Do you remember when

[Gumby]

1. I don't recall Kennedy's assassination, as I was only 5 and we didn't have a TV or radio. I do recall the funeral; we watched it on the neighbor's TV. My strongest memory is of the horse with no one riding him.

2. For Challenger, I was home for some reason, watching the launch live on TV.

3. My 9/11 account is here > http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/9-11-01-a-52050-2.html#post977126

 

[Goonie]

JFK assassination I was in kindergarten, and they announced it over the PA. My older sister was in 6th grade, and came to my classroom to walk home. Then we stayed glued to the TV.

The Challenger disaster, a friend and I were out of town and had just left a hobby shop, and were about half way between there and Radio Shack.

9-11, a co-worker and myself had just climbed back in the service truck after grabbing a cup of coffee at the local grocery store. He started the truck and it immediately came on the radio. I had him drive to my house to check the TV news to see what the heck was happening.

Also remember sitting in front of the TV when they landed on the moon the first time. And also when the first human set foot on the moon.

The '68 DNC riots in Chicago, sitting in the living room watching TV to see if I could see my older brother in the chaos......he was there somewhere!

And watching clips on the nightly news about the free-spirits at the Woodstock music festival.....while I was stuck at my great-uncle's house down in the Ozarks! And my Dad's usual commentary on Woodstock...."damn hippies".

 

[MBAustin]

1. Kennedy'a assassination - I was in 1st grade and the teacher came in and told us what had happened (in EST this was pretty close to the end of the school day). I remember watching the news pretty much all evening (probably Walter Cronkite as my father had been a producer for him in a previous life)

1a. Moon landing - I was at a small summer camp in MD and we all gathered around the TV set in the living room of the camp operator's house. Many of the other campers were tired after the landing and didn't want to stay up for Armstrong's first step - but as a space geek I stayed as long as they would let me.

2. Challenger - This was tough for me as I was living in Houston just a few miles from NASA JSC and had several friends who worked on the shuttle program. That day, I was in a hospital laboratory in Channelview (just east of Houston) boxing up their old equipment to be shipped back for a rebate on the new unit I had sold them. There was a tiny TV in the breakroom and we watched it over and over hoping that the crew had somehow survived. Several months later I sang in a choral concert in the astronauts memory and will never forget that either.

3. 9/11 - I was at home on an early morning conference call with my boss (in another city) who informed us that our group was being merged with another group (and as a result my job was essentially eliminated). I took my time before heading to the car to drive into the office and heard about the first plane crashing into the WTC from Bob Edwards on NPR. Watched a lot of the rest of it unfold on CNN website at the office. Side note: I'll always remember when we picked up my 15th anniversary ring (a resetting of the original engagement ring diamond) - it was 9/10 and I was so excited to show it off in the office the next day. Never happened.

3a - Columbia - I was in the parking lot of my church when the news came over the radio. I remember thinking "didn't they learn from Challenger?"

 

[6miths]

JFK - most likely on the floor at home building battle ships with blocks. I was only 2.5 so no recollection.

1968 - Annus horribilis - I was just becoming interested in the world and have vague recollections of reports of the Tet Offensive and the assassinations of MLKjr and Robert Kennedy. More concrete recollection of riots - I have memories of the Detroit zoo but not from 1968!

1969 - I remember watching the Apollo 11 on my grandmother's TV in the sweltering July heat in the days before air conditioning.

1986 - Challenger. I was on Florida's gulf coast and well remember the shock of the populace. I had hoped to catch a ride to Cape Kennedy to watch the launch but couldn't get the time off.

1987 - Crash - I was an intern doing a surgical rotation and remember the atmosphere in the Surgeons' lounge. Grim!

9/11 - Sitting down to dinner with our 4 children under the age of 8 when one of our neighbours came in to tell us. We had arrived to work in the UAE 2 weeks earlier.

 

[eytonxav]

I remember that one too. I'm not sure where I was or what I was doing that particular day but I recall talking to some friends a few days later and they claimed they heard the sonic boom (over northeast Texas) as the space craft was coming down. In east Texas, I remember seeing the electronic traffic signs for the next few weeks asking people to report any possible debris they may have found.

I recall this video of the breakup was played every where at the time.

I remember all of these various events that have been mentioned. As to when the Columbia broke up, I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the paper and heard a huge boom and our house shook. I went outside and scanned the horizon as I thought a jet fuel tank (a few miles to east of our house) must have blown up or possibly a passenger jet crash, also did a 360 horizon scan and saw no explosion mushrooms or smoke, but I never looked straight up.

Also, remember the great northeast blackout in the mid-sixties.

 

[MRG]

July 17, 1996 - TWA Flight 800. It was my DW's and I first day in Amsterdam. I picked up the International USA Today. Saw the headlines but didn't read the story. DW doesn't read many newspapers and is afraid to fly. I took the paper in the room preparing for her reaction, hoping she wouldn't read it.

She read and cried, as she continued reading she learned of the 16 children and 5 chaperones. They were from our hometown. We went through the list of names, recognized too many that were likely the children of our classmates. So sad.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[scrabbler1]

Just to add a few for me:


August, 1974, when Nixon resigned - I was 11 at the time and I remember watching it in the living room on TV.


July, 1977, the NYC-area blackout - Neighboring Long Island was hit but not severely thanks to its power company disconnecting from the power grid as to not get sucked in with NYC. However, our family was out of town at the end of July, in Maine on vacation, so we never lost power.


March, 1981, when Reagan was shot - I was working at our local library and someone had a radio on in the break room announcing the story.


July, 1999, when JFK Jr. died in a plane crash - It was a weekend morning and the story hit the news on a quiet news day. Pretty sad and shocking.


August, 2003, the great northeast US (and Ontario) blackout - I was mostly telecommuting so I didn't get stranded that day, unlike 9/11/01. My area was lucky, we were without power for about 7 hours, not long enough to spoil any frozen foods.


October-November 2012, Hurricane Sandy - Not as lucky that time. I lost power for 2 1/2 days starting late Monday night. But my ladyfriend, who lives a few blocks away, never lost power, so I moved my frozen foods and myself into her place for a few days until my building got the power back Thursday midday.

 

[imoldernu]

Some deja vu, 'cuz I think I may have already posted this:
Dec 7, 1941... Five years old... quiet Sunday afternoon, playing in my hidey place underneath the china cabinet, when the president came over the radio. Dad with a quiet "damn", mom in tears. He never swore, she hardly ever cried. I knew something was wrong.

Early 1955... swimming magazine came out. First place nationally in my stroke. Same year... full scholarship at Bowdoin... a happy pick for me over Yale and Dartmouth... never a regret.

JFK... as a store manager in Falmouth on the cape. Moved our TV to the front window for people walking by. Sad two weeks.

November 1989... retired from my own business, survived the cancer operation, moved into campground. Start of a new life.

 

[robnplunder]

Random thoughts on this:

Conspiracy theorists claim most of the above events are staged, manufactured, CIA is behind, etc.. I sometimes wander if they are in the same planet as the rest of us.

I remembered the Challenger event. I was at work, heard the news, and kept on working. When 911 happened, I was preparing to go to work but ended up glued to TV. To me, 911 was a world changing event. In 20 minutes, the world as we know it changed forever. I still can't grasp the full impact of the event and I am not talking about the long lines at airport check points.

 

[Rustward]

JFK -- was in the second grade and did not fully understand the magnitude of the event. The school sent us home about 1 hour early.

Challenger -- I was at a disaster recovery hotsite in Grand Prairie Texas owned by a company called ComDisco participating in a (disaster recovery) drill of how we would recover if our data center became unusable. At the time I was employed by a ubiquitous national convenience store chain -- seven 11 something or other. The ComDisco secretary came into the computer room and told us what had happened and that they had a big screen TV in the conference room if we wanted to watch. The boss was there with us and said something like "why don't we take a few minutes to watch this and understand what happened."

9/11 was at home trying to start development (first day) on a mainframe backup and restore product that would eventually be used by 200+ large enterprise customers, including a very large US gubment administration that administers a very very large trust fund upon which most US Citizens rely.

Believe whatever you want to: This stuff really runs on mainframe computers.