It's not an original or new concept that certain national events, pop culture moments, or historical milestones cause us all to remember exactly where we were, what we were doing, or how we felt when the world seemed to stop. On a recent episode of the popular TV show "This Is Us", they detailed a moment like this for the three main characters, who were in kindergarten when the Challenger exploded and the tragedy was watched in their classroom. Our parents, of the recently much-maligned "Boomer" generation, likely have similar memories of JFK's assassination, Neil Armstong walking on the moon, or Richard Nixon's resignation speech.
I am sure we don't know that these moments will ever happen to us until they do. I didn't think that I would forever remember where I was babysitting in 1999, while a New Year's party raged upstairs, when Y2K (a funny name for a real non-event) "hit". I might not have ever thought of it again, except that the owner of the house came into the basement and told us he was going to flip the breaker at midnight and make all the adults upstairs (who were in various states of intoxication) think that the power grid (and life as we knew it) had actually "gone down".
Less than two years after that, we experienced 9/11, and everyone has their story about that day, including then-President George W. Bush, who's "9/11 moment" was immortalized on television because he was filmed listening to a classroom of second graders reading books when Andrew Card whispered in his ear that the country was under attack. I'm sure, even in his relaxed retirement as a hobby-painter, Bush remembers that exact moment.
One year ago today, I had one of these days, but it sort of crept up on me and I didn't realize entirely what was happening until later. According to my archive of Instagram posts, on January 6, 2021, I was suggesting that Time magazine should name Stacey Abrams as their person of the year, celebrating how Georgia had "come through", and how Mike Pence now had to certify the election. I wore all blue to my job at the bar of a local ski resort, complete with navy blue mask, because last January, face coverings were mandatory in indoor spaces (and they still are). My place of work did not have cable tv capabilities last year, because we were doing everything in our power to keep humans from gathering within six feet of one another and lingering in common spaces. I booted up CNN, or C-SPAN, on my iPhone to watch the certification coverage.
What I saw was instead a relatively unchanging video feed of the United States Capitol building. Shot from a distance, there were people milling around out front but nothing much happening, at least without the sound on. As I served drinks and chatted with midweek ski resort regulars, I kept checking on my phone to see what was happening. The anchors mentioned there was a crowd. They panned to people wearing "stop the steal" shirts and carrying semi automatic weapons. As an aside, I truly thought, even then, that we should all be horrified by images of civilians openly carrying huge, deadly weapons on the grounds of our government buildings (or anywhere). But I also was quite sure at that moment that these right-wing extremists, those who believed the outgoing president's lies, were just there to posture, threaten, and chant.
As we know now, I was wrong. I watched the news coverage grow more and more desperate, as the bewildered national anchors tried to report the facts as calmly as possible. It became clear that it would be impossible for them to remain unbiased, which I still appreciate. They began condemning the crowd of insurrectionists as soon as they attempted to charge the steps of the building.
As the solo bartender on a Wednesday, I had no one to listen to my exclamations of shock and horror about what was happening in D.C. except my customers. Anyone who lingered by the bar for more than a minute that day got an earful about "what was going on at the capitol", at least, as much as I knew at the time. A couple of weeks ago, one of those skiers came to me in the bar and said that he remembered that day, too, and that at the time, he didn't fully understand the magnitude of what I was ranting about. Now, he says, he will never forget it.
Yesterday, I cracked a joke about "Coupsmas Eve", and said that January 5th, 2021 was the last time we had to just wonder if Donald Trump's cult of personality members would try to overthrow democracy. It's true that January 5 was an important day. Even after a Trump presidency, and even after going through nearly an entire year of a global pandemic, there was still something that most of us could not have imagined, even in our wildest and most frightening nightmares.
Now, a year later, we have learned to never live another day assuming that the most extreme, radicalized, and misinformed people in our nation are harmless. And I will always remember where I was the moment that realization dawned.
