Where were you when Kennedy was shot?

For me it was a couple of years before I was born. I could tell you about Elvis, Michael Jackson, the Twin Towers, or Queen Elizabeth. The question had become a part of American modern history or even folklore. Brits are often credited for talking about the weather to complete strangers; a form of ice breaker if you will.

Anniversaries come and go. Some are a collective date such as said Twin Towers, whilst others are more personal. Personal and more consequential. I can recount the exact day of September 11th, 2001, a personal perspective. As far as August 19th, 1999, I can and am the lonely one left to ponder that day.

In the evening I ventured out to the Thomas Arms a little before 9:30pm. En route I collected my closest friend from his pub. We sat in the lounge whilst I tried to drink a pint of Kaliber whilst I watched him down 3 pints of Stella Artois in an hour.  We left at last orders, collected some take out food and returned to his pub to fill our bellies.

At 1am I drove the half mile home and tried to enter the house like a church mouse. To my surprise my then girlfriend was sat up in bed waiting. I joined her and as it is the way of youth, we made passionate, unhurried love, before falling asleep wrapped in each others bodies.

I remember her smile, her touch, her smell and of course, how she tasted. This was, as many put it, my last day of freedom. Freedom – phrase coined by all those who had taken the plunge and now were offering the advice of “don’t do it” whilst splitting their sides with laughter.

How can two dates mean so much emotionally. How does emotion have a happiness or positivity and a sadness or negativity. The 2oth, the day we become husband and wife, and the 24th September, 17 years later when I became single again.

I have contemplated the answer many times. If I had walked away then the heartache that befell me 17 years, 1 month, and 4 days later would not have happened. However it is our experiences that make us who we are.

More memories of the time included the eclipse. A once in a generational occurrence. As the light faded, and the temperatures fell, as the unease silence befell our towns and cities, I was collecting a gold band from the Jewellers. Scores of people, heads tilted to where the sun had been, transfixed and silent, hiding behind industrial strength visor lens. Akin to of one those Guinness commercials that Rutger Hauer featured in. He sold it, he sipped it, and apparently, hated it.

 

to be continued