9-11 coverage and the second plane live on TV in elementary school
Sack of Rome by Alaric and the Visigoths. All over the news.
9/11. I was in school and my teacher wheeled the TV cart in. She was an absolute wreck doing so because her husband left that morning for an interview in tower 1. Due to the phone traffic being so busy she couldnt reach him. Luckily he was running late because of traffic and had to drive far enough away before he could call her.
Where did you grow up? I was in 4th grade in Fairfield county and we had soooo many stories like that, both tragic and miraculous. Missed trains, traffic, sick kids, but also people that otherwise wouldn’t have been there but for a thing that day, interview, meeting. Thankfully our elementary school did an amazing job with a media blackout, teachers that couldn’t remain composed were swapped for those that could, we were all given a sheet to bring home explaining that we hadn’t been told anything yet. But it really quickly became obvious that something terrible had happened, kids getting picked up for no reason, every fire truck in town screaming down the highway, the fucking jets flying over. Apparently the highschool didn’t do a good job containing things and tons of kids just left, some to try to get to the city where their parents worked. Didn’t learn about that until years later. I remember standing on the beach the next day watching the smoke rise over Long Island Sound
The husband’s delay in calling in might also have been caused by Verizon’s telephone network being temporarily overloaded. I remember trying to call my family that morning and only getting a message saying “all circuits are busy now”.
The destruction of the Berlin wall, and uniting of west- and east Germany.
the “wir sind das volk” chants still sending chills down my spine. what a great moment for humanity.
Mount St. Helens.
Having a hard time with this question, but yeah, that’s an early memory. I just thought it was exciting that a volcano blew up in America! Had no concept of the devastation, but I do remember ash raining down hundreds of miles away. Was bummed we didn’t get any in Tulsa. :)
I actually remember seeing Haley’s Comet. I want to live long enough to blah blah blah, but really I just wanna see that stupid thing again before I go. Feels like a decent bookend, ya know?
Although I lived through others I think I was to young to remember them or caring. So for me it was the OJ trial since they legit announced it overhead at our school which was weird thinking back on it. After that would be 911.
Challenger exploding, closely followed by Chernobyl exploding. I’m sure inbetween there were parts of London exploding. And after that, Pan Am 103 exploding. The 80s were a wild time.
Challenger is my first, followed by the collapse of the Soviet Union
1986 was wild. Chernobyl, Challenger, Olaf Palme assassination and Jakomäki Bank Robbery/Mikkeli hostage crisis that ended up in big car explosion seen on tv.
When the Berlin Wall came down
911
The beating of Rodney King. I was very young, maybe 6, and didn’t understand why they had to beat that man.
Now I do understand. And it’s pretty shitty.
Middle East wars (which doesn’t really pin down a timeframe)
ERA (which does)
I dislike that my brain went with Milli Vanilli and not something like the berlin wall…
Can you believe they lip synched on live TV!? What fraudsters!
The first major story where I thought “oh noes” was the Canary Wharf bombing in 1996ish. It was the first time I’d ever seen a “we interrupt this broadcast…” moment and it was so out of the ordinary that it sticks in my mind.
9/11 was a wild ride too. Getting home from school and my old man - who never watched the news - had Sky News on. At that point, the replays seemed… incredible, in the most literal sense of the word.
The opening weeks of Star Wars, fans lined up around the block, many seeing it again and again and again. Some had seen it dozens of times. I was shocked.
Sister took me when I was 6. All I remember was eating lunch in the breakfast room, parents asking, “WELL? How was it?!” “OK I guess.” LOL, was not impressed in the moment, turned into a fairly rabid fan for a couple of decades.
NYC blackout was a couple of months later. Not that I had a clue what was happening, but it was all over the news. My Silent Gen parents shielded me from their racism best they could, but I remember mom commenting on the rioting, “Oh, those BUH-LACKS!”
My Silent Gen parents shielded me from their racism best they could,
that’s incredibly self aware for the day.
It really was a lesson! Bear in mind, I grew up on shows like All in the Family and The Jefferson’s, featuring bigots as the main characters, and they were always shown to be assholes in every episode. So ham-fisted it’s hard to watch now. :) I grew up on WOKE shows like the Electric Company and Sesame Street. The 70s and forward were, “Be a racist, better keep a fucking lid on it.”
My parents lived in Selma, AL when King marched through. They had “mammies” to raise their girls. Strange times I missed.
