It’s curious, isn’t it, the way you always remember what you were doing when big news breaks?
· When Dianna died, my son, who was learning to drive, took us to a car boot sale where he was raising money to help support himself at uni. The guy in the next spot had several books about the royal family and was managing to sell them at £25.00 a time. Normally they would have fetched perhaps 50p. When we woke up that morning I thought we’d gone back in time. “This is the BBC,” said an almost 1940s’ posh voice. “We regret to inform you ….”
· The day J F Kennedy was shot my dad fetched me from Guides. “I’ve got some very bad news,” he said. I was relieved it was the president of the USA rather than one of our relations he meant.
· My grandmother and I heard Robert Kennedy being shot. We were on a coach trip and we stopped for a comfort break; the driver had the radio on.
· We were on holiday in Spain when 9/11 happened and our daughter’s boyfriend, who had stayed indoors, suffering from Spanish tummy, ran to find us at the swimming pool to tell us what had happened. Everyone there overheard him and rushed into the bar to follow the news. Mike had watched live the second plane go into the twin towers.
Ordinary lives carry on whilst these things are happening. We published a book On This Day which was precisely about this. The J F Kennedy assassination is prominent in Debz Hobbs-Wyatt’s book While No One Was Watching. (Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you, may go to Bridge House Publishing.)There’s also a subtle reference to it in her forthcoming novel If Crows Could Talk.
Have you got a story that takes place on a significant date? Might this be a useful prompt for a story?
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