Indelible Memories

[Remington555]

As people in the United States mark the anniversary of the terrorist attack in 2001, I've been thinking about other events that have left an indelible memory. By that I mean an event that you remember specifically where you were and what you were doing when you learned of it.

I'm closer to 70 than 60 and a lot of things have happened during my lifetime, but I can only recall 4 events that have left me with indelible memories.

1. November, 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated. I was a teenager, sitting in my English class when the school principal entered the room and made the announcement that the President had been shot.

2. July, 1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. I was in college and working a summer intern job. The boss brought in a television so we could watch what coverage there was. Little did we know how fast the country would lose interest in the space program.

3. August, 1977 Elvis Presley died. I was working at my first real job and after hearing this news, I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day. Part of the shock I'm sure was that he was only 42 years old. I'm just now beginning to understand how young that really is. Later this year, my youngest daughter will turn 42.

4. September, 2001 Terrorist attacks in Washington DC, Flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania and of course the World Trade Center being reduced to rubble. As a day sleeper, I didn't learn about this until 3pm local time, 6pm New York time.

I can think of a dozen events that I probably should remember more specifically, but I don't. Maybe I have a memory problem, or maybe I just don't pay enough attention to the world around me, but the four above are the only ones I remember details about.

Anyone else want to share your indelible memories?

Remmy

[psiberzerker]

26 Jan 1986:  They actually brought us all in to the classroom, and put it on TV.  Christa McAuliffe was a teacher, so it was a great promotion with the school system, and basically every child in America was tuned it.  It was such a public relations disaster that the space program never really recovered.

Also, great thread.

[MintJulie]

26 Jan 1986:  They actually brought us all in to the classroom, and put it on TV.  Christa McAuliffe was a teacher.

Yes PSI, the space shuttle disaster.   I had forgotten about it but it all came rushing back upon seeing the name Christa McAuliffe.

Two that I remember quite well.

Watching the OJ Simpson low speed chase on the television with friends.

The other...Baking with my sister on a Sunday morning.   My brother in law rushed in the house from getting us some flour at the store and turned the television on.  "Something big happened," he said.   "What?"  He wouldn't answer.   As the tv slowly came to life, there was an image of Princess Diana filling the screen with the dates in the lower right hand corner "1961-1997".  I was so sad.  We watched the reports the rest of the morning.


Thank you for the new topic, Remmy. 

[_priapism]

November 9, 1989 - Fall of the Berlin Wall

February 1st, 2003 - Columbia crash on re-entry.  We were just getting up, when a very loud sonic boom shook the house.  I knew this was something out of the ordinary, so I turned on CNN which was just breaking to report the tragedy.

[msslave]

Early in my broadcasting career, I was at a small station in northern Minnesota. Part of my shift included a half hour of news, weather and sports.  Everyone else was out the door by 5:00, so I had the place to myself.

An ironclad rule was that the person doing that half hour of news had to check the teletype as soon as the news was over, in case a major event took place while tied up in the broadcast.

One night I was really beat. I finished up the news and just said f**k it, I'll check the teletype later.  That lasted all of 30 seconds and I heaved my ass out of the chair and went to the clacking machine.

Major, double spaced, print was just coming out of the machine.  Martin Luther King had just be shot and killed. 
 
That was the last time I thought about not checking the latest on the machine.  I even made some mad dashes during a :30 commercial, just incase.

[Dodger]

December 8 1980 I was watching Monday Night Football in my trailer in New Mexico.Howard Cosell announced John Lennon had been gunned down, murdered in the front of his Dakota apartment.

[Remington555]

I find it interesting that collectively you've covered half of the dozen I mentioned in the original post.

I remember all of the events of course, but would have only been guessing if you had asked me what year any of them took place.

When I asked my almost-42-year old daughter about this, her immediate response was Michael Jackson's death, followed by the Princess Di tragedy.

Dodger, I was watching that same football game.

msslave, I was a broadcaster for several years and I remember the teletype machine not only clacked but actually had bells that rang loudly. I heard the bells the first time on that cold January day in 1986 when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded.

MJ, I would have guessed 1999 for Diana so I woulda been close! I remember thinking she wouldn't see the new millennium.

Thanks for sharing everyone,
Remmy

[JulesVern]

Just about all the events I was going to mention have been covered already. In fact, the only one that hasn't was the 1984 Olympic Torch relay passed less than three blocks away from my house at 11pm. We went out to see it and were surprised to find the whole street lined with people. There were at least several hundred people in sight and possibly thousands. The atmosphere was electric. I still get a lump in my throat when I remember it.

As for the Challenger disaster, I was driving a company truck and had to pull over and park. I sat there for maybe ten minutes before I could drive again. I loved the space program (and wish it were still truly active) but have to agree this was the beginning of the end of that era.

[MissBarbara]

This is a fascinating thread topic, and a woo to Remy for starting it!

What I find most interesting reading the posts here so far is the "subjectivity" of the answers, based on the age and background of the given poster. They all make for very interesting reading.

As for me:

* I have somewhat hazy memories of the Space Shuttle Challenger exploding in 1986 (though I wonder if these memories have been "enhanced" by subsequently reading about and watching videos of the event).

* I can very clearly remember several key events surrounding the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, including the smashing of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the election of Boris Yeltsin (1991). As a geography nerd, this especially fascinated me, since there were new and different countries appearing on an almost daily basis.

* The beginning of the first Persian Gulf War (1991) remain indelibly etched in my memory. And this especially resonated with me, since my parents got cable TV for the first time just before these events, and I watched it "live."

* 9/11, of course. I was already 21, so the fact of it being an "indelible memory" is obvious. I wouldn't move to New York City until several years later, but one aspect of 9/11 that fascinated -- and somewhat troubled -- me was discovering, after moving to NYC, how New Yorkers jealously guard it as "their" event, to the point of minimizing its resonance among those who "weren't here" and didn't witness it "first hand." It's as if what everyone else in the country -- and everyone else in the world -- thought and felt on that day is somehow less relevant, and less "real."

Again, thanks for creating a wonderful thread, and I look forward to reading the memories shared by others here.

[MintJulie]

one aspect of 9/11 that fascinated -- and somewhat troubled -- me was discovering, after moving to NYC, how New Yorkers jealously guard it as "their" event, to the point of minimizing its resonance among those who "weren't here" and didn't witness it "first hand." It's as if what everyone else in the country -- and everyone else in the world -- thought and felt on that day is somehow less relevant, and less "real."

That's so interesting and thank you for sharing that.  Amazing how some people are like that.   
Similarly, I was in Florida in January.  I witnessed an exchange between two people.  One lived in the Florida Keys full time.  The other person had a house in the Florida Keys, but lived in the northern portion of Florida.  The person that lived there full time, evacuated when Hurricane Irma hit last September, and came back once the national guard allowed residents to return, as did the person that didn't live there.
The full timer was loud and belligerent to the other because he didn't 'experience it'.   It was very odd.  Neither were actually in the Keys when Irma hit. 
I paid attention later in the trip and noticed some people were acting similar to what you mentioned Barb.  Possessive of the event.

[MintJulie]

I should have mentioned 9/11.   It was different for me than most, because I didn't learn about it until Sept 14th.  

A boyfriend and I were camping in Ontario, Canada on the Georgian Bay.   We were 30 miles from the nearest town and we hiked in about 5 miles from where we parked the car.

On Sept 14th, we exited the woods and excitedly drove to the town for our first hearty breakfast in 10 days.  

We arrived at a small diner and ordered our food.  When the waitress returned to bring us our drinks, she asked us if we were American, because of the license plate she noticed on our car.  Then she told us she was so sad at what had happened.  We didn't know.  She told us.  I freaked out and ran out to the car to get my phone.  It was dead and we didn't have reception anyways.  I used the phone in the diner to call my sister.  She wasn't answering.  My boyfriend got a paper from the paper-box outside.   We read about.  There were a ton of pictures.  I was crying hysterically at one point with patrons looking at us.   The food was brought to the table and I couldn't eat.   I just wanted to get home.

[Levorotatory]

I'm too young to remember anything from the 1970s or before.
I have a vague recollection of a lot of news coverage of John Lennon's murder, but I didn't understand the significance at the time.
I do clearly remember a science teacher telling my class about the explosion of the Challenger, and the endless repeats of the footage on the news later that day.  For some reason, the loss of the Columbia on reentry hasn't quite stuck the same way.
I remember the fall of the USSR and the Berlin wall as more of a drawn out series of events than an instant that changed history, but I do remember the period of optimism that resulted from those events coming to an abrupt end with the beginning of Gulf War I in 1991, live on CNN.
I don't remember the setting where I heard about OJ Simpson getting arrested, just that I had no idea who the fuck is OJ Simpson was (not an NFL fan) and why re-runs of the ridiculous slow-mo car chase were monopolizing the news.
I was sitting in my girlfriend's car waiting for her (can't remember what she was doing) when Princess Diana's death was announced on the radio.  I remember thinking that it was one of the few instances when a news report regarding the British royal family was actually newsworthy.  Sadly ironic how the insatiable demand for gossip about her was a contributing factor in her death.
I first heard of the collapse of the World Trade Center on a radio station that normally had a bit of a crazy morning show and had to repeatedly remind people that the story of planes flying into buildings in New York was actually real news.  Following that was the worry that President Bush was going to do something rash and make matters much worse, and hoping that cooler heads would prevail in DC. 
With Micheal Jackson, it isn't so much the instant I heard about it that I remember, but how quickly the narrative around him changed from accusations of sexual misconduct and jokes about excessive plastic surgery to focus back on his success as a musician.

[herschel]

April, 1945, FDR, the only president I had ever known, passed from this life. We had no television in those days, but I went to the movies downtown just about every week (only a dime to get in back then) and knew his face and voice from the News of the World presentations preceding the feature film. I was born during the later part of the Great Depression. My mother, whose family had been hit hard during the depression, was very emotional when the news came over the radio. Plus of course we were at war in Europe and the Pacific, with the outcome very much in doubt. Every able bodied young man was in uniform, and little red and white pennants were hanging in peoples' front windows when you walked down the street, showing a single blue star for a son or husband in the army or navy, or a gold star for one who wasn't coming back home. She couldn't stop the tears rolling down her cheeks. She had to leave the living room, and walk out the front door. Her sadness and grief was contagious of course, but I didn't know why she would step out of the house. I followed her, and saw the housewives of the neighborhood were all out on the street, all crying, commiserating together.

[Remington555]

Although I started this thread with news events in mind, Herschel's post reminded me of an indelible memory that has nothing to do with the news.

When my older daughter was in middle school I was tasked with organizing a week long trip to Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City for all the 7th and 8th graders at their private school on the west coast. (I had to do it again two years later for my younger daughter).

It was almost sunset when we visited the Vietnam War Memorial, which was relatively new then. It had already been a long and emotional day, starting at Arlington National Cemetery and including a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

I started at one end, where a single name is written, then two as it rose from ground level toward the sky. The center was taller than my 6' height. As I walked, I looked at pictures, flowers and other things people had left, thinking this was all some people had to remember their loved one by.

By the time I got to the highest part, I realized that my shirt collar was wet and for a brief moment I actually thought it was raining. It wasn't. I wasn't even aware until then that tears were streaming down my cheeks and that's why my collar was wet.

While I was standing there at the very center of that memorial, I could hear my 13-year-old daughter laughing and joking around with her friends while they waited for the rest of us to finish.

Standing there crying like a baby, all I could think of was that it was only by the grace of God that my daughter wasn't there that night looking for my name on that wall.

It wasn't until two days later I realized that if my name had been on the wall, my daughter would never have been born.

Yeah, that's an indelible memory.

Remmy

PS: Want to lose all your hair in a hurry? Be responsible for 40 middle school kids around the clock for a week.

[MintJulie]

I asked my parents about things that happened that they will always remember.   My mom mentioned one that I too remember.  

October 1987 (had to look that up)  Baby Jessica had fallen in a well.   I was 13.  My mom, dad, sister and I watched the news for two evenings.  My parents sent me to bed the first night even though I wanted to stay up.   We had just gotten cable TV and my dad was a news junkie so we had 24 hour coverage.  We even kept the TV on during dinner, which was a big no-no in our house.  I fell asleep in front of the TV the second night and I remember my dad carrying me to bed telling me they got baby Jessica out of the well.  I asked if she was okay and daddy told me she was.

[psiberzerker]

The first election I remember was Reagan/Mondale in 1980.  Honestly, Ronny charmed the pants off of the nation.  I barely remember Jimmy Carter as president, because he was just so "Meh," and "Blah" there wasn't that memorable, but I was 8, and that's when I was first aware of American Politics.  As far as the media represents how it works. 

He also got me into all the Space Stuff.  I missed Apollo, but not Skylab, the Space Shuttles (Including the one I already mentioned) my mom, and dad had an extensive library of Science Fiction.  I mean, we didn't have a Living Room, we had a Library, and a den in the basement with the TV/VCR.  You had to walk past the books, and downstairs to get to the TV for after school cartoons.

So anyway, that shaped my childhood.  I started with Tolkien as bedtime stories, and this was right after Star Wars, but I was still stuck on Indiana Jones, and (Dino deLaurentis') Dune.  That's when I started reading Azimov, Anthony, and Heinlein, among others. 

Also when I learned about Drugs.  I mean, my parents were "Hippies," and hated being called hippies.  They would correct people and say "Baltimore Street Freaks," but they smoked, and I got contact buzzes before I got to take DARE classes, and heard "Just Say No to Drugs."

So, in many ways, my entire childhood was shaped by Reagan.  He's still the first face, voice, and hairdo that pops into my head when you say "President of the United States," not to mention kicking off the Bush dynasties, the geo-political situations that led to the Heirloom War, Terror war, and most of my fictitious "Atrocity Wars."  That was my first timeline, and first setting, when I started writing Science Fiction.

So, I'll just have to call that a lifechanging event.  I probably would have been a writer either way, but I have to give credit to the Gipper for a lot of What I write.

[_priapism]

I asked my parents about things that happened that they will always remember.   My mom mentioned one that I too remember.  

October 1987 (had to look that up)  Baby Jessica had fallen in a well.   I was 13.  My mom, dad, sister and I watched the news for two evenings.  My parents sent me to bed the first night even though I wanted to stay up.   We had just gotten cable TV and my dad was a news junkie so we had 24 hour coverage.  We even kept the TV on during dinner, which was a big no-no in our house.  I fell asleep in front of the TV the second night and I remember my dad carrying me to bed telling me they got baby Jessica out of the well.  I asked if she was okay and daddy told me she was.

It happened out in West Texas.  Midland.  All anyone talked about for days.

She’s 30+ years old now...



https://people.com/human-interest/baby-jessica-on-the-30-year-anniversary-of-her-rescue-from-a-well-her-life-as-a-wife-and-mom/

[psiberzerker]

All right (Waving from Waco, right down the road from West, Texas) I'm just going to have to throw a pack of Slovacek's, the Branch Dividian Compound, and the UT Austin Bell Tower onto the fire...

I lived in Austin when she fell down that well.  Just sayin'.

Just so this isn't all bad memories:  Raiders of the Lost Ark, the dollar theaters in Corpus Christy.  I went there ever weekend for the entire summer of '82, and it was years before I saw the face-melting scene, because Indy said:  "Don't look, Marion.  Shut your eyes, don't open them, whatever happens, don't look."

[e_monster]

July 6 1994. The deaths of fourteen wildland firefighters on a flaming mountainside in western Colorado, most of them from the Prineville Interagency Hotshot Crew. I’d worked on a training project with them only a month prior. The news hit the firefighting community like a ton of bricks.

[_priapism]

Operation “Eagle Claw” on 24 April 1980.  Failed effort to rescue the hostages held in Iran.  Total logistic nightmare and multiple equipment failures.  It spoke volumes about our preparedness.  A helicopter crashed into a transport, ignighting fuel.  8 dead and 4 wounded.  A real low point for American morale, which Reagan quickly exploited.