33 Dead in Blacksburg

8 years ago I worked at IBH and was driving around Rockville with Claudia on our way to Tower Records. We were listening to a man on the radio discuss his whereabouts when he heard what had happened. He was at Walmart. "I like Walmart" he said. A quote I will for some reason always remember. He was in the TV section, and was still waiting to hear about his kids. Claudia and I were closer to the age of the students at that point, and I more easily identified with them than their parents.
I wasn't alive during the Kent State shootings, and that was a different situation, but Neil Young's "4 Dead in O-Hi-O" lyrics always ring in my head during situations like this.
I was newly married after 9-11, but much more sympathetic to the cause of parents dashing out of work early and stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on the way to pick up their kids and make sure they were safe.
Harry is still so little now, but already the words that are ringing in my head are "how do you talk to your kids about this?"