Wow, my thing I just missed seeing is lame compared to the rest of yours, but it still haunts me. We heard Prince was performing in Edmonton on Saturday, and hemmed and hawed about driving three hours to see him, and finally decided not to. We found out on Monday that Prince had performed an unpublicized show in Calgary Sunday, in a small, intimate venue, about 10 BLOCKS AWAY FROM WHERE WE WERE LIVING!!! Did I mention that my husband and I are heee-yuge Prince fans? Of all the musical acts we could see live, Prince is absolutely top of our list. And he was 10 blocks away. On a nothing Sunday, when we probably just sat around and watched tv.
More mundane, but one that still annoys me a bit is the first year I didn’t go to the shark fishing derby in Yarmouth. I’d normally have gone, but went elsewhere with a friend instead, and missed someone hauling in a 1000 lb mako.
My father worked at Hill Airforce Base near Ogden, Utah. They had a Public Day on the base, with a show by the Thunderbirds.
For some reason, my dad wouldn’t let us stay until the show, so we went home early and missed the crash.
I just missed seeing the planes hit the World Trade Center on 9/11. I was biking to work, with the WTC dead ahead of me, and one minute I was looking at them intact, and the next time I looked, there was smoke coming from one tower. Later on my route, I noticed both towers having smoke coming out of them. I was witness to history, but not to the exact moment of impact.
I just missed seeing Dwight Gooden’s no-hitter on May 14, 1996. On Opening Day at Yankee Stadium that year, it snowed, and the Yankees gave everyone in attendance a free ticket to one of three games as a thanks for staying, one of which was the May 14 game. But on May 2, my wife gave birth to our firstborn son, and I gave away the tickets to that game rather than go without her.
I just missed a Chicago/Survivor concert that I would have loved to attend. I got free ticket to it from WPLJ just by being on their mailing list, but I couldn’t go - the concert was held the night of Rosh Hashanah.
I was on TWA flight 800 one week before the plane went boom. In retrospect, both my dad and I agreed that the plane had certainly looked to be in worse repair than any other (respectively sized airplane) flight we’d been on.
I’m fine to have missed the “big moment”.