I have no memory of it. However, I do remember people talking about the Challenger explosion at around the same time.
Interesting in that they were about 5 years apart.
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.
Again I wish to thank many of you for reminding me just how fucking old I’ve gotten.
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.
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.
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.
steps on your lawn
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:
I don’t know where I was or what I was doing. I didn’t give a shit that old Ronny was shot.
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.
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.
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.
He was really aiming for Jodie Foster, and she wasn’t even there.
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.
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.
my thoughts exactly
oops double post love internet
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.