The NEWS of your childhood

[RCMerchant]

I remember very clearly the teacher in my 2nd grade classroom rolling a TV set into the room, and we watched the first moon landing.
I remember the Manson trial. He scared the f**k out of me. They didn't show the actual trial, but they showed them leading Manson and the girls into court, and Manson would make weird faces at the camera. My Dad usta say to me- " You better straigten your ass up, or I'll send ya to go live with Charlie Manson!" I had already been in orphanages and foster homes! That scared the s**t out of me! I was f**king 8 years old!

[retrorussell]

I was not very old at all when US action in Vietnam was over so I don't remember it on the news very much.  But I do recall bits and pieces of the Iran hostage crisis at the US Embassy in Tehran.  It lasted a couple years before all the hostages were safely returned.

My mom had left my dad a couple years ago and my stepmom moved in, when I heard the news about the Tylenol poisoning in Chicago.
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Ugh.. I was at jr. high school in Oceanography class when I caught the news about the Challenger disaster.  From what I recall my teacher Mr. Hadder was in the running to be on board the shuttle (Christa McCauliffe, also a teacher, made it).
A lot of eerie silence as the news reporter is struggling to believe just what happened.
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[RCMerchant]

I remember when Nixon resigned. Me and my Dad were watching Jack Palance in DRACULA- just started-BAM! Nixon quits! Right in the middle of the f**king movie! p**sed us both off!
Dad was a big Jack Palance fan- he thought SHANE was one of the best movies ever made. I didn't know s**t about Jack Palance. I just wanted to see Dracula! I know Dad hated Nixon. But he hated everybody. Except Billy Carter.  Not Jimmy Carter. Billy Carter. 

[Allhallowsday]

I remember when Nixon resigned. Me and my Dad were watching Jack Palance in DRACULA- just started-BAM! Nixon quits! Right in the middle of the f**king movie! p**sed us both off!
Dad was a big Jack Palance fan- he thought SHANE was one of the best movies ever made. I didn't know s**t about Jack Palance. I just wanted to see Dracula! I know Dad hated Nixon. But he hated everybody. Except Billy Carter.  Not Jimmy Carter. Billy Carter.  

 
That's some funny sheet.  

SHANE is a great movie, and JACK PALANCE is so very memorable in it.  I kind of love JACK PALANCE too.  It's like, Dad, you suck, but ya got great taste in movie actors...!  And as far as politicians, you know when they eat ass!!!  

[Chainsawmidget]

I'm a little bit younger than a lot of you guys, so I can remember the Gulf War and Desert Storm being all over the TV when I was young. 

In fact, I can remember times when they'd constantly be interrupting the Saturday Morning cartoons for news updates.  I hated that.  I wanted to watch cartoons!

I also remember the Unabomber being a big thing to watch out for. 

[frank]

The one I remember most was the chernobyl meltdown (I was 10) - both because it affected my personal life (no playing when it's raining, discussions of what you could still eat,...) and because once on TV they showed from a helicopter camera peolpe working on site to close the thing and a clock was running indicating how long they could stay without getting radiation poisoning and the clock ran off and there was no indication they would stop working - that creeped me out.

I also remember the challenger catastrophy, bacause no one could quite grasp it while watching it live on TV. I just realized it was in the same year as chernobyl.

On good news of course the fall of the Berlin wall, but I was already older. I still regret I did not find a way to get there immediately.

[Alex]

For some reason airliner crashes tend to stick in my mind, especially the ones in the 80's that were mistaken for spy planes or hostile aircraft and shot down (I seem to recall two of those during that time, a Korean one and an Iranian). The miners strike when Thatcher broke the Unions, the SAS ending the embassy siege, and the Falklands War.

[Trevor]

I remember being sick in bed one day when my mom brought the newspaper to me: the headline read REAGAN SHOT: CONDITION SERIOUS. 

I was at school in 1980 when the change of government happened in what was then Rhodesia (my birthplace): almost everyone had brought radios to school and when the change happened, some parents pulled their kids out of school.

The worst news events happened in 1997 and 2001: when I turned on the TV in my flat on 31 August 1997 to find that Princess Diana had died and the horrors of 9/11 on my birthday in 2001. 

[HappyGilmore]

Born in 84...early 90s I remember some updates about the Gulf War...mid 90s, Unabomber.

If you count my teen years, I was 15 when Columbine happened.  I went to throw on some shows while doing homework after school and seeing the footage and news of that shooting.  About a year and a half later, senior year of high school, I remember a teacher running into one of my classes saying 'Turn on the tv, turn on the tv" and seeing the 9/11 attacks.  We turned it on for the second plane.

[RCMerchant]

I remember-not on TV- but the radio in our old station wagon- when Martin Luther King was shot.  I remember my Ma screaming at the radio (she did the same thing at the TV all the time), "What the f**k is this f**kin' world coming to!?" I didn't really know who King was or why he was shot, but I recall seeing it on TV later that day, so I knew he was somebody important.

[zombie no.one]

+1 for the challenger disaster. I had just turned 8. remember watching tv as the news broke and the program I was watching at the time (which I'm sure was a live kids tv show called 'Splash' but I can't find it on imdb, so maybe not?) being interrupted.

A lot of eerie silence as the news reporter is struggling to believe just what happened

yeah definitely remember there being something eerily hypnotic about the whole thing. the footage, the crowd, the radio controller voices etc, and knowing that something massive and very bad had just happened. still feels weird to watch now.

[RCMerchant]

I was not very old at all when US action in Vietnam was over so I don't remember it on the news very much.  

I was born in '62, so by the time I was 8, Vietnam was in full swing. I had seen all sortsa s**t on Walter Cronkite (that's what Dad called the news.) Choppers and bodies all over. I thought the world was going to end soon. I held that belief until 1980.

[RCMerchant]

In the 80's I was in my 20's. I didn't watch TV too much. I didn't have cable until 1988, or a vhs player until 1991.
I was single. I want to bars. I went fishing. I wen't drunk driving.
I DO remember seeing Ronald Reagan being shot LIVE. I was living in my Uncle Ronnie's basement-he had a room down there. I just came from NYC.  I was  just getting out of work. I had the TV running. POW! He got shot! I went upstairs and told my Uncle Ron- "Reagan just got shot!" He said one word- "Good!" .
No matter who is in office, my side of the family doesn't like them. Just don't like politicians at all. 

[The Burgomaster]

I remember watching the first moon landing. They had almost continuous coverage starting with the launch. I remember sitting in front of the TV watching the rocket sitting on the launch pad for like a couple hours while the timer counted down and the news commentators talked about all kinds of stuff. Then after the launch they had more coverage with various experts talking about the flight to the moon, the lunar module and all kinds of stuff.  Most of it was pretty boring to me (I was 5 years old in 1969). Every time I tried to walk away, my mother would say, "Watch this. It's history!"

I also remember Vietnam coverage, but I don't remember any specific stories.

There was also the Watergate Scandal and the Nixon resignation (which I clearly remember watching with my mother and father).

Locally, there was a lot of news coverage of the Boston school desegragation issue (they were sending school buses full of kids to various schools in various neighborhoods in order to balance racial demographics at each school). There were lots of protests and plenty of unrest during those years.

I remember reports of various celebrity deaths: Bing Crosby, Elvis, John Belushi, John Lennon, Ricky Nelson (I was 21 by that time and was at a New Year's Eve party at my aunt & uncle's house).

Lots and lots more . . .

[RCMerchant]

I r was pretty boring to me (I was 5 years old in 1969). Every time I tried to walk away, my mother would say, "Watch this. It's history!"



I remember reports of various celebrity deaths: Bing Crosby, Elvis, John Belushi, John Lennon, Ricky Nelson (I was 21 by that time and was at a New Year's Eve party at my aunt & uncle's house).

Lots and lots more . . .

I remember Lon Chaney Jr. because I read it in FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine in 1973. I also read about the death of Tor Johnson from Famous Monsters. about the same year. Maybe a year earlier.

I remember when Evel Knevil was jumping everything. And he did too.  Almost killed himself a couple times!