June 17th will be 20 years since O.J. and Al Cowlings took their famous slow ride down the 405 in a white Ford Bronco. My parent’s generation had the shared “where were you when?” memory of JFK’s assassination. I think my generation has two so far: 9/11 of course is the big one, and O.J. is the other.
So, where were you when you heard about the crazy chase?
I was in Lone Pine, CA, about 3 hours north of Los Angeles and close to Death Valley, working on a terrible low-budget sci-fi film. But even there, in the middle of nowhere, way outside of even the small town that was there, we were getting live updates between takes from the grips over walkies, who were watching it on a television in the grip truck. Even in the pre-internet age, we were connected.
The other funny thing is, several weeks prior, obviously before the murders, I was in a van on a location scout in downtown L.A. for the same film, and we spotted O.J. walking down the street with some other people. Someone in the van yelled out to him, and he smiled and waved at us. Maybe that’s the moment he snapped.
I was still in high school watching my parents’ TV when the chase happened, but I heard about the verdict in my college freshman Latin class. Some random person opened the classroom door and shouted “Not guilty!” Too bad it wasn’t in Latin.
I was sitting in my aunt’s living room in British Columbia. We turned on BCTV to see the news and were extremely puzzled by a slow-motion car chase involving a sports celebrity that seemed to pre-empt invasions and economic catastrophes at the top of the news.
The next day I took the bus to camp in the rain forest.
Geez - I think I was in a TGI Friday’s someplace and ticked off because the White Bronco chase was taking away from the start of the World Cup that day.
I heard about it only several days later. It made no particular impression on me. The big milestones in my memory are the Kennedy assassination and 9/11. I do recall where I was when someone told me about the Challenger disaster, so I guess that is one as well. Actually, my earliest public memory is the 1948 election when it was widely predicted that Truman would lose.
My sister and I were youngish kids (I was 8 or 9 I guess) and we were in the basement with my dad and he was watching something on TV. A road with cars on it.
I remember seeing the chase, but I honestly don’t remember where I was when I saw it. I’m guessing that I was at my home because that’s where I watch most of my TV. But I don’t even know if I saw it live, or during one of the innumerable repeat showings that were going on then.
I do remember when the news read OJ’s professed suicide note. I listened to it over the radio in my car. It was that note that convinced me he was guilty. I believe he denied his guilt in it exactly once, and then must’ve written fifteen pages saying goodbye to different people. I thought to myself, "Now, if someone innocent found themselves in a situation like this, they would most likely fill those pages begging the police to find the real killer, demanding an investigation, and insisting that no time be wasted tracking the killer down. Goodbyes to people probably wouldn’t even cross an innocent person’s mind, certainly not for fifteen pages worth. Yup, he did it, is what I thought.
I was working part-time at a dry cleaners, sitting at a long table covering mother-of-pearl blouse buttons with aluminum foil while we watched it on a little portable TV. The “chase” was slow and meandering. Somebody ate a candy bar. We all drank cokes. A couple of us took a smoke break. At times it looked like a procession with police escort.
Wow – 20 years ago. Hard to believe. I lived in San Francisco then. I worked in Saratoga in a small software development office. Someone heard about it and we turned on the TV to watch. Surreal. The white Ford Bronco driving on the LA freeways. People on overpasses cheering to OJ. Very bizarre. We watched for a while, then went back to work.
That job only lasted a few months before HQ in Dublin, OH, decided to shut us down. It was a good group of coworkers. Friends, really. Jerry W snd Sandra W, and Mike M, and Jeff R. There was Bryan R, Bill D, Rick W and Cherie M too. I’m glad I had the opportunity to cross paths with those guys.
I was still living in FL and I have vague recollections of the “car chase” on TV, or maybe I’m remembering the news reports after. Beyond that, nothing. I do remember hearing the verdict while at work and absolutely not believing it. But in the grand scheme of things, nothing about OJ made any major impression on me.
I guess I was at home and saw part of the trial on TV. It may have even been shown in school. I didn’t know who who Simpson was at the time, so it wasn’t a big enough shock for the occasion to be burnt into my memory. I also didn’t realize the miscarriage of justice until the civil trial, so that didn’t shock me too much, either.
There is a very brief scene in the very first “Speed” movie… an overhead shot of the hero supposedly driving somewhere a white Ford Bronco.
It was a very WTF moment for me and I got shooshed in the theater by my wife for daring to say, “Wait a minute. Didn’t we just see that on TV an hour ago…?”
*for all I know its been edited out of what you’d see on TV now