OT - Where Were You When......

[Deej]

As I was logging on today, my ailing corporate giant ISP asked me(no, it really did) where was I when President Reagan was shot. I don't remember, I wasn't even 6 yet, I remember it happening, just not exactly where I was.

I do remember where I was when the Pope was shot and even though noone asked, I'll tell you why. I was about 7 and I used to get the Pope and the Ayatollah Khomeini  mixed up(they both wore robes and goofy hats), I knew that the folks hated the Ayatollah(for the youngsters, he was the early 80's Saddam, but meaner looking) anyway, when I heard the Pope was shot I tried to impress my folks with my grasp of current affairs by rejoicing about what a swell thing it was to shoot the Pope. I flunked that friggin' test. I come from an Irish-Catholic(read mother-loving and guilt ridden) family, so you can imagine I got some crap for that....for the next 20 years. My Mom still sends me to the prayer closet when I go home to visit.

I was born in '75, so I guess my "where were you" moments are The Challenger disaster and the World Trade Center Attacks. What are your "where were you moments"?



Post Edited (03-31-03 01:58)

[Brother Ragnarok]

I remember turning off a movie (The Bodyguard, I think) at my cousin's  house and seeing the Oklahoma City bombing on the news.
Obviously the Trade Center thing.  Heard about that one in class, which was then cancelled.
And, affecting me far more than either of those, hearing on my local PBS station about Jon Pertwee's death in '96.
I've never been one to care too much about current events.  I figure I have enough stuff to worry about without watching the news.  Doesn't mean I'm stupid, I just get sick of hearing about it after the event has happened.  Enough with the 24-7 war coverage already.

Brother R

[Deej]

Holy Balls...I'm from Oklahoma and I forgot the friggin' OKC bombing...I'm a horrible person...bad Zoot...naughty Zoot.

[Squishy]

Unless one was personally involved, dates are trivia, names and places are mostly reference. It's something my history teachers didn't believe in, but I've always felt that what's really important to learn are the reasons events happen/happened; why a battle went in a certain fashion, why a political campaign failed or succeeded, why people from "A" constantly fight with people from "B." But on a test, it's easier to grade "1492" than an essay question--especially if you have sixty-plus people in each of six daily classes because of budget cuts...

[Deej]

yeah...uh, that'll teach me to ask a question.

[Squishy]

I'm just saying, you aren't a horrible person. Well, not for automatically recalling certain things. Beyond that, I don't know... ;)

[Funk, E.]

Being a bit older I remember Ragen getting shot and I remember the first Shuttle disaster. I was in school both times. We spent the day in the school library watching the news both times. Hell I even remember when we pulled out of Viet Nam, (I was five at the time in a hotel room) Nixon resigning , and John Lennon getting shot.

[Deej]

Squishy wrote:

> I'm just saying, you aren't a horrible person. Well, not for
> automatically recalling certain things. Beyond that, I don't
> know... ;)

LOL....Well, I'm good to old people and small animals...but I do like movies with chainsaw decapitations and eyeball gouging, so I guess it's debatable.

[Newt]

JFK's funeral.
The Apollo capsule burning up on the launchpad.
The first man on the Moon.
John Lennon shot.
Vincent Price died.

Yeah, I'm OLD.


Ooops - have to add: Henderson's winning goal - Canada-Russia hockey series,  1972.    Got out of class for that one.



Post Edited (04-02-03 08:35)

[Funk, E.]

Wow! Got me beat. :-)

[onionhead]

I was in the fourth grade, and we had our current events portion in the morning.  One girl took her turn early on and said that the war in Viet Nam was over, she'd just heard about it that morning.  I sat a few chairs down from her, and I remember crumpling up a banner headline--"VIET NAM ENDS"--up into a ball in my fist out of sight, scrambling to think up another topic.  None of us really grasped the significance of it, but I remember my teacher nodding her head, swallowing thickly, and just saying "That's right, that's right."

[jmc]

Reagan being shot--I was in third grade...somehow the news even trickled its way down to the elementary kids.  The teacher rolled a TV into the room and had us watch the news coverage.  

The Pope--same year, same class--that afternoon the teacher told us all that the Pope had been shot.  Most of us didn't know who the Pope was, because there were no Catholics in the little town where I grew up.  

OKC bombing--This is so bad.  I had no idea that this even happened until late that afternoon.  I was in college.  I think my schedule at the time meant I had very few classes on that day of the week so maybe that's why I was out of the loop..  I didn't find out until I was listening to the radio on the way home and kept hearing them talk about Oklahoma City.  Even then I didn't know what they were referring to until the news came on.  The bad part is, I lived in Oklahoma at the time.

WTC attacks--I was on my way to a dentist appointment.  I pulled into the parking lot when the towers fell.  I was listening to it on the radio and just couldn't fathom that they had fallen.  It just seemed impossible to me.  My biggest regret is that I didn't get gas that morning because there was a huge panic that afternoon and I ended up paying an extra 70 cents a gallon for gas because they kept raising the prices.

[Andrew Crow]

World Trade Center attacks, re-release of Star Wars, Steve Austin's first WWF Title win, and Iron Maiden's reformation with Bruce Dickinson.

[Vermin Boy]

For me, the worst was when Phil Hartman died. I was in 7th grade, and my mom mentioned it to me in the car. It blew me away, because it was the first time a person I was a fan of who was still active had died. It was the first night of our school production of Oklahoma, and I sucked because of it.

A happier one was when the OJ trial ended. I was in 4th grade, and we all listened to a TV they had going in the next room. It put me in a great mood for the rest of the day, because I was just so damn sick of hearing about it.

[jmc]

Oh man, when I heard the OJ verdict I was at an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet.  I think everyone's reaction was the same as yours, relief that it was finally over.