I don't do memes all that often, more because I think that a lot of them are silly and I don't want to clutter up my blog/LJ friends page with them than anything else.
Some of them, though...well. Right now, there's a 'where were you when' one going around, and that was one that I found pretty thought-provoking. The really interesting part is that this one sparked a lot of memories, that I'll probably ultimately end up writing about. We'll see how it goes. I've been sitting on this one, gradually answering it, for three or four days. About damn time it gets posted. :)
Where were you when...
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (11/22/1963):
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (5/18/1980):
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (1/28/1986):
3b. When the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred (4/25-26/1986):
3c. When Halley's Comet visited (1986):
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (10/7/1989):
5. When the Berlin Wall fell (11/7/1989):
6. When the Gulf War began (1/16/1991):
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (6/17/1994):
8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (4/19/1995):
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997):
10. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School (4/20/1999):
11. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000):
12. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001):
13. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center [and flew a plane into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania] (9/11/2001):
14. When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas (2/1/2003):
Where was I? Answers below.
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot (11/22/1963):
Not even a twinkle in the eyes of my parents--I wouldn't be here for another almost ten years. My mom was on the verge of turning 9 years old.
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew (5/18/1980):
Living in Salt Lake City, worried that one of our mountains might erupt, too.
Never happened.
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded (1/28/1986):
Like so many people my age, I was at school. *Un*like a lot of people my age, we didn't get to watch it as it happened. I just have vague memories of a few of my teachers crying. We didn't get to leave early at all, and the first time I actually saw it was later that afternoon, when my mom came home from work. I remember her kneeling on the floor in front of the TV, holding my brother in her lap as we all watched, silent.
I got my first period the same day.
3b. When the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred (4/25-26/1986):
3c. When Halley's Comet visited (1986):
My memory of these two events is pretty vague, so I've rolled them into one. I would've still been in Utah, and...that's about it.
I did a report on Chernobyl in high school, and got a B on it rather than an A because it was too long.
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco (10/7/1989):
Still in Salt Lake, utterly terrified for my mother, who was living out there by then, I think. Either living or visiting, but I *know* she was there. Scared the hell out of me.
5. When the Berlin Wall fell (11/7/1989):
We got to see footage of this in my history class. It was pretty cool.
6. When the Gulf War began (1/16/1991):
Ha! Okay. In that same history class mentioned above, my teacher, Ms. Cluny, talked about the US and its cyclical history of involvement in conflict. We were due, she said, and that it would happen within the next five years, probably much sooner than that--and that it'd be in the middle east. Probably not such a huge leap in logic, given the fabric of politics at the the time, but it was still really interesting. I saw her a couple of days after the Gulf War started and we talked about it--she seemed more surprised that I'd actually been paying attention than anything.
Anyway. This is one memory that's actually really clear for me. I was driving by that point, and took a couple of friends home every day. One of them was in an AP History class, and she mentioned that they had a class pool running on when the war would start. I don't remember the exact date the pool started, but I *do* remember that it supposed to start several days afterwards--probably after a weekend or something. I went home, I turned on the TV, and just sort of stared for a minute, then called Merianne. "You all lost," I said. "The United States went to war half an hour ago."
I had an uncle in the Navy reserves at that point--a pilot. I forget the exact plane he flew, a C-130 or something, the one that looks like a 737 with a long stinger coming out the back of it. We were all terrified he'd be called up.
He wasn't.
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco (6/17/1994):
I was working double shifts at Wasatch Valley Rehab, from 3pm to 7am, and was on the tail end of one of those shifts. One of the rooms in the long term care ward was a 4-plex--four beds, four women. They liked to have the TV turned on at 6, and I ended up in their room during 'the chase.'
It's really weird, too, how thinking about this brings back other, sensory memories. But that's a topic for a later time, I guess.
8. When the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed (4/19/1995):
Still in Salt Lake City, but not for much longer at that point. I was working in the reception atrium of the Eccles Broadcast Center, the local PBS/NPR station. It's on a golf course, the station, and the atrium is exactly what it sounds like. Every once in awhile, the building would get hit by a golf ball--at which point we'd always go out and snag the ball. Any golfer who came to get the ball would have it returned, of course, but none of them ever did. Heh.
ANYway. There were TVs in the reception area, tuned to the station that was broadcasting with the volume turned down, while the NPR station played in the background. When we heard about it, we turned the radio station down and turned one of the TVs onto the news, so we could get the latest about what was going on. Well. I say 'we,' but it was one of the program managers for the PBS station. The station manager came out about half an hour later and chewed me out for letting them change the station.
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997):
I had just arrived in California a few weeks previous. I was going out to dinner with friends, and we passed through the laundry room on the way out. The TV in the laundry room was tuned to CNN, and it was reporting the news. We didn't realize how serious it was until much later, we just heard that it was a car accident.
10. When Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates at Columbine High School (4/20/1999):
You know what's really sad about this? I don't really remember all that much about it. I *do* remember that the Sharks were in the middle of a playoff series with the Avs (which they lost), and that there were games were postponed out of respect.
11. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000):
Don't really remember or care where I was for this one, actually.
12. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001):
Oh brother. I was at work, and heard about it from a co-worker. Was immediately just absolutely *terrified* for my mom, Matt, and my brother. Couldn't get ahold of anyone. Tried not to panic. They made me go out and pick up lunch for everyone to take my mind off it--not such a good thing since Kevin, sweetheart that he was, had the radio on for me while we were out.
13. When terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center [and flew a plane into the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania] (9/11/2001):
When the actual attack happened, I was asleep. I first heard about it on the radio, and it was a very surreal sort of thing. Understand, I've never been to New York at all, and the only experience I had with the WTC was that it was an establishing shot for so many movies.
When I first heard about it, I was in the car on the way to work, when they reported that the first of the towers had fallen. Even then, it seemed strangely surreal, and a co-worker and I talked about it as we walked into the building. I mean, a plane into a building? They're not talking about a big passenger-type plane, are they? It's just a single-engine thing or something.
My mom and I talked via email throughout the day. After a few hours of watching CNN when I got home, I had to go into the bedroom and read something mindless.
14. When Columbia disintegrated during re-entry over Texas (2/1/2003):
Saturday morning. I was up early, because I was working the 5am shift, so I couldn't ever sleep much past 7 or 8. I'd turned on the TV just after it happened on CNN, so I was part of the story almost as it happened.