Where was I?

[reynardo]

Meme swiped from darkrosetiger, with a few more added because I think they're important.



1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (22nd Nov 1963)
In Utero. Born 7 months later.

1a. When Man landed on the Moon. (20 July 1969)
Watching on B&W Tv at age 5. I can just remember it.

2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (18 May 1980)
Year 11 at school, mad on volcanoes and both horrified and fascinated.

2a. When John Lennon was shot. ( 8 Dec 1980)
Playing on our home TRS-80. My brother typed in "guess who's dead?" and I didn't believe him.

3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (28 Jan 1986)
Living at home, and waking my father to say "I think you should see this".

4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (7 Oct 1989)
My second brother had been in SF and had just gotten into LA. He rang us to say "I'm OK" before we got the news.

4a. When the Newcastle Earthquake hit (28 Dec 1989)
Waiting at home to be picked up for a date (total waste of time that one). I thought at first that a heavy truck was driving past - but it would have to have been 100 feet long. Interesting garbage trivia - Martika had just released a version of "I feel the earth move", but all the radio stations picked the Carol King version to play.

Mum had been visiting her sister near Newcastle - we didn't realise until later how close to the epicentre she had been.

5. When the Berlin Wall fell (7 July 1989)
Watching on TV and celebrating.

5a. Tienanmen Square (3-4 Jun 1989)
Watching the preceding days, thinking "this isn't going to end well", then crying when it all fell apart. Somehow I knew the Chinese Powers-that-be weren't going to let the demonstrations continue.

6. When the Gulf War began (16 Jan 1991)
At work with large numbers of people from the Assyrian and Persian communities, who were crying in my arms because their relatives were caught up in it. Seeing how it was affecting the people who were supposed to be "helped" by the war has helped fix my dislike of the expected replay - watch Three Kings and you'll know what I mean.

7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (17 June 1994)
Er... I though this was for important things.

8. When the building in Oklahoma City was bombed (19 April 1995)
I must have been at work. It wasn't something that people were as badly affected by in Australia.

9. When Princess Di was killed (31 August 1997)
On my way to a friend's farewell party, determined to tell him how I really thought of him. I admit my first thought was of a quiet phone call from the Palace, with a figure in shadows saying "It has to be both of them, and it has to look like an accident."

10. When Bush was first announced President (7 Nov 2000)
Was it that early? Busy thinking of the real world.

11. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (28 Feb 2001)
Er... where?

12. When terrorists knocked over the World Trade Center (11 Sept 2001)
Asleep. Woken by my beloved lederhosen 's brother because my beloved was in the USA and his mother was panicking. Spent the rest of the night making phone calls or checking for friends on line - a fond memory is the roll-call on devilbunnies and how much care everyone showed that night.

Comments

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

Re#12: For me, the on-line community that was the same way was rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan, the blue-colored friends on my diary (and Alistair, who gets purple for red rec.games.frp.storyteller + blue). And also e-mails from my medical activist friends who were students and residents at the medical schools and medical centers. at Ground Zero. A close friend of mine at NYU Med, just a few blocks from there, LiveJournaled his way through those first few days. Not something we're all going to forget.