So.. where were you?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

That was 1989. October 17, 1978, 5.04 pm. Can you tell I was there?

The first disaster I remember is the Challenger explosion. I was six. I don’t actually remember hearing about it happening, I remember my mom walking me home from the bus stop, though, telling me about it and how sad she was.

Loma Prieta, I was in my living room. I was eleven. My dad was in the backyard, barbequeing, for the baseball game. He felt it first, and yelled, “Is that an earthquake?” As I yelled back, “NO!” I felt it too. My parents’ house is on solid bedrock (not to mention we were 100 miles from the epicenter) and the shaking wasn’t intense, but it was persistent. It lasted about 10 seconds, which is a pretty goddamned long earthquake. Nothing in the house even fell over, so I didn’t realize how large it was til the TV, which had blacked out, came back on with aerial shots of the Bay Bridge.

Oklahoma City Bombing. You know, I’m something of a news junkie, but I somehow managed to completely miss this for a day or two. I still have no idea how I did that - I usually read the papers every day, and I was in high school at the time, you’d think I would have heard about it from a teacher. Very weird.

September 11, I was 22 years old. I was still asleep when the WTC and Pentagon were hit (I was in California, it was early to be awake!). My parents woke up a little before me and heard the news on the radio. My mom apparently stood right outside my door, waiting for the alarm to go off, because the second it did, she was knocking on the door, dragging me into the living room. I think I saw the towers collapse live, but I’m not 100% sure. The distance we felt was negated when it became clear that there was another missing plane, from Newark to San Francisco. I don’t mean to discount the deaths of anyone, but many of the passengers on Flight 93 were, to those of us in the Bay Area, local people. They lived in our towns and cities. You watch something horrible happening 3000 miles away and it can be hard to identify when it’s a lovely sunny day on the other side of the continent. The deaths of so many people from our area made everything so much closer.

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John Lennon: I was standing out in front of the house with my mom and my aunt and we heard it on the radio. We were all were quite shocked.

Reagan: Sitting at home watching the news.

OJ: A friend and I were at an AM/PM getting gas before driving down to San Francisco. I walk into the place and everyone is glued to the little TV hanging from the ceiling. That was rather odd in itself. Watched that silly bronco chase for quite a while as more and more people gathered around that little TV.

I watched most of the trial on Court TV and even though I kind of thought that the jury might let him off I really was pretty shocked to hear the verdict (after only 2 hours).

Challenger: I was working on geting the front line area set up at Taco Bell in the morning. We had the radio going and the music cut off to reveal the news. Many upset Taco Bellites that day.

89 loma-prieta quake: We were watching the World Series get underway (Giants fan here). We stayed up all night watching the news.

Mount St. Helens: Driving to my aunt’s house with my parents. I was sitting in the back seat drawing something and the news came on the radio. I wrote down the date in my sketchpad. Got to my aunt’s house and watched the news on TV. My dad had an aerial photo of the mountain (16x20) from about a month after the blast. All the flattened trees make it look furry until you look closer. Incredible power and destruction.

9/11: I woke up at around 6:00am (which is damn odd for me) and turned on the news (first time I’d done that in a long time) and BAM I see the plane hitting the second tower. I wasn’t entirely awake yet and didn’t know what it was at first but it looked a little too real to be a movie trailer. I just sat with my mouth hanging open for about 10 minutes. I suddenly had a lot better understanding of what most Americans must have felt like on December 7, 1941.

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I think that when the news came that Reagan had been shot, I was in art class at school. The principal was going around from room to room telling all the teachers. A little while later she got on the PA system to tell us that the President was alive and asking us all to pray for him (Catholic school). The thing is, I might be confusing it with when the Pope was shot. Or maybe the two events were dealt with in such a similar way that I have the two of them all mixed up?

I found out that the Challenger had exploded at the beginning of trig class. The principal had waited until everyone was finished with lunch because the cafeteria had no PA speakers and he wanted to tell everyone at once. Our teacher cancelled trig class that day.

The night the Berlin Wall came down, I was in college, working late at my crummy part-time fast-food job. When I got home my roommates were already asleep, and the next morning they didn’t realize I didn’t know. I turned on the TV to one of those morning nooz shows and my jaw dropped down into my Grape-Nuts. That night we sort of ended up hosting a party… we hadn’t planned it that way, but everyone in our crowd just sort of showed up and brought food, and we all felt like celebrating, so…

When the first Gulf War started, well, that one took a while to register. See, the night before, we had watched the evening news, and the lead story was that old King Olav, who had been ill, had suffered a slight stroke if I remember correctly. We turned off the news as soon as the closing music started. If we hadn’t done that, we would have seen the special bulletin immediately following, saying that the King had suffered a second stoke, this one fatal. We went to bed without knowing. The next morning the whole front page of the paper was taken up by a photo of the King and a simple headline saying that he was dead. The paper had gone to press as the first bombs were falling on Bagdad, so of course nothing was mentioned of that. I know that sometime during the day I heard a news broadcast on TV stating that the war had begun, but it was after supper before it really sunk in. What an awful day.

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(Continued - I cut off the last one because it was getting close to the time the server goes down for back-up)

On the 11th of September, it was mid-afternoon here in Europe when the attacks began. I came home from picking up my older son from school and checked to see if any e-mail had come in. There was one message from a chatty sort of mailing list I’m on that said: “OH MY GOD. New York area <name of mailing list>ers, are you okay? Please answer.” I had no idea what that was about, but I felt a cold chill going down my spine. I turned on the TV long enough to determine that I should not leave it on with two small impressionable children in the house, and of course the news sites on the Web were swamped, but little by little I got some information.

Remember how the next day the nooz media were saying that “the Internet collapsed” under the extra traffic? Baloney. One of the mailing list members from NYC found he was without regular phone or cell phone service, but his cable modem was still going. He sent a message to the list asking if someone could call his mom (who lived in another state) and tell her he was okay. Twenty people called her in the next half-hour. I’d say the Internet and the people on it worked just fine that day!

45

9/11 In the office in London watching a live webcast as the second aircraft hit. Recall feeling strangely unmoved about it, almost certainly shock but at the same time the thought instantly occurring to me that, “Shit. Finally, the chickens are coming home to roost.”. And, I am a little ashamed now, contempt that our only American co-worker fled the building citing his fear that it was a target. At the time, “Gee, like Londoners don’t know about terrorism…” but could have shown a little more empathy I since realize.

Lady Di’s death Turning on the TV at lunchtime Sunday after a long lie in sleeping off a hangover. Again, recall wondering if I was the only one with a contrary reaction to the general hysteria. Not contrary, indifference I guess. Recall felt sorry for her kids more than anything…

First moon landing One of my earliest memories, being carried in to watch in on our black and white TV and sitting on my dads lap watching it. Everyone seems to think it was important but I was only just turned 5, so not sure I fully understood what it was all about.

Death of John Lennon Was listening to request show on Capital Radio as the news came in late at night, was amazing how the type of requests turned right around. Shed a tear as somebody requested Pink Floyd “Shine on you Crazy Diamond” as a tribute which was played in full. Felt genuine sadness for the stupid waste of a unique talent…

St. Mary’s Axe IRA Bombing Was in the Barbican Theatre when the whole building shook gently and a short time later the sound arrived like a heavy door slamming. Knew instantly what it probably must be but that the safest place was probably where we were for now. Then sirens as the bomb site was only a mile or so away. The Show went on… the show must go on.

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The eruption of Mount St. Helens I remember the images very vividly - I was 7, so they made a huge impression on me, but when we heard that it had erupted was sometime late that morning (it would have been almost noon our time before it happened). I remember the images during the week or so afterwards mostly though, and the stories of car engines clogging because of the ash, and the stories of people mailing ash to people in other parts of the country - but the envelopes broke and the ash gummed up the postal machines.

Challenger: We had a teacher inservice day - I was in 7th grade - so we were at home. We didn’t watch the shuttle take off, but my grandmother called and told my mother what had happened, and then the television was turned on.

Shooting of Reagan - I was in school, but I this barely registered on my radar. I saw the news that evening, but it really made no impression on me.

Princess Di I was at home asleep when it happened - my apartment had been burglarized that week, and I had dealt with all of that mess. I had no television, and didn’t know a thing until I woke up that Sunday morning and looked at my paper. It was not a big deal to me.

9/11: I was at an internal audit seminar with my boss and a co-worker. I was in a different session than they were. The sessions started at 9, so I’d left my apartment about 8:30, stopped and got a newspaper and drove the rest of the way over there, probably arriving about 20 minutes before 9. When other people came downstairs from their rooms just before 9 (it was in a hotel, and we had people there from all over the country. It was held less than 2 miles from where I lived in Atlanta though), they were saying that a plane had hit the WTC. The session started, and we knew nothing else until we got a break at about 10. They recessed until around 2, and my boss and I sat in the hotel lobby watching the news with a bunch of other people. I remember using the ATM in the lobby to withdraw some cash, just in case, and making sure I filled up with gas on my way home that evening.

47

I was in grade school when the Challenger exploded, and I heard about it when I got home from school.

I watched people tearing down the Berlin Wall from my parents living room, and I too remember thinking that what I was seeing was going to change the world.

When Princess Di was killed I was at my (then) fiance’s house watching TV. I remember being saddened by her death on behalf of her two young sons.

On 9/11, I was getting into my car to drive to a CE class and when I turned on the radio I heard Peter Jennings talking. I had just enough time to wonder what he was doing on my local rock station when it registered with me that he had said “We repeat, a plane has just slammed into the World Trade Center.” I sat there, stunned, hoping it was a terrible accident, when he came back on the air and said, “We have unconfirmed reports that a second plane has hit the WTC. We do not know yet if this is an accident or an act of terrorism.” I looked at the radio and thought Well duh. One might be an accident, but two almost had to be on purpose.

48

Bwa-hahaha!

It’s interesting to see what people think of as Important Events to them. As a film historian, the deaths of Garbo and Dietrich affected me much more than Princess Diana’s.

JFK: Was in first grade. Our teacher (Miss Weller) told us that we would all go home early; I got there to find my mother crying in front of the TV.

RFK: My father was driving me home from a dentist app’t. when we heard the news on the radio. I saw the paper that night and thought, “We really should save that.” We didn’t.

Martin Luther King: The day before my 11th b’day. I had race riots on my b’day.

Stonewall: I remember reading really sarcastic coverage of it in Time magazine and even at the age of 13 being annoyed and excited at the same time.

Lillian Gish’s death: The last of the great early silent stars. She and I had been friends for nearly 20 years. A friend of mine (now a former friend) who knew this called up to say, “Hey’d ya hear? Lillian Gish died.”

9/11: Unfortunately, I was right where I am now, in NYC.

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Moon landing - Can’t recall the actual event, but do remember that 7-11 was giving away some sort of rocket/moon landing kit when you bought a Slurpee.

Nixon resignation - getting on towards the end of summer vacation. Clearly remember my father saying “About time the god damn bum quit.”

Reagan assassination attempt - Preparing for Latin class in high school. We had an AP wire in the library and the bell on the machine started to ring like crazy (used to alert subscribers to a breaking story).

John Lennon’s murder - writing an English paper in my bedroom at home. The dj broke down in tears.

1st space shuttle disaster - working at the Capitol in the Bill Room - directly across the hall from the Press Room. I remember that the Speaker made an announcement from the chair and there was a moment of silence.

Flight 107 - Living in St. John’s Wood apartments and getting ready for Xmas.

Gulf War I start - Had just come home from the drafting lab and it was on the news. Had been expecting it for days.

Death of Diana - Living in Laburnum Mews apartments while the house was being built. My ex-wife had gone to bed and I was laying on the couch reading.

OJ Verdict - Was at work in New Kent. Just glad the whole circus was over.

9/11 - At work on 17th floor of Monroe Building. Heard the news break on NPR and went to break room and turned TV on. Called everyone in and said, “You are not going to believe what just happened.” Left work about 10:30 and picked Queen of the Universe up at daycare - really needed to have her close by.

Space Shuttle 2 - Picking out bathroom fixtures.

50

Sorry for the hijack, but here’s a good link to a bit about Lillian Gish

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/gish.htm

51

Hey forgot the OJ Car chase thing.

In San Clemente whilst on a Brit-Lads-on-Holiday-for-the-World-Cup jaunt. Turned on the TV to catch an east coast game (China versus Mongolia U21 or something pointless) to find every station glued to a white van.

Eh?

OJ Simpson. Eh? Never heard of him.

Sort of strange being in a country where the big news is about something you have not got a clue about. Like being an American in Australia when Don Bradman died I guess…

52

I was working half-days at the time. Got home shortly after 12 and turned on the TV to see frightened, weeping teenagers standing on the school lawn. Called friend:

“But there’s been a school shooting every six months, seems like! How come this one gets live coverage?”

“Because they took the school hostage.”

I remember seeing that one kid fall out of an upper story window. I also remember one of the kids who’d been evacuated on the phone with two anchorpersons and saying, “I saw one of the shooters…if I had a copy of last year’s yearbook, I think I could identify him.”

“Now, why do you say ‘last year’?”

[pause] “Last year’s yearbook, 'cause this year’s hasn’t been printed yet.” Duh!

OK City: Don’t remember exactly where I was when I heard about the bombing, but I remember McVeigh’s arrest. I was an assistant on the pre-production of a cable movie, so I was always running errands, and I heard about it on my car radio. Back at the office: “Did you hear the latest from Oklahoma?”

[very suspicious look from assistant director] “You mean the bombing?”

“No, they caught the guy. He used to be a Michigan state trooper or something.” (I had never heard of militia groups before that day; when they said “Michigan militia”, I could only translate it as “state trooper” or “national guard”.)

OJ low-speed chase: Working craft service on my first film. For half an hour, no one had been to the table, not even for water or coffee. Finally realized I hadn’t heard anyone call “rolling” or “cut” either. Went inside and heard one of the cast say, “I think OJ’s gonna die.”

What cheesed me off is that I didn’t get to see him turn himself in; I was out getting the dinner.

OJ verdict: Another car radio moment. Mr. Rilch and I driving back to LA from an East Coast visit. News station announced that the verdict would be read the following morning. Slowly and dramatically raised my hand from the steering wheel to clasp Mr. Rilch’s. Quoting Bart Simpson, I said, “My purpose in life is to witness this moment.”

We delayed our departure from the motel the next morning so we could see it on TV. OJ’s adult daughter (Arnelle?) tossing her head in triumph is what I remember; oddly enough, I can’t remember how he looked.

Loma Prieta quake: In my dorm room at college. Friend whose family lived in Frisco charged in, wild-eyed and frantic. “There’s been an earthquake in San Francisco!”

“Omigod! Are your parents okay?”

“I don’t know. I need a hit; I gotta call them. I need a hit right now…”

I hooked him up, then, when I’d gotten my own groove on, went out into the hall where he was on the pay phone. He looked up irritably and said, “The recording says, ‘All systems are busy; if your call is important please stay on the line’. What—do they think people are calling just to say ‘hi’?!”

Northridge quake: Mr. Rilch and I were in Pittsburgh, but two weeks away from moving to LA. I was in my own apartment; he was still living with his parents. Phone rings at 8 am(?): “I think you better turn on your TV.”

“What channel?”

“Any channel.”

Charles Schultz/Tom Landry: Mr. Rilch and I are huge Peanuts devotees. Last thing I did before going to bed on 2/13/2000 was check the CNN website.

:::knock knock knock::: “Sweetie? Tom Landry just died.”

“That’s a shame…Don’t wake me up again.”

Back to net, read article, backtracked to main page. No, I didn’t just see that; my brain must have mixed the Tom Landry-dies headline with the last-Peanuts-strip headline.

You don’t say…

:::knock knock knock::: “Sweetie? I know I said I wouldn’t wake you up again, but Schultz died.”

In the same vein, I heard about DeForest Kelley’s passing from the net. Immediately called Mr. Rilch on his cell, because he was working, and I didn’t want him to hear it first from a crew member who might make an unkind remark.

And, I might as well add yesterday morning to the list! Mr. Rilch had to be at work real early, so he had the TV on as he was getting ready. Woke me up to say, “They caught Saddam.”

“mmm…Did you say Saddam or bin Laden?”

“Saddam. C’mon downstairs and watch!”

I had to be at work at 8:30, and had planned to sleep until the last possible moment. Instead, between the TV, the boards and CNN.com, I never got back to bed. (And I got whooshed twice! :smack: ) Through a lucky coincidence, my boss let me go at noon instead of 2pm, not because she knew about this, but just because it was slow.

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When the first shuttle explosion happened I was in 9th grade in some class. It really didn’t sink in that people were dying as we watched the TV. We were obnoxious punks that had nothing better to do than make jokes and laugh it off. I guess it was a way of coping.

9/11 – I had a dentist’s appointment and was dropping my kids off at my MIL’s. She had the TV on and we just sat in stunned silence as we watched the aftermath of the first tower. I then went to my husband’s work and told him and all his employees. We stood around my car listening to the news for awhile in shock. I remember coming home and watching the news of the 2nd tower and the pentagon and everything else in morbid fascination. My oldest boy who was 4 at the time wanted to play outside in the backyard. I let him in order to get him out of the house and away from the news but had to check on him every few minutes knowing it was crazy to think war was just going to break out in my neighborhood but still . I wondered if I was raising three boys to fight in WWIII and if they would live in fear. I thought of my brothers and if they would be drafted. I wrote a letter to my boys the next day and it still brings me to tears every time I read it. I was really scared.

When the second shuttle exploded I was on my way to take the Mensa test (which I passed :D) and it was still happening. I was upset but still in shock. Then I heard the local news broadcast of a guy who was on his way to his deer lease for a little hunting. He saw the fiery contrail in the sky and phoned his wife to tell her he loved her because he thought we all under attack again and he may not see her. I lost it then and broke down in tears.

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The Challenger - On my way to 6th grade studyhall on the 7th floor.

Diana - In a bar. I had one of those alphanumeric pagers with stocks and sports and news. I was the first to know and I announced it to the bar.

9/11 - I watched the second plane fly over my head as I walked to work from the subway. I then had front row seats for the whole thing from my 20th floor office 3 blocks away. I didn’t leave until about 4:00 pm.

55

Diana: Didn’t hear about it until midafternoon on the Sunday because i was out clubbing in Brixton until Sunday morning, then went home and slept for a while. I found out later there had been a rumor going around the club, but I missed it.

Sept. 11: I was at my desk in the London bureau of, shall we say, a well-known international provider of financial news and information when the TV screens went to the initial shot of the North Tower with a smoking hole in the side. I was covering European stocks at the time, and that was an amazing week. After trading ended on Sept. 10, the U.S. stock market did not reopen until Sept. 17, but the European markets were open the entire time and really moving.

56

When Elvis died, I was lying in bed reading and listening to the radio, when the announcer mentioned that Elvis had died. It was a jolt. ELVIS? Man, how could ELVIS die? He wasn’t even that OLD, was he?

When Lennon died, I was taking a shower. Someone charged into the room and screamed it at me.

When the Challenger exploded, I was helping some friends move to a new apartment. We wound up plugging in his TV and perching on his couch, watching the news.

Lady Di: I’d gotten up and hoofed it to the convenience store around the corner, because we’d let our newspaper subscription lapse. Headline screamed it at me when I picked up the paper.

9/11: I was on the bus, on my way from commuter parking to the university. A gaggle of students was in the back, huddled around someone’s radio. Someone mentioned that the WTC had been bombed, as had the Pentagon, and that a car bomb had been detonated at the State Department.

I had two early classes. I didn’t have a chance to check the news. Both my professors remarked that they intended to plug on with the day’s content, despite the fact they both looked rattled, and none of their students were paying much attention.

After my second class, I determined I would trot down to the computer lab and log onto CNN and find out what the hell was going on. On my way thru the Student Union building, I noticed that a hastily-markered sign had been tacked up: LARGE SCREEN TV NEWS IN BALLROOM.

I decided to have a look. The main ballroom has a projection TV screen larger than some movie theatres’ screens.

And the first thing I saw, twenty times larger than God, were the smoking stumps of the WTC, with a shaky-looking announcer on a PIP screen in the lower right corner, jabbering about hijacked airliners. Shortly thereafter, they showed footage of the first plane crashing into the building.

I don’t recommend watching this stuff on humungous TV screens, by the way.

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OJ Verdict: My cousin and aunt were up visiting from North Carolina. We were going out to pizza, my aunt insisted we sit and wait, listening to the verdict on the car radio outside of Bertucci’s.

Columbine: Science, in seventh grade. We were “learning” how to make a data table when the announcement came on. Oddly, I remember, in much greater detail, the next day, when my sisters school (now my current high school) got a bomb threat. They evacuated the building and they spent hours standing around in the rain.

Columbia: At home. My mom was away at a conference and my dad had gone out to the hardware store. I was downstairs in front of the TV, and started flipping channels during a commercial break from cartoons. A ‘breaking news’ banner at the bottom caught my eye. My math tutor’s son was one of the head engineers (or something similar) for the mission. I felt horribly crushed.

9/11: Third period US History. Second row from the wall, in the very back, with the window behind me. The principal made an announcement, put the radio on the PA for a bit. We heard the broadcast as the second tower fell. Totally didn’t sink in. My teachers comment: “Well, how the hell am I supposed to follow that up?”

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Lunar Landing- 4 days after my 3rd birthday. I specifically remember my father telling me he got them to do it, it was his present to me. (Hey, a 3yo will believe anything).

Columbia-my second day at my first “real” job in a law office. Noone got too much done after that.

1989 Loma Prieta Quake- Oct. 17. My little brother’s 21st birthday. I had just called him to tell him to be careful, and have a great day. I had to work the night shift. I ended up at the Cypress structure with a lot of other people, seeing things that I wish to this day I could forget.

9/11- Still in bed. In fact, just as my alarm went off, the first tower was being hit. I turned on the television and stared in shock as the second plane wheeled around toward the second tower…my husband and I thought it must be a movie… it couldn’t be real. Flinched when it hit… there are just no words for all the emotions we were feeling. I remember crying out when we saw someone jump from one of the windows halfway up.

Nelson Mandela released from prison- In Hawaii. Celebrated long and hard.

Richard Nixon resigning- 2nd grade. I asked my mom how come everybody was so mad at the president. :stuck_out_tongue:

The fall of the Berlin Wall- San Francisco. Watched it from the bar my friends and I were in. A good time was had by all.

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9/11 , I live in California, and had gotten up early to go into work early to finish a special project. I got in the car, and was about 5 minutes away from the house when I turned on NPR. It sounded like it was the end of the world. No-one knew what was happening, and they were reporting a car bomb at the state dept, and it just sounded like the end of the world. I called my husband, and told him to turn on the news. I went into work, and tried finding out the news from net sources. My boss brought in a small tv, and we watched the coverage as much as we could, pretty much no work was done. Finally, around noon, they sent most of us home, though I was stuck there till 2. The horrible thing, was part of my job was taking tech support calls, and the only people who called where the assholes of course.

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Are you sure you were registering 10 times background in Colorado one day after the accident happened? This seems highly unlikely. The explosion occured on April 26th in 1986 and the Soviet authorities announced it to the world two days later on the 28th. There is a really good article on the whole thing from the French Nuclear Energy Agency here.

If you look at Figure 6 in chapter two of that article, you will see that on the 27th the cloud of radionuclide debris hadn’t even reached Western Europe yet. That chapter also says: “While the plume was detectable in the Northern hemisphere as far away as Japan and North America, countries outside Europe received very little deposition of radionuclides from the accident.”. It also says: " Radioactivity was first detected outside the Soviet Union at a Nuclear Power station in Sweden, where monitored workers were noted to be contaminated." This was on the 27th of April.

All of this makes your story veeeeery unlikely. In fact I don’t think Chernobyl could have caused the geiger counters to register ten times background at any time in 1986, at least not in Boulder, Colorado. Also, no high Energy Physics lab would have geiger counters running all the time to check backgroung radiation. They’re just not reliable enough, especially since simple granite will make them click like crazy. You use little badges that contain photosensitive halides (sort of like a little roll of X-Ray film) that is checked periodically (usually once a day, because you turn them in when you go home) to see if you have been hit with too many Becquerel.

I just checked out the website of the High Energy Physics department at UC Boulder, and the website of UC Boulder itself, and there is no mention anywhere of there ever having been a linear accelerator in Boulder (and believe me, I worked at the DESY in Hamburg and the GSI in Darmstadt; those things are damned hard to hide). the High Energy Physics department of CU uses the SLAC in Stanford for its research. This kind of makes your story even more unlikely.

I know all of this, because when Chernobyl happened, I was doing lab work in our Nuclear Chemistry department (working with nice things like Cobalt 40…“shudder”), and we had detectors at the entrance doors, that would only allow you out of the building after checking if you were “hot”. They actually had to turn these off after the beginning of May, because the people coming into the building were actually “dirtier” than what was allowed to leave.