Where Were You When....

[bj66]

BigLenny made a reply on a different thread which actually could become an interesting thread in itself. Since we as members are so diverse, it would be interesting to see where you were and what you were doing when some pivotal moment in our nation/world history happened. ObViously some of the events may be of a religious or even political event. I'm not interested so much in the event discussion, but would be interested to see what we were doing at the time the events happened. I hope this is well received and not meant to start anything, and if so I am sorry.

 

I would start by adding...

I wasn't very old and we were on vacation at Lake Michigan and my mom hollered at me to come in the cabin so I could watch Nixon's resignation speech. We were vacationing with my parents army friends from Wisconsin. I think I was about 8 years old.

[cowpuc]

During my first day of Kindergarten in the fall of 1960, a kid by the name of Randy Dillion got up and walked across the desks.. Our teacher, Mrs. Mathews, got up from her chair and Randy took off running.. She caught him and spanked him with one of those Paddles that originally came with a ball attached to the paddle with a rubber string (I hated those things - I never could get em to work)..

Three years later, after having just started 3rd grade in the same school system, Beech Wood Elementary in Fruitport Michigan. I had just pulled the handle on the pencil machine in the hallway about 3 doors down from the classroom that I had just walked out of. There were no other children in the hallway at the time.. All of a sudden, the hall speakers came alive and in a very sad and sullen voice - the person said that President Kennedy had been shot..

Edited February 4, 2015 by cowpuc

[BratmanXj]

I'm only 34 so mine are more recent...

1. Kindergarten classroom watching the Challenger launch in '86

2. Sitting with my Dutch immigrant grandparents at their kitchen table watching the Berlin Wall come down in '89. My Opa (grandfather) owned a market in Enschede, Netherlands where he hid out people escaping Nazi Germany during the war.

3. At work as a delivery driver about to head into downtown Chicago when the 1st plane hit. All deliveries were halted for the day, I immediately called up my sister who worked downtown.

[Rosie1965]

Hanging out with high school friends eating ice cream when assassination attempt on Reagan occurred. Building fence in back yard on 9/11, came in house and saw first plane had hit. Thought what an odd accident. Like everyone else, didn't take long to realize it was no accident.

[BigLenny]

9/11 - I ran down the road to a local grocery store to get some change for my sons lunch money. When I got back to the house my oldest son told me that on The Today Show on TV they were talking about a plane that had hit the World Trade Center. This was significant to us because myself, my wife, and my kids had just gotten back 3 weeks earlier from a family vacation to Washington DC and NYC including the Empire State Building and World Trade Center. We were slack jawed watching the footage and wondering how someone could've made such a bad mistake as to fly into the WTC. Then as we watched the TV the second plane hit. Unbelievable! My kids went to school, but I just sat down on my couch and began to watch several hours of TV that day.

 

Challenger disaster - I was delivering Coca-Cola's to a convenience store. As I walked into the store with my first load of drinks I noticed that everyone including the store manager and all of the customers were standing silent watching a TV that was hanging on the wall. It was telling the breaking news of the tragedy. Very sad.

 

Columbia Disaster - Woke up on Saturday morning to go to my sons basketball game. Turned on the TV for no apparent reason. There it was. They were doing a live report.

 

Princess Di death. - I had been playing a mens league basketball game. When I got home it was late at night. My wife and kids were in bed. I fixed myself a snack and sat down to watch a little TV while eating it. Every channel was doing a live breaking news of the accident and her death. It had just happen about 30 minutes before that. I couldn't believe it. I woke my wife up to tell her.

 

Oklahoma Federal Building bombing. It was about 9:30-10:00 in the morning and I was ironing my shirt and pants getting ready to head to work. I had the TV on and they broke in with the news. They first thought it was a gas line explosion. Crazy sad thing.

 

Elvis Presley's death - I was 14 years old and I had just gotten home from school. As I was changing clothes my grandmother walked into my room and said the news had just said that Elvis died. I was shocked even though his music wasn't something I listened to much, I knew the importance of his death. Just a few hours later we received word that my moms brother, my favorite uncle had died of a sudden heart attack. That changed everyone in our family from being sad about Elvis to being in serious mourning about my uncle.

 

I was born in 1963 so I don't remember Kennedy being killed, but my mom says that she was holding me in her arms trying to rock me to sleep when the tv came on with the news that Pres Kennedy had died. My mom said she cried right then and there.

[Brake Pad]

My first year in business working for myself I was black topping three driveways that morning when the first plane hit the tower I was on my second driveway I remember the house the name of the people and when I was wearing I was in the middle of the third driveway when the homeowners called me in to see what was happening. America change that day

[Chaharly]

I remember sitting in class in second grade watching the live coverage of 9/11.

[eagleeye]

November 22, 1963

I had just graduated from the US Navy boot camp and was at the San Diego airport waiting for a flight home when I heard the announcement that President Kennedy was shot and killed. But first they said that that the governor of Texas was shot. Initially there was a lot of confusion as to what happened as I remember it.

On that flight I remember circling Ohare field a number of times due to a winter storm, and from there a flight back to Madison, Wi. on a tail dragger that made a stopover in Janesville. Not a fun flight!

[Venturous Randy]

I was in the eighth grade when the teacher was called out of the classroom and when she came back in, she told us Kennedy had been shot. I remember going outside and sitting in the teacher's car listening to the radio and hearing that he was dead.

I was in the kitchen when my sister was watching Oswald being brought out of the police station and she yelled that they were bringing him out. Just as I stepped into the living room and looked at the TV, he was shot. Even though I have seen the replay many times, it was so weird to see the actual shooting.

Randy

[eagleeye]

OK, here is a really good one to post on this thread:

 

1975, INDY MILE

Indiana State fair in Indianapolis

Me and some friends used to ride down to watch the indy mile/flat track every year. This year Kenny Roberts rode the Yamaha TZ-750 and won it. It was truly an amazing race. When he flew past everyone to the finish line, everyone was standing and there were goose bumps on your arms.

Wow, what a race.

Edited February 4, 2015 by eagleeye
added link/didn't work

[The Tooch]

OK Most won't get this but to us in the north that do, it was a really an unforgettable moment.

 

My entire High School was packed in the girls gym. There were maybe 5 of those T.V.'s on the stands they used to roll them back and forth into classrooms. We are all glued to the action on the screens from half a world away. The tension you could cut with a knife everyone was holding their breath. Then it happened......Henderson!

The whole country went nuts!

[Pic]

I was 7 and remember my Mom and I were at my Aunts apartment visiting when it came on her black and white TV that Kennedy was shot. My Mom and Aunt both cried for a long time and we spent the entire day with my Aunt till my Dad got there after he got off work.

[Peder_y2k]

It was 1956 and I was 9 and the news was all about the Suez Crisis, and my mother and I were on a train that rolled past a field that was being cleared of stumps with explosives going off right then, and I became frightened that the war was right outside the rail car. Impressed me for sure, and I still remember that there was indeed a shooting war that might seriously affect me. Now I know better, .......and I have guns.

 

Then there was the Kennedy assassination while I was in class in high school. We watched the black and white tv coverage for a while in dismay, then we all went home early saddened by the events.

 

Kennedy was well loved, but made a lousy President. But that's another story.

 

-Pete, in Tacoma WA USA

[slowrollwv]

During my first day of Kindergarten in the fall of 1960, a kid by the name of Randy Dillion got up and walked across the desks.. Our teacher, Mrs. Mathews, got up from her chair and Randy took off running.. She caught him and spanked him with one of those Paddles that originally came with a ball attached to the paddle with a rubber string (I hated those things - I never could get em to work)..

Three years later, after having just started 3rd grade in the same school system, Beech Wood Elementary in Fruitport Michigan. I had just pulled the handle on the pencil machine in the hallway about 3 doors down from the classroom that I had just walked out of. There were no other children in the hallway at the time.. All of a sudden, the hall speakers came alive and in a very sad and sullen voice - the person said that President Kennedy had been shot..

 

Very interesting Puc I was also in 3rd grade doing a math test when he was shot.

[cowpuc]

Very interesting Puc I was also in 3rd grade doing a math test when he was shot.

 

WOW, that is amazing Slowroll!!

 

Hmmm,, Math test eay,,, I suppose you were also one of those smarty pants who was actually able to figure out how to make that Paddle with the rubberball hooked on it with a rubber string do its thing:big-grin-emoticon:!!

[WallyG]

This thread has sure brought up some long forgotten (so I thought) memories. Thankfully, I was born in early '63 so was not old enough to bear witness to the Kennedy assassination, though it makes my heart heavy every time I see footage of the event - he may (or may not) have been a poor president, but I still think he deserved an opportunity to prove (or disprove) it.

 

My first "flash-bulb" memory is of the moon landing - I used to spend summers at my grandparents and on this particular occasion, my grandmother sent me off to find grandpa. I found him alright, in the local pub. When I walked in (yes, back then 6-year-olds were allowed in the pubs in Croatia) the place was deathly quiet, everyone's gaze (including grandpa) glued to the grainy images on the screen.

 

Another moment frozen in time is the Challenger tragedy - I had worked the night shift and was blissfully asleep when I was shook awake by my girlfriend at the time with the words "Challenger just exploded!" I spent the entire day watching the reruns of the explosion, waiting anxiously (praying) for any hint of survivors - sadly, it was not to be...

 

I think everyone remembers where they were on the morning of September 11, 2001 - I was at my desk working as purchaser for a welding shop when the receptionist came in to say a plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Centre towers. At the time everyone thought it might have been a horrific accident, yes there would be fatalities, but the tower itself would be fine and the occupants would make it out OK. By the time the second plane hit, we all realized that someone had declared war on the US. When US planes started landing at our airports and the airspace over the US was closed we were told to go home, come back when the crisis was over.

[Kroc]

I was visiting my dad's work at the Salt Lake Air Route Traffic Control Center. In the break room all that could were watching the moon landing. From the back of the room a large American Indian fellow said, " Damn guys are probably surveying for a new Indian reservation." After the chuckling subsided he added, "then they'll find oil and want it back." That was of course a good memory. I Have much darker and more distinctive memories of Kennedy and 9/11.

[Barrycuda]

9/11 attacks: working downtown,very close to the scene driving a bus

OJ : home watching Knicks playoff game when car chase scene cut in

space shuttle challenger event: 18 yr old screw up working someplace similar to a rural king

first gulf war: basement apartment downing booze, trying to become an alcoholic ( I failed)

st.louis rams only Super Bowl championship: apartment in NYC was the happiest guy in NYC

proposed to wife: St. Augustine . She had no idea and we rode the Vulcan for a weekend stay.

[rbig1]

we landed on the moon. Everyone stopped what we were doing and watched as the astronauts walked on the moon. When ever they had it on tv well all stopped and watched it. black and white and fuzzy reception.

[Eck]

My mom was dropping me off at school and on the car radio is where her and I both heard that president Kennedy had been shot. My mom ran into the school and told the principal to turn on the radio. He turned on the loud speakers so the whole school could listen to the radio about Kennedy being shot and killed. ( I was 8 years old..in kindergarten ...:stickpoke:)

 

9/11 attacks: I was at work, my wife called me about something, and all of a sudden she started saying, OMG, OMG.. a plane just hit the tower in NY..I ran from my office telling everyone I passed to come with me to the snack room where there was a TV. All of us stood there in silence.

[videoarizona]

I was in high school when Kennedy was shot. I remember walking up to the windows and looking out over the school grounds while we listened to the local radio over the school PA. I was on the 2nd floor... in class. A Fall day....transitioning to Winter.

[Oldodge]

Several things stand out.

The first: I used to be in an online Nascar type racing league. I was racing the night they contacted the trapped Quecreek miners. We suspended the race so we could all watch TV. Watching those men come up from that mine alive is the closest thing to a miracle I will probably ever see. It may have been a miracle. I have visited the site on my motorcycle and it creates a special feeling for me.

The second: 9/11 I was at work and my wife called me saying that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We gathered around a computer news feed just as the second plane hit and we realized it was no accident. My wife called back scared because military jets were flying around very low where we live. We later heard about Flight 93 and the tragedy in Shanksville, PA. Not all that far from home and another very moving place to visit. I must say the new memorial is beautiful but it lacks something, something raw, that the original makeshift memorial stirred in me.

The third: Kennedy's assassination.I was too young to completely understand but my older sister was devastated. She was a huge fan of the Kennedy family. I remember her sobbing uncontrollably as my Mom tried to console her. We watched the news and funeral as a family.

[bj66]

When the gulf war started I was at a place called Andes Tower Hills near Alexandria MN. Its a smaller hill that offers snow skiing. Several friends and I went over to have some fun. They had outdoor speakers set up playing the local radio station. I had just gotten to the bottom of the hill when the announcement came over the radio that the war had begun in earnest and that troops were going in. You could've heard a pin drop on that hill. Everybody just stopped and looked at each other. The rest of the day wasn't much fun, and we listened to the radio all the way home trying to hear more.

[mraf]

When 911 hit I was hand picking grapes with my wife at a friends vineyard. His brother came out and told us the first plane hit the tower. We were finished and at home when we watched the second one hit. My son was home on leave, he was stationed in Germany at the time. Needless to say, leave was over. When the Gulf war started I was with a bunch of friends getting wings when it came over the TV. When the first man on the Moon footstep was on TV we were all glued to it. When NAFTA was signed I just shook my head. So much for the good old days.

[Yammer Dan]

Bunch of babies!! I was in 9th grade Civics class

when JFK was shot!!!