![misterkrc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@misterkrc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misterkrc)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/68 "2011-03-20T18:12:06Z")
Could you be a little more specific which Reagan you are talking about… that way I can insult you more accurately. Manaloth no esplain too good. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/69 "2011-03-20T18:18:09Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > I do find pleasure in the fact that he is the sole President who belonged to a union (SAG). That must have smarted. He didn’t just belong to it, he was the boss of it. Of course, his most notable action as President of SAG was in cooperating with MCarthy’s HUAC inquisition and ratting out industry people he thought might be pinkos. Reagan was such a piece of shit in so many ways. I don’t get the revisionist reverence either. He wasn’t revered when he was President. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/70 "2011-03-20T18:50:29Z")
Probably watching _Sesame Street_ – I wasn’t quite three yet. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/71 "2011-03-20T19:16:24Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > It will be 30 years in a little under two weeks. > > Where were you when you heard about it? What did you hear? What were your thoughts? > > I was alive, but only 2 1/2 years old. I don’t remember it, actually. But still, I’d like to hear what others experienced. What? I guess I was in Haiti then, not that I remember that. I was grade-school age anyway. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/72 "2011-03-20T20:08:58Z")
I was 16. I remember being stunned when John Lennon was killed because I somehow felt he just _couldn’t_ die – he was a _Beatle!_ So then when Reagan was shot, at first I _assumed_ he _had_ died, and I was very nervous bcause I couldn’t remember the name of the Vice President. 😃 I remember later being ticked off because they were making such a fuss over Reagan, when poor Mr. Brady was being more or less overlooked. I also remember being disgusted with Al Haig’s panicky behavior. Somebody slap that twit upside the head! You’re embarrassing your own guys. Get off the stage! I didn’t follow politics in those days, but it was obvious to me that here was a doddering old man without much education who had no idea what he was doing and what was going on, who had to be led by the hand and fed his lines every day. And yet the grownups seemed fine with that. I just didn’t get it – disgusting! ---
**Author:** ![Chicagojeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@Chicagojeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicagojeff)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2011, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/73 "2011-03-20T20:16:01Z")
They told us when we were leaving school. I was in sixth grade at McDade Elem in Chicago… I hate to admit i was pissed he won the election and was ambivalent about him pulling through… Got home… watched that three-pronged ABC news… WOW… who’s idea was it to have three anchors at once… had Cronkite kicked their ass that bad?? I remember that shit was confusing as they announced Brady dead i think… Then it became all about Chicago cause Tim McCarthy cemented his hero status by taking a bullet for the President… that worked out good for his career eh? ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/74 "2011-03-21T19:22:11Z")
I was four and a bit. No memory of it at all. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/75 "2011-03-21T19:34:57Z")
Let’s see. Fall of 1981. That would have put me at the start of my Junior year in HS. I seem to remember coming home from school, turning on the TeeVee and watching the coverage all afternoon by myself as my parents both worked at the time. It was one of those moments that stick with me not so much for how it happened, but how it was reported. It was our Oswald moment. Denis Leary made a joke along the lines of, ever since we saw Oswald killed on live television, we’ve been afraid to turn the damn thing off in case we miss something. That’s how I felt. I believe it was the genesis of my new-junkiedom. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/76 "2011-03-21T20:00:08Z")
Sixth grade. I remember that someone opened the door to our classroom and said “President Reagan’s been shot!”, and that all the kids (well, in my memory it was all of them) burst out in cheers. I think they brought TVs into the classrooms and we watched coverage for the rest of the day. I’m surprised I don’t remember Mrs. Roy’s reaction - she was an unabashed Republican. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/77 "2011-03-21T20:08:01Z")
As I recall, I was at a friend’s house playing football out in the street after school, and his mom came out to tell us. I don’t recall if we all went inside to watch TV at that point, or if we continued playing ball, but I know it was pretty much the only topic of conversation the next day at school. I was 13 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/78 "2011-03-21T20:11:35Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I was 16, and near the end of my sophomore year in high school. I was in biology class, when the principal came over the PA system, and told us that the president had been shot. The principal asked all of us to pray for him (it was a Catholic high school). I remember thinking about Kennedy, feeling rather solemn, and also wondering if I was experiencing something that I’d always remember (obviously, I did). > > Six weeks later, I was in the same place when the principal told us that the pope had been shot. Kind of freaky. This is pretty much how I remember it, except I was 12 and in 7th grade Social Studies class. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/79 "2011-03-21T20:21:39Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > Let’s see. Fall of 1981. That would have put me at the start of my Junior year in HS. > > I seem to remember coming home from school, turning on the TeeVee and watching the coverage all afternoon by myself as my parents both worked at the time. It was one of those moments that stick with me not so much for how it happened, but how it was reported. It was our Oswald moment. > > Denis Leary made a joke along the lines of, ever since we saw Oswald killed on live television, we’ve been afraid to turn the damn thing off in case we miss something. > > That’s how I felt. I believe it was the genesis of my new-junkiedom. It was March 30th, 1981, not the fall. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/80 "2011-03-21T21:16:34Z")
Oh, right. Calendar dyslexia. So that puts me at the tail end of Sophmore year. And it was my **'news** -junkiedom’ I was referring to not my **new** -junkiedom. That’s a whole different story. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223.md?page=5)