Where were you when..........

by ScoobySnax 39 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  neverthere

  I watched the whole Diana thing at home, I remember my mother waking me up to tell me and we watched everything there on the tv, we were crying (Ok, I was bawling)

  9/11 I watched the second tower fall live on tv, my daughter was 2 months old and I remember holding her and crying and crying. It was awful. It got to the point where I couldn't watch anything having to do with 9/11 as I cried. Have to stop writing about it now as tears are starting to well.

  Challenger disaster was when I was in my second year of highschool, I don't remember too much of that.

  JFK I wasn't alive nor was I alive for Martin Luther.

  Diana
• 

  Mulan

  1. November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was shot: I had only been home with my new baby (born November 20) for one day, the firstborn. My mother had come over to help me, and had gone to get the mail and came running back. A neighbor had told her the President had been assassinated. We turned on the TV and it stayed on for days.

  2. Bobby Kennedy: We had been camping over that weekend, and came home Sunday night. I turned the TV on Monday morning and wondered what they were talking about. The shock of that wasn't great, because we learned about it several days later.

  3. Challenger: I was measuring hems in draperies on my dining room table, keeping an eye on the TV. I stopped to watch the actual launch of the space shuttle. I couldn't believe my eyes when it suddenly blew apart. Terrible.

  4. Princess Diana's death: We had just come home from a party, on a Saturday night and turned on the TV. Across the bottom of the screen, were ticking "Princess Diana dead in Paris". That was almost as horrifying as Kennedy's death.

  5. 9/11: Dave had just left for work, and had the radio on and heard it. He called me and told me to turn on the TV. That was the worst time I think...........my cousin had died a few days earlier, and we had her memorial on the 9th. Her sons were still in town, and one of them and his wife were sleeping in one of our bedrooms. They were from NY. I went to wake them. Within an hour, her whole family was in my living room. Once again, the TV was on for days. It took a long time to recover from that week. Too many tragedies for us to bear.
• 

  maxwell

  When Challenger exploded, I was at elementary school. We had watched other shuttle launches live, but we didn't watch that one.

  The day the Oklahoma Federal building was bombed, I was a senior in high school, I think. I walked into government or US history class, can't remember exactly which, and our teacher turned on the television and said "Be quiet, Look at this! Look at this!" I was like woah!!

  Princess Diana didn't register that high. I don't remember where I was. Obviously, some people in the US pay more attention to her. I did think it was too bad they were always running from the paparazzi.

  9/11 I was getting ready for work and on my way to work when both towers were hit. I didn't turn on the television that morning and I was going in a bit late. As I rode up to my office, which at that time was about a mile from the Pentagon, I noticed what looked like an irregularly dark cloud in the distance and maybe two people standing outside looking in that direction. I kind of shrugged it off in my mind, and went up to my office. A few minutes after I got in, I got a call from my wife who was out in field service in a neighborhood not more than a couple of miles from the Pentagon and she told me what had happened. I looked out the window and the cloud had gotten much darker and was obviously the smoke from the Pentagon. Needless to say, as the word spread through the office, there were a lot emotions and no one stayed at work much longer after that. Probably half of the people had left before we got the official closing announcement. I went home and watched the continuous coverage in surprise.
• 

  jgnat

  July 20 1969: America lands man on the Moon Goofing around at a family reunion, fresh back from the West Indies. An uncle showed me his missing thumb, lost in the War. I would pop by the TV in the corner of the room once in a while.

  November 9, 1989: Berlin Wall Opens I cried. And wondered. How could an event halfway around the world affect me so bad? Is it possible that oppression, no matter how far removed, affects humanity's soul? Had I been carrying the burden of injustice with me my whole educated life?

  Aug 31 1997: Princess Diana dies in Paris crash Driving home at midnight after dropping my son off at his first job.

  Sept 11 2001: Twin Towers At the office. Ever the skeptic, I hollered, No Way! - it's a hoax. I signed on to a news website, and saw the pictures for myself. I called my daughter and we got very quiet.
• 

  bebu

  November 9, 1989: Berlin Wall Opens I cried. And wondered. How could an event halfway around the world affect me so bad? Is it possible that oppression, no matter how far removed, affects humanity's soul? Had I been carrying the burden of injustice with me my whole educated life?

  This affected me greatly, too. I felt like I was dreaming. We had been deeply involved in letter-writing campaigns on behalf of Soveit prisoners of conscience, and I was wildly happy to see this oppressive symbol fall; I was glued to the set.

  Then, the fall of Ceaucescu in Romania! That was a very remarkable story, itself.

  Jgnat, thanks for reminding me about the good news that made me shout.

  bebu
• 

  worldlygirl

  This thread reminds me of the song "19-Something" by Mark Willis. Does any of this stuff bring back memories for you?:

  I saw Star Wars at least eight times,
  Had the Packman pattern memorised.
  And I've seen the stuff they put inside Stretch Armstrong, yeah.
  Oh, I was Roger Staubach in my backyard,
  Had a shoebox full of baseball cards,
  And a couple of Evil Knievil scars on my right arm.
  Well, I was a kid when Elvis died.
  An' my momma cried:
  
  Well, it was nineteen-seventy-something,
  In the world that I grew up in.
  Farah Fawcett hair-do days,
  Bell bottoms and eight-track tapes.
  Lookin' back now I can see me.
  Oh man, did I look cheesy.
  But I wouldn't trade those days for nothin':
  Oh, it was nineteen-seventy-something.
  
  It was the dawning of a new decade,
  We got our first microwave,
  Dad broke down and finally shaved them old sideburns off.
  I took the stickers off a-my Rubik's cube.
  Watched MTV all afternoon.
  My first love was Daisy Duke in them cut-off jeans.
  Space shuttle fell out of the sky.
  And the whole world cried.
  
  Well, it was nineteen-eighty-something,
  In the world that I grew up in.
  Skatin' rinks and black Trans-Ams.
  Big hair and parachute pants.
  An' lookin' back now I can see me.
  Oh man, did I look cheesy.
  I wouldn't trade those days for nothin':
  Oh, it was nineteen-eighty-something.
  
  Now I got a mortgage and an SUV,
  But all this responsibility,
  Makes me wish sometimes:
  
  It was nineteen-eighty-something,
  In the world that I grew up in.
  Skatin' rinks and black Trans-Ams.
  Big hair and parachute pants.
  An' lookin' back now I can see me.
  Oh man, did I look cheesy.
  I wouldn't trade those days for nothin':
  Oh, it was nineteen-eighty-something.
  
  Nineteen-seventy-something.
  Oh, it was nineteen something.
• 

  Nosferatu

  Yeah, I remember the Challenger. I think I was in Grade 3 when that happened.

  As for Princess Diana, My dad told me and I came into the living room to check out what happened. I recall having a jam at my Drummer's place, and his parents were watching the Diana funeral

  Sept 11, 2001 was a bit of a weird one. I was still incredibly heartbroken by my ex leaving me, so how I heard of it is kinda fragmented. Even though I had already moved out of my apartment, somehow I seem to recall laying in bed in my apartment and hearing it on the morning news. Of course my memory is screwed up regarding that event of my life. Anyway, the first tower was hit, and I thought that something went wrong with an airplane or some nutcase american did it on purpose. When I got to work, I emailed my friend in the states and asked "What the **** are you Yankees doing down there!!?!" Then I found out it was terrorism. Everyone was listening to their radio at work that day.

  One event that really struck me was when the band Great White played that show in Rhode Island, and their pyrotechnics (sp?) display had set the place on fire and killed 98 people. That was scary shit because I'm always going to small venues to see bands play.
• 

  dottie

  I was home sick from school the day that the Challenger Shuttle exploded. I was in 6th grade and remember this event really affecting one of my classmates, as he had been following all the delays and troubles they had before they launched.

  When Diana died I was heartbroken, as I think most women that are my age. We were so young and impressionable when she was married (5-8 yrs) and I think we all wanted to have that fairy tale wedding. Anyway, I had just arrived home from a night out and my ex called from the bar we both worked at and told me what happened. I still can't believe that she's gone.

  On 9/11, again I was home sick (from work this time) and around 9:30 MST I got the call from my ex. All he said was "you better turn on the TV the WTC has been bombed." I thought that it had just happened but being in a different time zone kinda put everything on a 2 hr delay. By the time I turned the TV on, both the towers had collapsed and I was sitting there in shock and disbelief with tears streaming down my face. It's weird but when I heard what happened, the first thing I thought of was my Dad. Him being an Ironworker for 25-30 yrs, I knew that the WTC was his most favourite structure. When I was quite young, he went on a trip the NY with a work buddy and they went to the towers and all I remember is him just gushing about this beautiful structure that he had experienced.
• 

  Billygoat

  For some reason I don't remember the Challenger explosion. I was alive. I was in school. Just don't remember it.

  1. Princess Diana - I remember it was Labor Day weekend and my ex-husband and I had driven to Kansas to be with his parents. I was sitting in their master bedroom watching tv with my mom-in-law. I remember being stunned. And I remember thinking that the Queen had it planned because Sweet Diana was usurping her command. I was wearing my Garfield nightgown and turquoise socks. (Isn't it strange what details you pick up on days like that?)

  2. 9/11 - I remember I called in sick to work that day. I had a terrible cold and a fever. I half-heard it on the radio-alarm, but thought it was part of my dream. Neil woke me up by calling me on his way to work. I ran to the television just in time to see the first building collapse. I remember being horrified that at that very moment, thousands of people were dying. I also remember calling my parents. Not to freak them out, but because I knew that Dad travelled to NYC on business a lot. But his mother had already called him to check on him, so he was already awake. I was wearing flannel pjs.
• 

  asleif_dufansdottir

  Challenger - I was at college, and someone walked up to our table in the cafeteria and told us. We were horrified, especially because of the teacher.

  Diana - I was at a nudist camp in Kansas (yes, really). I remember when I first heard the commentators talking, about a beloved member of the royal family dieing, I thought it must be the Queen Mother. Really surprised when it turned out to be Diana

  9/11 - home sick from work.