# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/101 "2011-03-23T05:58:22Z")
I have no memory of it. However, I do remember people talking about the Challenger explosion at around the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/102 "2011-03-23T06:12:39Z")
Interesting in that they were about 5 years apart. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/103 "2011-03-23T06:20:23Z")
I didn’t even learn it had happened until sometime in 2000, as, prior to that, none of our history books went that far. I would have just turned -4 when it actually happened. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/104 "2011-03-23T06:23:48Z")
Again I wish to thank many of you for reminding me just how fucking _old_ I’ve gotten. ---
**Author:** ![groo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@groo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groo)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/105 "2011-03-24T03:56:54Z")
I probably had an immature reaction to it. I was visiting my father in NYC on a break from college. He was at work and I was wandering the city. Sometime before or after I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I heard it mentioned in a subway, then stood outside an electronics store watching it on TV. Then I went walking for about a half hour at high speed, trying to burn off energy and not seem so happy. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/106 "2011-03-24T07:21:03Z")
I was a senior in high school; I heard about it while on the PT field with my JROTC class. My initial reaction was “YES!,” followed by a disappointed “oh” when I heard he was going to live. I carefully hid this reaction from my classmates. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/107 "2011-03-24T07:44:40Z")
Why did you want him to die so badly? I think Dubya was the worst president ever, and I hoped every day he was in office that he’d just go away, but I never wanted him to actually die. Because then he wouldn’t suffer. I was hoping he’d be disgraced and have to step down instead. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/108 "2011-03-24T09:22:10Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Again I wish to thank many of you for reminding me just how fucking _old_ I’ve gotten. _steps on your lawn_ ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/109 "2011-03-24T12:11:48Z")
I was in grad school, and was shortly going to be going down to Washington DC for a conference. My immediate thought, for better or for worse, was _The Curse Strikes Again!_ But Reagan was the first president to beat it: > **[Curse of Tippecanoe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Year_Curse)** > > The Curse of Tippecanoe (also known as Tecumseh's Curse, the 20-year Curse or the Zero Curse) is an urban legend about the deaths in office of presidents of the United States who were elected in years which all are divisible by 20. > The presidents elected on such years from 1840 to 1960 died in office: William Henry Harrison (1840), Abraham Lincoln (1860), James A. Garfield (1880), William McKinley (1900), Warren G. Harding (1920), Franklin D. Roosevelt (1940) and John F. Kennedy (1960). These... ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/110 "2011-03-24T12:34:31Z")
I don’t know where I was or what I was doing. I didn’t give a shit that old Ronny was shot. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/111 "2011-03-24T14:27:06Z")
Oddly enough, I have no recollection of that day. I was at work that day, I don’t recall anyone mentioning it. I’m sure I watched the news (in those days before cable news) but can’t recall a moment. I have much better recollections of JFK’s shooting (informed by my second grade teacher), Oswald’s (happened to watch it live), RFK’s shooting (woke up by my mother), Challenger (guy behind me at work heard on the radio), Columbia (got a call from my mother while I was home between bouts at my son’s wrestling tournament). But Reagan, don’t remember a moment. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/112 "2011-03-24T14:29:12Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I was divided into a sperm cell in my father and egg in my mother. NITPICK: It’s my understanding that a girl is born with all the eggs she’ll ever have, but sperm are made fresh throughout a man’s life. So to be more scientifically accurate, half of your DNA was in storage and the other half had yet to be assembled. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/113 "2011-03-24T17:51:34Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Oddly enough, I have no recollection of that day. I was at work that day, I don’t recall anyone mentioning it. I’m sure I watched the news (in those days before cable news) but can’t recall a moment. > > I have much better recollections of JFK’s shooting (informed by my second grade teacher), Oswald’s (happened to watch it live), RFK’s shooting (woke up by my mother), Challenger (guy behind me at work heard on the radio), Columbia (got a call from my mother while I was home between bouts at my son’s wrestling tournament). But Reagan, don’t remember a moment. You are so lucky! I WISH I could forget Reagan. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/114 "2011-03-24T17:57:41Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > You are so lucky! I WISH I could forget Reagan. Oh, I remember the PATCO firings and the Iran-Contra stuff, his Challenger speech and all, but the assassination attempt is a blank. I only just read an account of it online, and was quite surprised what a lousy shot Hinckley was. He missed every single shot, only got Reagan on a ricochet. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/115 "2011-03-24T19:17:03Z")
He was really aiming for Jodie Foster, and she wasn’t even there. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/116 "2011-03-24T20:01:27Z")
I was in jr high home ec class, and one of my classmates responded “Good!” at the news, which shocked me a great deal. I wasn’t very politically aware. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/117 "2011-03-24T21:01:48Z")
I can’t remember. I would’ve been in school, but I can’t remember any announcement saying as such. I remember thinking, because Reagan was elected in 1980 he was dead because there was a pattern. But Reagan lived and broke the so called “curse,” that went back to Lincoln. ---
**Author:** ![actionreply](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@actionreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actionreply)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/118 "2011-03-24T21:21:44Z")
> [@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. my thoughts exactly ---
**Author:** ![actionreply](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4491bb/32.png) [@actionreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actionreply)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/119 "2011-03-24T21:24:48Z")
oops double post love internet ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2011, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223/120 "2011-03-24T21:35:07Z")
It was early in his presidency, 69 days after inauguration, so I did not know what a crappy president he would turn out to be. The first reports were he was not seriously injured. So at the beginning, I wasn’t too interested. Then Haig made it it interesting. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-were-you-when-reagan-was-shot/575223.md?page=5)