Personal Historical Anecdotes Thread

[rotorgun]

Thinking on the wide age groups represented in the Org gave me an idea. I thought about a thread were we all could share some personal stories of some the historical events we all may have experienced. For instance, in my lifetime I have lived through, and sometimes been personally involved in many historical events. Some of these include:

The Cuban Missile Crisis
The Vietnam War
The American Civil Rights Movement
Watergate
The Cold War
The Arab Israeli Conflict
The Fall of The Soviet Union
The Landing on the Moon (To include the Race for Space)
...and many more

Here's one I remember from my earliest days. I was 4 years old in November of 1963, and can remember just having sat down in the kitchen for a snack-pizza I think, when my father suddenly came through the door early from work. I thought it was odd that my Dad had been crying. I remember him asking my mother "Have you heard? Someone shot the President in Dallas!" My mother was stunned, and she to began to cry. I wasn't old enough to understand why everyone was upset, but soon I began to cry. Then we all sat in front of the television, an old and dilapidated black and white set, with those "Rabbit ears" type of antennae. I can't remember the specifics, but it seemed that something dreadful had happened and all the networks (all three that we could get) stopped all other coverage. I do remember Walter Cronkite speaking in a somber way, but didn't recall then what he said. Of course his famous broadcast is quite well known today, but then I just remember that all the adults seemed to be upset.

Anyway, I thought that might make a good start. I hope that everyone who wants to can share some of their memories. Let's all respect each others contributions, and avoid any rancor, although a bit of tongue in cheek humor wouldn't be amiss. I think it could be a real great way of seeing our recent history in a different light than through the professional lens of scholarly works. Any one else want to give it a try?

PS: We could also include anecdotes from our ancestors, both living and passed on as well.

[drone]

I have two from my childhood. The first was the attempted assassination of Reagan. I was home from school, watching cartoons. I remember being very upset that they interrupted Tom and Jerry with the news report. I was 10, give me a break I remember the stock footage, but I really wanted to watch T&J (this was old school, full violence, and rascist T&J, not the modern pablum).

The second was the shuttle Challenger explosion. I was at a friend's house, it had snowed in Atlanta and we had the day off from school. Snow is not a common occurrence in the ATL, and we had gotten quite a bit, enough for kids to play in. We came inside to get warm, and turned on the launch. I had a bit more awareness at this point, plus I was a geek, so it was big news.

[Marshal Murat]

I remember when I was about 6 or 7 watching "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" when the news came on about Princess Diana dying. I was so very unhappy about missing Sabrina.

[Strike For The South]

11 years old doing something on powerpoint for math class. My teacher turns on the television just in time to see one of the planes hit the buildings and quickly shuts it off again. I didnt get what happend until my dad sat me down and explained it to me.

[seireikhaan]

11 years old doing something on powerpoint for math class. My teacher turns on the television just in time to see one of the planes hit the buildings and quickly shuts it off again. I didnt get what happend until my dad sat me down and explained it to me.

Its a Thursday. I'm by myself in my dad's apartment, chowing on some breakfast before I go to walk to school. Watching the local morning CBS news, and they cut to breaking news to the big wig, national CBS station. Reporters are talking frantically, and they cut to footage of the New York skyline. One of the twin towers is smoking profusely. They go to a reporter live in New York. He's interviewing a woman about what she just saw. She's crying, screaming, bawling, "One of the towers was hit by a plane, they gotta get the poeple out of there!" She continues frantically recounting what she saw. As she's speaking, the station continues just reeling footage of the towers. And then, in mid-sentence, live right before my eleven year old eyes, a gigantic orange fireball erupts in the second tower. The woman being interviewed completely loses herself. "JESUS CHRIST, JESUS CHRIST, THE SECOND WAS HIT! JESUS, JESUS, JESUS CHRIST....!" I'm just sitting their on my couch, stunned. The reality of it didn't really sink it. I had to take off for school. The school staff elected to leave us students in the dark during the day. But before we left school that day, we got a letter from the gov't, informing us that a great tragedy had occured. The stamped signature of my President adorned the bottom, and confirmed what us elementary school kids had figured out despite the staff's best efforts.

[CountArach]

11 years old doing something on powerpoint for math class. My teacher turns on the television just in time to see one of the planes hit the buildings and quickly shuts it off again. I didnt get what happend until my dad sat me down and explained it to me.

I was sitting in the living room of my then-house with my cousins, father and uncle. We rarely get to see them because they live inter-state, but anyway we were sitting watching some sport (Or cartoons, sort of hazy on that point). My mum walks into the room with my aunt and tells us to change to the news channel. I remember she said that the radio claimed it was the biggest terrorist attack in history. She also seemed quite worried because my grandparents were in New York on that very day doing touristy-things.

As it happens my grandparents had gone to see the Towers the day before and were planning on going back again later in the day of the attack. Fortunately they hadn't gone yet and were safe. However, they were in london on the same day as the subway bombing that occurred there... seems like someone was after them :/

I also remember the day of the invasion of Iraq. I was shocked that war had been declared while the weapons inspectors were still in there, but I stupidly decided to listen to talk-back radio as I did in those days. Someone was panic-mongering on there about Sadam having sent out thousands of infiltrators throughout Australia and the US who were going to start causing trouble with the outbreak of war. I was shocked because I wasn't all that discerning at the time (Being 13) and just assumed this guy was telling the truth. I was quite broken up about it and had to be comforted by my dad. I sometimes think back and wonder about what that guy was thinking and how shocked he was when exactly that didn't happen.

EDIT: As for ancestors I'll never forget one school assignment I had to do where I was to interview an immigrant to Australia who had a non-English speaking background about their experience. I interviewed my Jewish Great Grandmother from Hungary. I asked her about why she left Hungary and she had a bit of a wistful voice and a tear in the corner of her eye as she talked about the rise of Nazism in Hungary during the Interwar period. It was at that point that I realised some of the stuff she had gone through.

EDIT 2: Great idea for a thread mate!

[Meneldil]

9/11 is pretty much the only important memory I have. I was too young to realize what was happening when the Wall fall and pretty much everything else essential.

So, I just came back from high-school. My bro (who was something like 9 back then) is all excited and tells me "someone attacked the US!". I'm like "huh, who would do such a thing ?".

I start watching TV, seeing the first and the second plane hitting the WTC again and again, listening to the first real time explanations and analysis, to various Presidents' speeches. When my mum and stepdad come back, we start discussing it. Their opinion is pretty much shared by a whole lot of people: there's going to be a huge war, maybe even WW3. People who did this are clearly trying to destroy our modern world.

I'm myself less worried. While I felt sorry for the people who died, I only saw it as what it was: a (huge) terrorist attack on a country widely despised and hated, and not as the end of the modern world/civilization/peace/whatever.
I grew up at a time during which France was the favorite target of radical muslims. I remember being shocked when a terrorist group (the GIA) sweared to blow up the Eiffel Tower and the Arc of Triumph, or when they successfully planned bombings in Paris subways. The attacks on the WTC were just the same thing on a larger scale.

Few hours after, I went to check my usual internet forum (namely, the to-be-released MMORPG Shadowbane european forum) and was kind of shocked by the aggressive tone displayed towards the US and americans in general: it was their fault, they had it coming, etc.

The day after (a wednesday, IIRC), most of my friends were repeating the same old pessimistic crap we had been hearing for hours: there's gonna be a huge war. The name "Afghanistan" was coming up occasionally, and the usual joke was the Afghanistan would be turned into dust. The tone was also quite despising of the US, but not nearly as bad as it would be a few months later, when Bush decided to start his crusade.