“Where were you when...”

People my parents’ age usually end that sentence with “Kennedy was shot?” We Gen X/Y-ers don’t have any one thing to compare with that. There are smaller things, of course. I remember where I was when Kurt Cobain’s body was found. Of course, many people who can answer the Kennedy question don’t know who that is. (Lead singer of Nirvana, Mom. That’s a band.) Of course, it’s hard to compare a dead singer to the president of Camelot, but we X/Y-ers were all crushed nonetheless.

I can also tell you where I was when the O.J. Simpson verdict was announced. Advanced Algebra class, senior year of high school. All the classrooms had televisions mounted to the walls and they were all on, regardless of what subject was being taught. When the jury filed in to read the verdict, the bell rang to switch classes. The principal came on the intercom and told the entire school they could stay where they were to hear the verdict and not be counted as tardy. Coming from him, that was huge.

So it was more than a little surreal when Christopher Darden came to speak to my writer’s association this weekend.

Not quite as surreal for us perhaps as for the children’s party with the clown he’d busted in on the day before, having gotten the date of our meeting wrong. Some kids get a big purple dinosaur at their parties. Others, Christopher Darden.

There were no great revealing moments, nothing about the O.J. case that you don’t already know. Just a guy in his middle age with a law practice trying to pay the bills who once became famous overnight and then just as suddenly lost one of the most notorious criminal trials in recent memory.

He speaks so softly. That’s the only thing that surprised me. We had the guy miked, and still there were times when his voice would drop just below what was completely audible. I can’t remember if he did that in the O.J. case or not. It was so long ago.

This is probably another one of those things that should go in the “only in L.A.” file. Say what you want about this town, you don’t get this kind of stuff in Missouri.