My first 'Meme'

For those of you not familiar with blogs (apart from dipping into this one occasionally), you are probably wondering what on earth a 'meme' is.

I've seen several good descriptions on various blogs so I'll try and roll them all together in this explanation:

A meme is when someone challenges you to answer on your blog a list of given questions. They can be about all manner of subjects and are often a way of getting people to talk about their own views on a subject or their own likes and dislikes such as, name your favourite book, film, TV programme etc. or which fictional character would you most like to be? or which period in history would you have liked to have lived in? I hope you get the general idea.

The original author 'tags' a few friends to do the meme and then they in turn 'tag' other friends and so it is passed on.

Often I find the answers quite interesting or amusing. I saw this one on a blog I've started looking at recently and, as it was open to all, I thought I'd have a go myself.

This one is all about where you were when certain things happened:

Assassination of President Kennedy - November 1963

Now I would have been ten years old and still at primary school when this happened and although I have vague memory of it I can't honestly say that I remember it from 1963 or whether I think I remember it because of all the newsreels of the time that I've seen on numerous occasions since that day.

England's World Cup Semi Final v Germany - 4 July 1990
Again, I'm afraid I can't say I remember much about this either so I'm going to cheat on this one and comment on where I was when England WON the World Cup by beating Germany in 1966. I remember this well as I was on Guide camp and our Guide Captain had brought her husband along to help (they had only recently married I seem to remember) and I have a memory of him and the other adults clustered around a transistor radio listening to the match and the shouts of joy at the final result.

Margaret Thatcher's Resignation - 22nd November 1990
I don't remember where I was but I remember the sense of jubilation that surrounded the resignation from her opponents and the rather pathetic figure she made in her speech outside Number 10 - or am I just imagining that? So hard to tell, memories are strange things.

Princess Diana's death - 31st August 1997

I definitely remember this very well. We were in the car on the way to Mass. Adrian's sister Marie was visiting us at the time and we were all stunned when we heard the news announcement. First of all the news that there had been a serious accident and that Princess Diana was badly injured but the incredulity that she had actually died was palpable. We remained glued to the TV and radio for a large part of the day.

Attack on the Twin Towers - 11th September 2001

Again, I can remember exactly when I heard this. I was in the presbytery and we were in the middle of a meeting - grouped around the dining table. One of those present has received a text from her daughter saying that there'd been a terrible disaster in the USA and to turn the TV on. Another text message followed soon afterwards and after the meeting we went and switched on the TV to catch the news coverage.

The election of Pope Benedict XVI - 19th April 2005

I was sitting at home in the study watching the TV and remember that the election was over more quickly than the commentators expected it to be with the plumes of smoke rising from the Sistine Chapel and the announcement, 'Habemus Papam'. Frantic texting to friends who may not have caught the news and watching TV for the immediate reactions from around the world.