What’s the first major news story you remember?

[angelinkc]

Challenger, Gary Hart scandal, and Tiananmen Square stand out to me. Probably all fall short of The JR Ewing shooting. 

[Brandon]

35 minutes ago, Lhalo said:

I saw an awesome video of Desert Storm the other day. It describes in detail how the bombing kicked off. There were an unbelievable amount of planes, bombs and missiles in the air that night.

 

Interesting.

I remember where I was sitting with my Nintendo Gameboy. Everyone was huddled around the television and they were explaining what was happening while the tv looked like the 4th of July with all the bombings and explosions. 

[tdawg87]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

I can't imagine what kids went through at school during 9/11. 

I was a freshman in High School and I believe it was our first full week. I was 14 so I knew it was serious but didn't fully grasp the gravity of the situation.

Of course it didn't help that my teacher (of some kind of vocational class, can't recall) was an asshat and immediately started talking about how Nostradamus "predicted this". 

[Brandon]

11 minutes ago, tdawg87 said:

I was a freshman in High School and I believe it was our first full week. I was 14 so I knew it was serious but didn't fully grasp the gravity of the situation.

Of course it didn't help that my teacher (of some kind of vocational class, can't recall) was an asshat and immediately started talking about how Nostradamus "predicted this". 

What was the overall climate like? Were people talking about it at break or was it more somber?

I'm curious about this because I was a year removed from high school, but remember so much vivid detail of that day. But if I was in school, I'm not sure how I would have took it.

The gnarliest one was my sister was in bootcamp for the Marines. She said once the first or second plane hit they locked down the entire base. She said the military kept everyone in the dark and she didn't know what happened until over a week later.

[tdawg87]

3 minutes ago, Brandon said:

What was the overall climate like? Were people talking about it at break or was it more somber?

I'm curious about this because I was a year removed from high school, but remember so much vivid detail of that day. But if I was in school, I'm not sure how I would have took it.

The gnarliest one was my sister was in bootcamp for the Marines. She said once the first or second plane hit they locked down the entire base. She said the military kept everyone in the dark and she didn't know what happened until over a week later.

Honestly I don't remember there being a ton of discussion about it. I think by the time we had all processed it, the school year was over and we were on break, and then it was just a bad memory.

I'm sure the Junior/Senior class was a different story.

[JAHV76]

When 9/11 happened I had flown to SJ for business the night before and I watched the second plane incident on the news. My college customers all closed that day and we had to drive back in our rental car. It took three days to return the car and pickup my vehicle since JWA closed.

[AngelsLakersFan]

2 hours ago, Lhalo said:

Baby Jessica was in '87.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_of_Jessica_McClure

 

Wow, I would’ve been 2 years old... is it possible I actually do remember it? Any other kids falling down wells? I was just going to mention Desert Storm until you mentioned baby Jessica and it sparked that memory.

[AngelsLakersFan]

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

What was the overall climate like? Were people talking about it at break or was it more somber?

I'm curious about this because I was a year removed from high school, but remember so much vivid detail of that day. But if I was in school, I'm not sure how I would have took it.

The gnarliest one was my sister was in bootcamp for the Marines. She said once the first or second plane hit they locked down the entire base. She said the military kept everyone in the dark and she didn't know what happened until over a week later.

It was the start of my junior year and I remember that day very well. The first tower collapsed on my ride over. We spent the entire day talking about it and watching the news. I remember the bulk of the talk was about how some Arabs were seriously gona get fucked over this. We had CNN on in every class except history, where out teacher thought the Spanish American War (or whatever) was a more interesting topic... oh and Telemundo in Spanish class... that was the second most productive class we had that day.

[AngelsLakersFan]

Just now, calscuf said:

Bart fell down a well in the early 90’s on the Simpsons.  That’s probably what you remember.

This will blow your mind, I never watched the Simpson growing up.

[Brandon]

I vaguely remember it, but it wasn't must see tv. Maybe the first Halloween special.

But I was never into cartoon shows. Never watched an episode of Family Guy or whatever else cartoon memes people throw around here.

[Lhalo]

Just now, calscuf said:

Mind blown 

The canary scene in that episode was great. 

[Lhalo]

Lol

 

[Tank]

5 hours ago, Brandon said:

I can't imagine what kids went through at school during 9/11. The closest I had to that was when those two kids shot up Columbine when I was in high school. It was kind of a normal day, but my history teacher was shook up and he just used the class time as an open forum and us watching the news. I assume that was how it was for kids during 9/11, but all day.

it was a weird day, to be sure. I wanted to stay home and watch everything that was going on. I watched the first tower collapse but had to leave for school. had the news on and the second tower came down while I was on the freeway. couldn't concentrate on anything else that day. we had to talk a little more gently than usual to the kids that day, knowing that several were going to be traumatized by they'd seen on tv. gave them lots of time to ask questions and discuss what was on their hearts about it all. answered as best as I could without having a lot of information about. wanted to spend the whole day watching the news, but we didn't have tv reception nor did we want to saturate the kids with it.

I also remember that we had a kid that was a huge troublemaker withdraw from school that day. we were relieved that his family chose for him to go elsewhere. our school wasn't the right place for him.

it was similar to the challenger disaster in '86. we gathered the jr. high kids in my classroom and wheeled in the only tv we had. watched the news for a couple of hours and let kids talk about it. finally went back to some sort of class schedule after lunch and everyone seemed fine enough to carry on.

[Tank]

2 hours ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

Wow, I would’ve been 2 years old... is it possible I actually do remember it? Any other kids falling down wells? 

we seemed to have had a rash of them in the mid-late 80s, and they got a lot of coverage.

when I was kid in the 60s, it seemed like every tv show had an episode dealing with someone being caught in quicksand. my generation grew up believing that quicksand was something all of us were going to have to deal with multiple times as adults and that it was in all kinds of places. to this day, however, I've never actually seen any.

[Redondo]

8 hours ago, Tank said:

we seemed to have had a rash of them in the mid-late 80s, and they got a lot of coverage.

when I was kid in the 60s, it seemed like every tv show had an episode dealing with someone being caught in quicksand. my generation grew up believing that quicksand was something all of us were going to have to deal with multiple times as adults and that it was in all kinds of places. to this day, however, I've never actually seen any.

Quite a few old Westerns used quicksand in their shows.

[arch stanton]

9 hours ago, Tank said:

we seemed to have had a rash of them in the mid-late 80s, and they got a lot of coverage.

when I was kid in the 60s, it seemed like every tv show had an episode dealing with someone being caught in quicksand. my generation grew up believing that quicksand was something all of us were going to have to deal with multiple times as adults and that it was in all kinds of places. to this day, however, I've never actually seen any.

You're a couple years older so I'm sure it's worse for you but as a 7 year old I was terrified that I was going to be sent to Vietnam like my dad and all my uncles were

[Redondo]

2 hours ago, arch stanton said:

You're a couple years older so I'm sure it's worse for you but as a 7 year old I was terrified that I was going to be sent to Vietnam like my dad and all my uncles were

I graduated one year after the war ended so I missed the draft.

They took half our apartment complex and used it for staging for the guys being sent to Viet Nam from Norton Air Force base in San Bernardino.

Flew out on huge transport planes. I believe these were the planes.

For much of the late 1960s and early 1970s, 66-0177 flew out of Norton Air Force Base, San Bernardino, California with the 63rd Military Airlift Wing (MAW)

Hanoi Taxi is a Lockheed C-141 Starlifter strategic airlift aircraft (serial number 66-0177) that was in service with the United States Air Force and became famous for bringing back the first returned prisoners of war in Operation Homecoming.

Saw a lot of guys go through there.

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

The Gulf War when in the second grade they brought a TV in as Bush Sr. was addressing the country.  One of the ladies who wasn't a teacher was telling us to pay attention because of how important it was and that this could be the beginning of WWIII.  After that the biggest reporting events I remember are the riots in 92 then the OJ case which was the only thing on TV the entire summer.

[Taylor]

15 hours ago, AngelsLakersFan said:

This will blow your mind, I never watched the Simpson growing up.

Which Simpson did you never watch?

[gotbeer]

In 15 years.  When you ask this question again, there is going to be someone on AW.com that says when Trump won the presidency.  

[gotbeer]

26 minutes ago, calscuf said:

Our In Memoriam section then is gonna be huge.

Only if Capt Kirk is announcing it.

[Jason]

Wow! Didn’t realize there were so many old folks here. For me it was the inauguration of Reagan as my parents took me to it in person 

[Vegas Halo Fan]

The Cuban missile crisis. I lived in Florida and had a father in the military. I only  found out years later how serious it was.

[Lou]

1 hour ago, Taylor said:

Which Simpson did you never watch?

I'm guessing Nicole Brown Simpson.

[Stradling]

For me it is Elvis dying.  I vaguely remember the long gas lines.  I remember Reagan taking office and the hostages being released.  I remember Nadia Comaneci being a thing.