What were you doing when you found out about.... (war, bomb, general)

[Charles]

This thread

//www.city-data.com/forum/histo...left-deep.html

prompted me to create a similar thread.


Feel free to share what you were doing when you found out or experienced some of these events.

To name a few:

1929 Stock Market Crash
Pearl Harbor Bombing
Atomic Bombs 1945
JFK Assassination
RFK Assassination
Man walks on moon
Space Shuttle Challenger
Reagan Shot
9/11 Terrorist Attacks

Others? Please share.

I'll start.

Man walks on Moon: I was 8 in Canoga Park, CA watching it on a old TV (B&W). The TV case was teal and white. I was wearing a blue bathing suit. The TV was in the NW corner of our living room in Canoga Park. I walked outside and looked up at the moon. (I verified my memory by checking with planetary software installed on my PC "Skyglobe".)

Shuttle Challenger: I was in a PE softball class at CSUN, warming up, tossing the ball back and forth with another guy (who always wore a yarmulke). He asked me if I had heard about the shuttle.

Reagan Shot: I was studying for a physics test at CSUN, sitting on the floor outside the classroom prior to the test.

9/11: I was driving north on Canoga Avenue in Woodland Hills, CA towards work a couple minutes before 6AM, liste ning to KNX 1070 when the newscaster said something like "We've just had reports of a plane crashing into the World Trade Center in New York..."

John Lennon shot: I was a driver for an escrow company driving all over LA County. I normally listened to cassettes (remember those? they came after 8 tracks which came after 4 tracks) while I drove. I noticed many cars with their headlights on. As I recall, KLOS was encouraging everyone to turn on their headlights for John Lennon.

Sylmar Quake: Living in Canoga Park. Very scary.

Northridge Quake: Living in Moorpark. Very scary.

Columbia Explosion: I was home in Thousand Oaks and my pager went off. I was subscribed to a free NASA service which sent out text pages whenever something significant happened. The text read something like "Mission Control in Houston has lost communication with the space shuttle..." I knew instantly this was bad as loss of comm with the orbiter just doesn't happen. No way. I flipped on CNN to see the debris in the sky.

OJ not guilty verdict: I was watching from my apartment at UCSB in Isla Vista. I couldn't believe it. I think I shouted out the F word.

[NJGOAT]

Challenger explosion - I was in Kindergarten then and I remember being glued to the TV and watching the shuttle lift off. I didn't understand what had happened right away, but I remember the look on the adults faces and that some of the teachers were crying. President Reagan's speech was very impactful even for a kid.

Berlin Wall collapse - I was 9 and remember my parents turning on the news to watch what was happening. I remember the people cheering in the streets and hacking at the wall. Later on a teacher from the high school who was from Germany and had relatives in the East came and spoke to our school about what it meant to her and I remember her crying as she talked about it.

First Gulf War - My dad was called up and I remember watching him leave and then being glued to the TV every night watching the war unfold. My mom always sat next to the phone waiting and hoping he would call. I'll never forget how much my mom cried when my dad came home and she saw him step off the plane.

L.A. Riots - I remember watching the news footage as the city got torn apart and remember the speech by President Bush authorizing the use of military force to restore order. The images of shopkeepers keeping looters at bay was very poignant.

OJ Verdict - I was in high school and remembered everyone running to their next class so we could watch the verdict on TV. When it was read you could hear a mix of cheers and groans coming from the different classes.

9/11 - I was in college and got up early that morning. I remember turning on CNN and it started as a normal broadcast. They then cut to an image of the World Trade Center that had just been "accidentally" hit by a plane. Watching the live footage I saw the second plane hit the other tower and the CNN reporter actually said "holy sh$t" on live TV. The rest of the day was a blur as the events unfolded. My biggest worry was my sister who worked a few blocks from the WTC. Thankfully she left for work late that morning and was on the PATH when the trains were turned around. We finally got through to her at 3:00 that afternoon to know she was alright. The two images of that day that stuck out in my mind wasn't the event itself, but the response of people. There was an image of various New Yorkers walking arm in arm towards the site to try and help. Black, white, asian, middle eastern, office workers, construction workers, people from retail stores all together heading to see what they could do to help. The other was the entire Congress standing on the steps of the Capitol singing God Bless America.

Hurricane Katrina - I was working for a trucking company and we were a FEMA response carrier. I remember watching the footage in the office and thinking to myself, where is the military, where is the government? So many things went wrong when it came to responding to that disaster. Then they brought in General Honore and I remember thinking that they finally got someone down there to straighten things out. I'll never forget him talking on TV and being so matter of fact and straight forward and saying "over" after each statement. We ended up carrying about 1,200 loads of relief supplies to the Gulf in our trucks including shipments of generators that actually received police and military escorts when they got close. The biggest impact for us was that we had a terminal in Hattiesburg Mississippi. The company got all of the local families together and setup an emergency shelter for them at the terminal complete with power and mobile homes for each family and we got all the drivers from that area routed home. We had people living in a camp at the terminal for several months while they rebuilt.

[DewDropInn]

JFK Assination - I was sitting in elementary school. The principal came in and talked to the teacher. He was wearing sunglasses and I knew that meant something was really wrong. The teacher told us and I burst into tears. (I was a HUGE JFK supporter.) When I got home my mother and the lady next door were standing in the living room watching TV and drinking glasses of whiskey. They barely drank much less a whiskey in the middle of the afternoon. When Ruby was shot I was out riding my skateboard and my mother came and told me.

John Lennon - I was watching Monday Night Football when Howard Cosell announced he'd been killed. Devestated.

First L.A. Riots - My dad had been working at a small aerospace manufacturer in Watts on a temporary basis. But he'd made a number of friends with people in the neighborhood. We'd gone to see the Watts towers and some of the people who had donated materials for it came and talked to us kids. So he was well-liked. When the riots broke out they told him, "This isn't about you" and excorted him to his car (a small convertible) and then followed him through the burning streets to the freeway on ramp to make sure he was safe and nobody was messin' with him. I can remember waiting for him to come home it was a very long wait.

Second L.A. riots - I had just gotten home from vacation. Turned on TV and there was Reginald Denney on the ground being beaten. I also remember the morning it ended with Edward James Olmos just saying, "Enough!" and walking out onto a street with his broom to begin sweeping up the trash and broken glass. That man pretty much ended the riot with that simple act.

First Gulf War - My dad and I had gone to a movie. When we came home he decided to take a nap. He woke up a few hours later and said (as always) "Anything happening?" I said, "Yes. We are at war."

Man on the Moon - When we landed I was at an Angels double-header at Anaheim Stadium. They posted "We have landed on the moon" on the Big A scoreboard and everybody broke into wild cheers. We were in the upper deck, left base side. Never forget that. We left after the first game to go home and watch Armstrong and Aldrin come down the ladder. It was momentus to us as a family because my dad had worked on the space program for years even working with the great man himself: Werner von Braun. Lot of holding of breath as they opened the hatch and came out.

Later on my dad took us all outside and we all stood looking up at the moon with the most incredible feeling of pride and wonder. My dad then told us that he had engraved all of our names on a piece of the descent module. Which was just so wonderful. I had such love and pride that my dad would do that for us. To this day I walk out and look up at the moon and think, "A piece of me is up there!"

[lifelongMOgal]

Wasn't born yet for the 1st five items on the list.

Man walks on moon - sat quietly and watched it on my Grandmother's TV. The whole family gathered to watch history in the making. One of my earliest memories.

Space Shuttle Challenger - was in college and had just gotten to the parking lot and listened to the launch/explosion coverage on the car radio. Missed class.

Reagan Shot- Don't recall but think I head about it on the evening news.

9/11 Terrorist Attacks -Was out of town and awoke to the radio alarm reporting the the first plane hi on WTC and then the Pentagon. Drove 10+ hrs to get home as my flight, like everyone's was cancelled.

[Charles]

Don't forget you can add events that I didn't list. Your recollections don't have to be limited to my list. There may be other things I forgot or wouldn't have experienced (too young) for example.

[andreaspercheron]

Challenger exploding sticks out in my mind as I was in school then when I lived in FL and we used to go outside to watch the launches. When it happened everything just immediately went silent. I remember all the other stuff too but certain events stuck with me.

When 9/11 tragedy took place, I was at work and the entire building within a span of less than 30 mins, people were all standing around radios trying to listen to what was going on. We were all in shock, people were allowed to go home if they had a loved one working in NY around that time, etc...

Another event that still stick with me for no obvious reason. I was traveling with my kids to visit my grandmother and it was late at night when they announced that Princess Diana had been killed in a car accident. I remember feeling like it was so surreal.

Columbine - that was another one for me that stick out in memory - how a couple of kids could cause so much devastation in such a short amount of time then take their own lives... that was the catalyst for tragedies like that from that point on.

[plwhit]

The JFK assasination. I was in gym in high school. The teacher called us together and made an announcement, some jerk in the back clapped his hands... the teacher went back to where he was and kicked him in the a**....

The US landing on the moon, was in the Navy off the coast of Viet Nam.

[TKramar]

Here's a couple to add:


Berlin Wall goes up
(Berlin Airlift)
Cuban Missile Crisis
Hostages released from U.S. embassy in Iran
Berlin Wall comes down
Fall/Dissolution of the Soviet Union

[BlueWillowPlate]

JFK ~ I was in 4th grade, Long Island, New York. Our class had been on a field trip. As we returned to school, one of the kids noticed that the school's flag was at half staff. We soon learned why. My parents had actually been Republicans, but I had once been close enough to JFK so that he smiled and waved at me. This was a huge deal. Mostly I remember all the adults, no matter what their politics were, being stricken with emotion.

Neil Armstrong on the moon ~ I was 14, we all watched at home. It was a major event for me then, and still resonates today. I know many people do not approve of our government spending that kind of money, but I think it is a worthwhile venture.

John Lennon ~ Monday Night Football, and Howard Cosell made the announcement. I was in deep shock. Lennon had loomed large for me, and I had been so happy about his new album, his new life.
I remember I really appreciated what Andy Rooney (of all people!) later wrote about it.

Challenger I was at work, teaching preschool. One of the moms came to tell us. It was heartbreaking. I felt especially bad for the friends and family who had watched the launch.


Berlin wall Another huge deal. I had just given birth to my second son.
A friend was there (in Berlin) and brought me a piece of the wall. I thought to myself, wow, let's look to the future, maybe the 90's will usher in a new era of fellowship. (This was before Bosnia and Rwanda.)

Columbine ~ I lived in Denver then, and was off work that day, with two sons at school. We lived in central Denver, not the 'burbs. I did not know about it until it was almost over. School shootings had certainly happened before Columbine, and of course they happened afterward. I suppose as long as there is a malcontent with a weapon, this kind of thing is going to happen.
But this was my state, and the ripple effect went on for years.
I planted columbines in my garden. I hope they are still growing.

Sept 11 ~ We were up and beginning our day around 7am. My husband had the radio on. After the first plane hit the tower, he turned on the TV and we saw the second plane hit. I spent the next several hours online talking to friends. One of them said "This changes everything." He was right.

Hurricane Katrina There was something so biblical about that tragedy.
Except there wasn't any Ark. We were a month away from our move to northwest Florida. Everyone in Denver thought we were headed to a watery doom.

[in_newengland]

Only three events stand out in my mind.

1. JFK assassination. I was in college. It was a gray November day and I was sitting at my desk in the dorm that afternoon. I decided I needed some scotch tape so I walked over to the corner drugstore. I paid for the tape and started to chat with the cashier when someone went shhhhhhhh, quiet.

I thought that was kind of rude. They wanted everyone to be quiet so they could hear the radio.

I left to walk back to the dorm.

A casual friend called to me from across the street, "The president's been shot."

I was thinking--what president? The college president? (In my sheltered campus environment, you sometimes forget there's a world outside of campus.)

I arrived back at my dorm and it was about 2pm. I sat down at my desk to resume studying, had the radio going as usual.

Walter Cronkite was talking about President Kennedy being shot. I thought -- if he's badly wounded he would be better off dead than being like a vegetable or greatly incapacitated.

At about 2:12 Walter Cronkite said the President was dead. I felt numb and stunned and went out into the corridor, wanting to be near other people. It was a Friday and I wondered if my new boyfriend would keep our date. We did go out but everything was closed, even the movie we were going to. Somehow we found a place to eat. The weekend was gloomy and sad with funeral dirge music being the only thing on the radio. I watched none of it on tv -- didn't want to watch tv with the silly dorm girls.

I think this one event had more impact than anything in my life and a huge long lasting impact upon our country. It unleashed the anger and idealism of the '60s decade and changed the course of history.

2. Another event was the murder of John Lennon. He symbolized the '60s to me. My live-in boyfriend told me about it in the morning and I went to work but felt so sick that I came home. That's one of the most depressing events that I can remember.

3. 9/11. I was home, sitting at the computer writing an email on a bright beautiful September morning when the phone rang. It was my husband. He said -- We're been attacked. It's like Pearl Harbor, turn on the tv.

So I watched tv but the magnitude of the event didn't register. At 1:00 I went to the Y to swim and I mentioned it to someone and they said how sad it was that people were killed. It still didn't really register with the people I was with.

Watched more of it on tv and it sank it and I realized that the world had changed. It's never been the same since. For a long time nothing pre-9/11 seemed to matter because that was another world and had nothing to do with this new world.