Lightning in a bottle

[amyuilani]

This morning I was thinking about the trip I took to DC with my family when I was a teenager. We got lucky when my cousin's roommate, who was from North Carolina, befriended a Secret Service agent during the White House tour who was also from North Carolina. We took a separate tour through the White House, which included the Oval Office (Bush sr. was out of the office that day) and the White House press room. I have a great family picture of all of us behind the lectern with the White House logo behind us. That kind of special tour would never happen in a post-9/11 world because of security concerns, so I feel like we captured lightning in a bottle there.

What moments do you have in life that are cool because you know they could not happen again due to changing circumstances?

[marina]

I think this could probably happen again, but I will probably never see anything like it again.

When I was 13 I took a trip to Europe with my 8th grade class (private school has it's perks) and we were leaving through the airport in Rome. At the time, the Italian government was dealing with some revolutionaries/terrorists and they had built scaffolding all around the walls of the airport and stationed military guys every 10 feet or so armed with some pretty serious looking machine guns to keep the peace. At one point, I was talking to my friend Kate, when I noticed a red dot on her head. I turned to see two of the military guys had left their posts to talk and one was pointing her out with his laser scope. She had received a lot of attention while we were in Italy for her looks, so I know they were just pointing out an attractive girl, but it was pretty unsettling. I remember moving as I talked in order that she would look a at me and not see the men. As I recall they weren't directly behind me, but off to the side.

At the same time, my friend had bought a replica musket/handgun thing that he was going to take back to his father. Given the security concern, they asked to transfer it from his carry on to his checked bag. Since the bag was already headed for the plane, two of the military guys were recruited to take the gun to my friend's bag. As they were walking away, they played at shooting each other with the toy gun, the whole time their actual machine guns were slung casually over their shoulders.

It was probably the most edifying thing about that entire trip. Those guys weren't that much older than us, 5 years at the very most. The dichotomy between spoiled American children on summer vacation and young men who have absolutely no concept of real violence, and yet are staffing an army in the midst of a military conflict was exceptionally clear.

[Fourbid]

Being a child, not yet. And I don't really hold out hope for one of these moments. Because as soon as you give up on the bus, it arrives. Magic, really.

[BrianAlt]

Seeing the airplane go into the 2nd tower. Seeing the towers fall. Sometimes it's a negative thing.

I hope I never see it again.