Everyone on the radio this morning was talking about what an historic day today is. I started thinking about today in comparison to the other “big days” of my life. I’m not talking about David Gagne here; I’m talking about the moments that I somehow share with everyone else. (I was born in 1973.) If my parents made a list I’m sure it would include Kennedy‘s assassination and the moon landing, for example. I couldn’t think of a full list of ten “moments” for the last 35 years, but here are — in what I consider their “order of memory” — the eight most memorable moments of my life:

  1. Challenger explosion
  2. 9/11
  3. Reagan shot
  4. Hurricane Katrina
  5. O.J.'s chase
  6. Hurricane Andrew
  7. Obama elected
  8. Game 6, 1986

I suppose I could throw “Clinton elected” onto that list, because I distinctly remember it happening. But in retrospect it doesn’t really seem like a big deal and I’m guessing I’ll forget it long before I stop remembering the combination to my high school locker (19-0-13).

2024-01-28: I was right! I have no memory of Clinton’s election and I still remember my high school locker combination. (I was so terrified I’d forget my locker combination and they’d have to uses giant pliers to cut it open because there was a $20 charge and I knew we couldn’t afford that. Plus how hard is it to forget “the year before WWI started”?)