Depending on our level of piousness, thats what we say when other words fail us…
When have you seen some breaking news on TV or heard it on the radio - or perhaps caught it on a headline some morning, and found yourself truly shocked?
You know those moments where you remember where you were and what you were doing exactly.
For me its…
John Lennon murdered. I was about to be sent to bed when it happened, and I was playing with my etch and sketch or something…I was young but I remember the “grown ups” being really upset over the news for the first time.
Challenger explosion. I was in the classroom and the teacher had a TV set up so we could watch…we didn’t know what happened for a while.
The announcement that the U.S.S.R. dissolved midnight Christmas, 1991 - not exactly shocking on the day it happened -but still it was the news of the decade…
Princess Diana’s car wreck, I woke up the next morning to that being on every channel.
Phil Hartman killed by his wife - I wasn’t a exactly a huge fan, but I rembember seeing Tom Brokaw announcing that after the Today Show (well my exact reaction wasn’t “Oh My God”, but “Holy Shit”!).
September 11, 2001…
Am I missing any from the last 20 years? Or before? I can think of some if I was alive in the 1960’s - but I can’t think of one from the 1970’s…
I’m a pro wrestling fan (yes, people, I know it’s fake) and I was watching the live pay-per-view event three years ago during which Owen Hart died in the ring. For those who don’t know, here’s the story:
They had been working on this stunt where Owen was supposed to be lowered into the ring by a cable. This particular stunt had been done on a regular basis and wasn’t considered particularly dangerous. However, as Owen had just begun to be lowered, something happened and he fell about 50feet, hit his head on the corner of the ring, and died about 20 minutes later. There was a slight tape delay, so no one except the folks in the arena actually saw the fall, but I can still remember the looks on the announcers faces and the EMTs working on him in the ring. Needless to say, I didn’t really enjoy the rest of the show, but I was too stunned to want to get up and leave.
John Lennon’s murder: I was doing homework and watching a football game on TV in my room. I don’t remember who was playing, but I was working on a research paper for English class.
Challenger: I was watching the liftoff while I was getting ready for work. I was late that day and it was a pretty weird day after that. I was managing a Mazzio’s and we had been having some promotion that involved giving out flag pins and people hadn’t been taking them, but that day we went through our entire stock before 3:00.
The Berlin Wall coming down: We were at a party when someone came in and told us to turn on the TV. Party lasted till the wee hours of the morning.
Gulf War: I remember being glued to the radio because I was working as a preschool teacher during the day. At night I was on the radio so I watched the wires and played that damned song every hour.
OKC Bombing. I had just gotten my daughter off to school, my son was playing in the floor and I was working on a costume fitting when they broke in with the news. An hour later I was on my way to the site.
Princess Diana: Watching TV, sitting in the floor cutting out a pattern for something for my daughter.
The OJ saga. I don’t remember where I was when it started but I was shocked when he was arrested for it.
Sept 11th: I had just gotten my son ready for school and logged online. My first news was on the SDMB, after that I was glued to the TV or Internet or on the phone.
I can’t remember what I was doing when I heard about the others that have been mentioned, but I remember them.
The Challenger. Logic tells me I oughtn’t remember this, as in January of 1986 I was barely three years old. Nevertheless I remember seeing the pretty space shuttle on television, and then something went wrong and the pretty space shuttle went boom and my parents were sad.
I did not comprehend what was going on in the Gulf War. I didn’t even comprehend that it was a war. I knew my sister was upset about it, and my cousin was over fighting, but really I had no f-ing clue what was going on. I can only date the Gulf War by remembering the time of my life when my sister kept a yellow pennant in her window and the neighbors had a ribbon on the tree in their yard. I don’t know why I was so ignorant.
Columbine. I was house-sitting for a family friend, and flipping channels on their big-screen tv. Flipped past CNN and saw the footage of kids running out of the building. Sat transfixed.
OJ. Dad made the whole damn family watch the Bronco chase.
September 11. I came home from my 8:00 French class, logged online and saw the MPSIMS thread. Watched CNN for the rest of the day.[/ul]
Reagan shot: I was about 5 years old at the hairdresser with my grandmother - she’d stuck me in front of the TV while she got her hair done. I also remember wanting to send him jellybeans for a get-well present.
Challenger: I was at home browsing through a Smithsonian catalog making out my xmas list - the tv was on showing the launch.
Jerry Garcia’s death: Working in a pottery shop, my boss was glazing some pots and said, “Hey, who’s that Jerry Garcia guy who died, what do you know about him?” - I said “you’re full of shit, Jerry’s not dead!” but I was wrong.
OJ Simpson: At my boyfriend’s apartment for the car chase. In ceramics class listening to the radio when the jury gave the verdict.
9-11: Sortof the same reaction as the Jerry Garcia thing, except it took a lot longer to accept that it had really happened. I was with friends on a houseboat out in the middle of Lake Mohave, Arizona. My BF had gotten the news when he went to fill up the jetski with gas and thought the gas attendant was full of crap. It wasn’t until later in the day when the rest of the crew went for gas & supplies and heard the news that we figured out the details.
I didn’t mean to slight Oklahoma City and Columbine, but I heard about those piece by piece during the day, I think I was the others were basically all flash “headlines”.
I found out about Princess Diana’s crash when I woke up that day and my little brother came to me and told me. I didn’t believe him till I saw the news.
On 9-11 I was in history and it must’ve been 9.00 or something. My teacher turned on the television for about ten minutes and I sat there watching, thinking it was some sort of accident. I wasn’t really sure what was going on. Then in Math class, which was at around 12.30, we had the television on all period and everything became much clearer. That’s when I started thinking “HOLY SHIT” and “OH MY GOD” and about a million other things all at the same time :mad:
One I’d like to add is when Aaliyah died. It was really late and I opened a thread here about it. I went to my room, woke up my sister, and told her. Nearly started crying in the process.
Jet Crash at Pope AFB/Ft. Bragg, NC. March 1994. I was there. Heard explosion, noise, figured out what was happening, “HOLY SHIT!”
8 dead on site, 20 more end up dying, 80 hospitalized, 100’s treated and released.
I was lucky: broken shoulder, dislocated collarbone, stitches to forehead and knee, assorted other boo-boos .
The Challenger explosion. I was home from school because of a snow day, heard about a “major accident” on the radio, and turned on the TV in time to see a replay of the explosion.
The climax of the Waco standoff in 1993. I watched the building burn to the ground on CNN.
Oklahoma City. Heard it was a transformer explosion, turned on CNN, and saw that it was much, much worse.
Columbine. Heard about it in class, and was saddened about another school shooting. The shock of it didn’t hit me until I got home and saw how bad it was.
Election night, 2000. “Gore wins! No, Bush wins! No, wait…”
I have to agree with a lot of these, but I won’t reiterate them. I will, however, toss out one more:
The second assassination attempt in about three weeks on President Ford. Not sure of the date, but I think it was about 1975. I say “the second,” because it just seemed unreal to have two attempts made so closely together.
I was in high school at the time, and my friends and I were all thinking, “Jeez, Nixon we could understand, but Ford?”
I was around for Elvis’ and Lennon’s deaths, but wasn’t aware of them at the time.
Reagan’s shooting–sitting in the cafeteria after school when they burst into the room saying the President’s been shot.
Challenger explosion–6th grade, and the principal came in right before recess telling what happened. Immediately, the class armyhead (you know the guy, one in every class in the 80s–wore camouflage, worshipped Rambo) started saying it was the commies.
The Berlin Wall.
Princess Diana–worked at a tv station at the time and reported she’d been in an accident, but rushed to the hopital. Broke in later saying she had died.
side note: always “interesting” when celebrities die, especially when you haven’t met or known them personally, coz with tv, reruns, rock albums, etc…if that’s all you’ve ever know them thru, they’re still as much alive to you as they ever were.
September 11. I can’t help but think, “My wife could’ve been there.” Then I think, someone’s wife WAS there. That’s when it becomes real to me.
The Challenger – it was three months before my tenth birthday, I was visiting my old school in a city I used to live in (I had surgery planned for the next day). Mom and I were told by her class that she was in the teachers’ lounge, and were heading that way, when she came out with a look of total disbelief and said, “The shuttle just blew up!” We were in there like THAT.
9/11 – The first bit I heard was just before a geology test; one of my classmates caught me in the hall and asked if I’d heard about the plane hitting the WTC. Whoa, I thought, that’s a hell of an accident, but I have a TEST. So I took the test, and went back to my car, and turned on the radio to a talk station. Moments later, they announced that not only the first, but the second, tower was down. WTF??? The towers DOWN? Those huge things?
I went to a TV in the student center and watched it for half an hour until they closed the campus, then I went home and stared at the TV in utter disbelief for about three hours straight.
The first Quebec referendum. I was a precocious kid, and a newshound since my age was in the mid single digits.
Attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. I was at my Nan’s after school watching the coverage.
Attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. As with Reagan.
Assassination of Indira Ghandi. At my Aunt’s.
Challenger. I started walking back to school early that day, and it happened over lunch hour. Missed it. Actually, I’ve missed the “breaking news” bit of most major breaking news.
Tiananmen Square. At a different house owned by the Aunt as in Indira Ghandi assassination. Until this year, probably the most affecting thing I’d seen on the news. I stayed up almost all night switching skiplander a.m. and shortwave radio stations from around the world.
Oklahoma City. Woke up to this news just breaking on the radio.
Yitzhak Rabin assassinated. Got back to a friend’s place after a fall leaf hike when this was just breaking.
Dunblane. Woke up to this story breaking on the radio. Listened to more of it on the radio on the way to work, and felt physically sick for days.
September 11th. Hitched a ride to a B&B with another B&B owner; she put in a tape instead of the radio. Discovered later it wouldn’t have made much difference since CBC Radio took over an hour to go to the story. Got into the door of the B&B to the news. By a sick coincidence, the owners lost their son 11 years before on a Tuesday, September 11th, and in a plane crash. They were already nerves on edge because of that anniversary. Mrs. came to the door in tears saying something about the awful thing that happened in New York; I threw down my bags and ran to the living room just as the second tower started to collapse.
I had been thinking of visiting NYC the first two weeks of September.
I remember Waco because I was already home for Patriot’s Day watching the Boston Marathon at the time.
Likewise, I remember when Gorbachev was removed by a coup because there was no school that day due to Hurricane Bob.
I also clearly remember finding out about Indira Gandhi’s assassination, as it was only when I read labradorian’s post a minute ago. When did that happen? Where was I?
Lot of the ones already mentioned, so not going to comment on them again. But also…
The May 3rd, 1999 Oklahoma City/Wichita tornado outbreak. Friend told me that OK City got hit by a extremely powerful tornado, I was in shock. Later found out Wichita had been hit as well. As a meteorologist, I knew stuff was going to happen that day, but when it happened to two major cities, I did the aforementioned “Holy Shit.”
