When I drive near the five points in Waukesha, or even downtown Waukesha in general, I always think of the Christmas parade. That 5 year old boy, especially. Always. I was about 20 minutes away at work, still remember being told over the headset (inaccurately, at first) what had happened. The customers who came in describing some of what they saw. The emergency alerts going off. It was very scary and just horrific.

Jackson Sparks was the child^^

^I forgot to mention that. I do think of it on my drive to Milwaukee. :(

It is ingrained in my memory and I was not even there.

On a seperate note, seeing your hometown on national news is so weird. Especially one not nearly as well known as Madison or Milwaukee. And then how public the trial was, seeing my favorite youtubers cover it. Random sidenote but adds to the memory. I think about it every year and those families. He made a mockery of the trial and in the process mocked those lives lost and their family. I am still in the Waukesha Strong Community facebook page, it is active just revamped a bit.

I will add another one, someone in my town went into a bar with a machete a few months back, I think about that when I eat there. The female bartender turned down his flirting and he came back in with a mask and a machete. He was the ex boyfriend of my former friends mother. Cut a guys arm really bad. I won’t give names just to be slightly anon.

^My husband brought up Dahmer and Milwaukee. The Ed Gein location isn’t far from me. Wisconsin is disturbing!

Every time. I don’t live far from Newtown.
The NYC skyline still looks wrong to me.

The tragic recent shooting will likely be hardwired into your consciousness now.

A girl I went to high school with was murdered and left on the side of the interstate. For years I couldn’t drive by that portion of the interstate without thinking about her. It’s faded now, but it’s been almost 45 years.
Her killer was never caught.

This is natural. My only hope is that I never forget these tragedies and pay homage to them as I pass..

I’m about 20 minutes from Newtown and I am there often for friends who live there and events. I always think of it when I’m there.

I think a lot of things can play into it. One, how you may relate to things. I remember a park across the street from where I lived growing up where a kid was killed. It didn’t take long for people to forget about it and stay aware of their surroundings. I didn’t play in that park as a kid so it didn’t feel connected to me. No childhood memories to ruin. My brothers did play there but I never cared for any of the kids that hung out there. Most were thugs.
Then there is what you are used to.

I grew up in the Bronx so hearing about a shooting or stabbing or rape or mugging wasn’t uncommon. You learn to turn off the noise and just watch your back, otherwise you couldn’t function. Twice I was a victim. Once almost kidnapped and raped but I was able to get away, and the other was almost mugged but got away again. Both times I was lucky that the perps were scared away by someone coming to my rescue. Though both times has some interesting events but that is a long story.

But my point is that I think for some people like myself, you get conditioned to ignore it and just hope its never you or yours.

In New Mexico, we have memorials all over that are called decansos, and it is illegal for anyone who is not a state official to remove them.

I don’t think much about locations of tragedies personally.

I don’t know if I would call them tragedies, but there a couple places not far from me where there were serious crimes or incidents (one was a policeman shot and killed while on duty, one was a really bad house fire where people died), and when I drive by those place I remember the events and the dead people.

It’s been more than 10 years in the past, so not something I dwell on.

@kevbo1 Montana has that same thing.

Not quite the same, but I often drive down a stretch of highway where I pulled over to take a call from a close friend whose son had just died unexpectedly in his 20’s. I think of him often when I pass that way. So a tragic event, but the location is only significant to me.

I live near a part of the James River where it’s common for people to drown at the Z dam. Due to the hydrodynamics of the current, sometimes bodies are held underwater for days and are never found. I rarely think about the tragedies though, because the view is usually so spectacular with the way the light catches the river and reflects the trees.

I actually used to park at the James AME church, where Dylan Roof shot those 9 black community leaders.

There’s really nowhere to park in that area, but the church lot was free, although most people aren’t aware.
Whenever I bounced downtown, I parked at that church.
Years before, and years after.

I thought about it often, mainly when I was walking back at 3AM. It’s right next to a tiny gas station, that is VERY active.
I’ve had some issues with people at that gas station late at night.
The primary street that had most of the bars on that side of town, is King Street.
As a bouncer, I can remember dozens of altercations that spilled onto the sidewalk on that street. The cops on the weekend, just hover there, so ot wasn’t uncommon to be fighting with people on top of parked police cruisers.
It’s not all bad memories. I used to go to the same bars, on my own time.

Just one example…