Who else remembers December 3, 1979? (Cincinnati, Finneytown: home, high school, safe)

[goyguy]

It's curious that the Enquirer would unearth and link 14 pages' worth of articles about what happened 31 years ago at that Who concert now (and not before.) But they did:

Cincinnati Enquirer coverage of the Who concert incident on Dec. 3, 1979

I'd moved to Massachusetts only weeks before this happened, and the shock was felt here as well. Adolescents have always been less inhibited about striking up conversations with newly encountered peers. "People my age" bombarded me with questions and expressed sadness and concern when I told them I was from Cincinnati. No young adult in the whole country, I think it's safe to say, wanted to believe what had taken place - because, as one of the articles at the time noted, it could've happened anywhere.

One of the concertgoers who died was from Wyoming. My family had known his since before he was born. Both my younger sisters went to school with him. Though he and they weren't close friends, they enjoyed knowing him enough that one of my sis's actually broke down between classes the next day and bailed for home. Since this was before the era of "crisis intervention teams" and "grief counselors," long stretches of time were passed in silence at the high school. His teachers put aside their lesson plans and allowed for either free-form discussions or simple quiet. The school's flag was lowered to half-mast for several days. It's never an easy thing to handle when someone that young loses their life, but the community was traumatized all the more because of how senseless this loss was. Finneytown was hit even worse, since three kids from there were killed that night.

This anniversary, like few others, stirs up a lot of memories for me. Undoubtedly there are folks here who can say the same. "Let's talk about it."

[Wilson513]

My then wife, 5 feet tall and newly pregnant, went down to the Who concert way ahead of time with her brothers and sisters to get right up to the gates so they would be at the very front when the gates opened. They were just ahead of the trampled victims and did not even know what happened until people at the concert heard it on the radio and spread the word. Lucky break.

[goyguy]

It's probably for the best that cellphones, Twitter, etc hadn't been invented. I don't want to even think about the scene that would've been caused if instant messaging was available. Many were the stories of people who were on their way home before they found out by switching on the radio. A lot of them were steering to the side of the expressway or street or whatever to "take it all in." Pay-phone coin boxes quickly filled up from kids' making hasty calls home to reassure loved ones they were OK. It was all a true case of "there but for the grace of God..."

[kjbrill]

I remember two of my then teenage children raising a fit since I would not let them go to the concert. When I learned of the what did they call it festival seating? I told my kids it would be a mess and they were not allowed to go. Little did I expect what transpired. As has been said "but for the grace of God..."

[deg1114]

My aunt went to the concert and I remember the family being worried when the news broke. Like you said, there weren't cell phones back in the day so it was a sit and wait and hope she comes home. Fortunately she was okay.

[Chemistry_Guy]

I remember that day... it was the day I grew my first baby tooth.

Also, I had two uncles at the concert, and they still don't like to talk about it much.

[mike1003]

Good friend's son was there. He was actually pulled out of his boot(s?)

He went into the concert and didn't know that kids were killed.

We were with his mom and dad who worried out of their minds until he got home late that night.

[northwoodsman]

i remember it on the news

[tntnb]

When the news bulletin broke on TV that night, my first thought was "Oh no, they've killed the hostages." Because, as you may remember, the Who tragedy occurred right in the middle of the Iranian Hostage crisis.

Another thing I remember was Al Shottlekotte, the TV news guy, reporting on the story . . . then he said something like ". . . and on a personal note, one of my sons attended the concert tonight -- and we have not yet gotten a call from us telling us that he's safe." A rare personal moment.

[coach39]

I had a ticket to the show and a final exam that night. So I went to the instructor and took the exam early to go see the show. (Even if I was going to be little late.)
It was a long one and I took a few extra minutes to check it all the answers and when I got downtown the mayhem was evident. The timeline of the night escapes me now but I still think the 20 minutes to reread everything was a blessing. It was an awful site when I got to the concourse and to this day the fear of a repeat of the crush in a crowd anywhere.
BTW my aunt an California called to see if my brother or I was there long before any local news broke.