Where Were You?

[raff 4]

Most of the people on this group were not alive 50 years ago today. A few will never forget that day. It is always sobering to realize that things which must vomited back on an a US History exam for some, are, for others, as real as what they had for breakfast.

For me, the three non-personal dates which are most burned into my memory are 11/22/63, 1/28/86, and, of course 9/11. Most on this group remember only the latter, just as surely as said date will be the answer on a test one day for their children.

The inexorable passage of time is a weird thing.

If you leave the plane without a parachute, you will be fine for the rest of your life.

[LuckyMcSwervy 0]

I was a sparkle in my Daddy's eye.

Always be kinder than you feel.

[shropshire 0]

Watching the 1st Dr Who ... anything else IMPORTANT happen? No? Thought not

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

[fastphil 0]

I was at school, third grade, and we were released early. I most definitely remember my Mom (a devout Catholic) being very upset, which imprinted in me the seriousness of the event. Those were also the days of the Cuban Missile drills, where we would curl up in the brick hallways as if to to kiss our tails goodbye. Good ole' days...

[JerryBaumchen 1,064]

Hi raff,

11/22/63) I had just gotten out of the service and was headed over to the draft board to inform them of my new status. Yes, it was req'd in those days.

1/28/86) I was in Peoria, IL. A salesman from Caterpillar had picked me up at the airport and we were headed into brew pub when a customer, on the way out, told us what had happened.

9/11) I was on a flight from Sao Paulo to Los Angeles and we were diverted to Tijuana. Finally ended up on a bus to L.A., where I rented a car and drove home.

Anyone else?????

JerryBaumchen

[airtwardo 6]

JerryBaumchen

Hi raff,

11/22/63) I had just gotten out of the service and was headed over to the draft board to inform them of my new status. Yes, it was req'd in those days.

1/28/86) I was in Peoria, IL. A salesman from Caterpillar had picked me up at the airport and we were headed into brew pub when a customer, on the way out, told us what had happened.

9/11) I was on a flight from Sao Paulo to Los Angeles and we were diverted to Tijuana. Finally ended up on a bus to L.A., where I rented a car and drove home.

Anyone else?????

JerryBaumchen

11/22/63) ~ I was in 2nd grade, we were released from school after an 'all school' assembly explaining what happened. Many of the teachers were too distraught to finish the day.

My folks both were working so I just sat on the front porch waiting for them to get home...I remember thinking something bad has happened, but didn't really understand.

1/28/86) I was as always watching the launch on TV. I was working in aerospace on the night shift, worked on many shuttle assemblies so I had an interest.

I remember seeing the flame leak on the SRB as it was happening live & thinking Rut-Row...then it exploded.

When I got to work that afternoon there were engineers going through paperwork in a manic state getting things ready for the investigation that would follow.

We didn't have anything to do with the SRB's and I couldn't understand why they were so worried.


9/11) I was working in the office at home, TV was on in the bedroom and I heard the 'breaking news'.

Wife & I were standing in front of the TV when the 2nd tower was hit...I sent her to the store with a list of supplies & I went to get the kids out of school. I knew ~ We were at War.

- The CEO of CAL was the 1st to go before congress and request they 'turn it back on or start writing checks' because of the millions the airline was losing every day...Capt. Mom was driving the 777 at the time & flew the first international departure out of here...when I picked her up from work the following day she was almost in tears, the 777 from Japan had ONE passenger aboard!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[skymama 35]

I wasn't alive, but my parents talk about JFK's funeral procession. They were stationed in Qantico, VA and went to see it. They were so poor, they didn't have a camera nor could they even afford an instant one, but they talk about how solemn it was. They said everyone still seemed to be in a state of shock and disbelief.

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[NWFlyer 2]

11/23/63... 7 years and 2 days away from entering the world.

1/28/86... it was a school day (would have been sophomore year of high school) but for some reason I was home (can't recall if it was because I was sick or if school was closed for some reason). I was upstairs on my parents' bed watching TV when the news broke in.

9/11/01 ... I was at home in Seattle. I wasn't working at the time, so I followed my usual routine of getting up and puttering about before turning on the Today show. Sat there for about 3 hours straight before I finally couldn't watch the same footage over and over again and needed to do something "normal," so I went to the grocery store.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[masterrig 1]

11/22/63, I was a senior in high school and returning to my classroom when I heard it over the speaker system.

01/28/86,I was at work and heard it on the radio.

9/11, My wife and I were watching Good Morning America when they turned to live coverage.


Chuck

[BillyVance 34]

I would not be born for nearly 4 years when JFK was shot.

I do remember 1-28-86 vividly. I was a senior in high school. I was in my drafting class at the city schools' central vocational facility and I had classmates from all 5 city high schools. One classmate exclaimed he heard on his walkman radio that the shuttle just blew up. 5 minutes later school officials called all students out into the halls and explained what happened, and that schools were shutting down for the rest of the day. We were then bused back to our high schools and then sent home. I spent the rest of the day watching news coverage and replays of the shuttle's final moments and aftermath. Very sobering day.

Another date I remember vividly too... March 30, 1981. The day Reagan was shot. I was in Memphis with my parents visiting one of my dad's aunts and her family. We were in the living room when the maid burst in from the kitchen exclaiming that Reagan got shot. We all rushed over to the kitchen to watch the breaking news on TV.

9/11/01 - I was at work. Didn't get much done at all that day. Alternated between my cubicle and the conference room where the TV was. The day before, I had just gotten back from San Marcos, Texas where I co-organized the first Deaf World Record event. I was supposed to fly back Sunday night from San Antonio, but got diverted to Austin instead of Dallas due to severe storms, a 3 hour delay, before the plane took off for Dallas. I didn't get to Birmingham until well past midnight. So... we got lucky and had our event with skydivers from Japan and England joining Americans to set the record. If we'd scheduled it a week or two later, we would have been screwed due to the general aviation shut-down.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[Phillbo 11]

11/22/63, 2 years old so don't remember much about it.

01/28/86,Watching the launch on TV. I grew up around NASA since my father was an aeronautical engineer and we lived in West Pal Beach for a while and would go to Vero Beach to watch the Apollo launches.

9/11, Driving to work when I heard about it on the radio. Called home and ask the GF to turn on the TV an tell me what she saw. I had a mental image of a Cessna size plane. She was describing to me what she was seeing when the second plane hit. I turned around and went home. Did not even bother to call my boss.

[LuckyMcSwervy 0]

11/22/63 - I wasn't born until 1968, so like I said previously, I was just a sparkle in my Daddy's eye (they were trying to get pregnant for a 7 years before I came along).

01/28/86 - I was a senior in high school. All 3 of us kids were home sick with the flu that day. We were in the family room laying around watching television when it came on the news. I remember I went to my room to watch the news and cried in there so my brothers wouldn't see me and bust my balls. My Dad was working the desk at the police station and kept calling home to check on us. I remember he was upset as well.

9/11/2001 - I walked across the police station parking lot, looking up at the sky and told myself this was a perfect, happy to be alive day, the weather was amazing and the sky was a gorgeous, deep shade of blue. I was working from a police department in their Emergency Operations Management Room where we had a computers set up for training the state computer systems. I was due to have foot surgery the next day and had to get some pre-op bloodwork so I worked close to home. The police chief came in and changed the television channel to the news after hearing about the first tower being hit. He said something along the line of it being a little Cessna or something. I remember telling him no way, it had to be a bigger airliner or something due to the hole in the tower. As we were sitting there watching, in frame comes the 2nd plane and it hits the south tower. It was surreal. Later you could smell the smoke on the wind that come down the NJ coast from NYC. A few hours later my cell phone rang and it was the hospital cancelling my surgery for the next day because they said they were on standby waiting for survivors. As we know know, they never came.

Always be kinder than you feel.

[CanuckInUSA 0]

I don't know exactly where I was. I was possibly sucking on my mother's tit? Possibly sleeping in a crib or possibly playing on the floor. I was 6 weeks old when JFK was shot. So of course I don't remember any of this. I do however remember seeing the funeral procession of Robert Kennedy on TV five 5 later and I remember being told to watch Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on TV a year after that which to a 6 year old was pretty cool.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[wmw999 2,148]

1963 -- at home, my mother told me downstairs. I was in the third grade, but Brazil is several hours ahead of the US.

1986 -- at work. My then husband called me to tell me (he was working on equipment in a room with a TV). I went next door to tell my manager, and then back to my office, to call my folks. Lines were jammed by then, and I couldn't get out. At the time, I was supporting NASA institutional systems (email and the like), so we started getting ready for the likely audits etc.

2001 -- taking my dad back to his apartment from my house, on the way to having a minor procedure done at the hospital. Very, very, weird.

Wendy P.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[seedy 0]

1963 - Sophomore in High School. Sitting in study hall when they announced it over the PA. Went to next class and our English teacher was just shaking her head in tears saying, "People, people, people..." Was awhile before she could really say more.

1986 - working and didn't hear about it until I got home.

9/11 - working from home and came in to the living room. Daughter told me an airplane had hit one of the towers. Saw the second plane. Glued to the tv for several hours.

I intend to live forever -- so far, so good.

[ryoder 1,399]

Where was I?
I have alibis for all of them.
I'm not talking until I see a subpoena and confer with counsel.

"There are only three things of value: younger women, faster airplanes, and bigger crocodiles" - Arthur Jones.

[LuckyMcSwervy 0]

ryoder

Where was I?
I have alibis for all of them.
I'm not talking until I see a subpoena and confer with counsel.

I'd Rather Be Waterboarding

Always be kinder than you feel.

[jimmytavino 16]

'63 .. i was a 5th grader and was in the school hallway carrying the box with "the SRA Reading program " in it, upstairs to the 3rd grade classroom. The P. A came on, and i sat in the 3rd grade class for 15 or 20 minutes as the office patched a Live radio news report , into all the rooms.


'86 ... I was installing a power door opener for a person in her home. saw it on the news.... Soooo hoped that later that day , we would learn of a Top secret, Impossible to damage capsule , made of some super secret super strong material,,,, that fully encased the cockpit compartment and that housed the Entire crew..
I soooo hoped that the President would then march them all out on the stage that night... Declaring " Our foresight and good design and planning, Has allowed us to safely parachute this capsule back to the ocean, where we made the Recovery !!! ... this afternoon "...
SADLY it was NOT to be.

9-11 was in my office in Rochester, at 9 am or so, about to head to the home of a freind who had suffered an injury in an aircraft accident... I Was installing a vertical W/C Lift which i had on hand,,, for her... in her garage... As i drove the 30 miles or so, the radio announced that the 2nd jet had struck.... It was a Lousey Day..... all around. Got the work done.. but my mind was " somewhere ELSE ",,, for most of the day.

[mjosparky 3]

11/22/1963 – Working in the stock room of Sage’s Baseline, a grocery store in my home town.

1/28/86 - Working Fire St. #8, watching the launch on T.V. It got real quiet and no one said anything for about 30 minutes.

9/11/2000 – I was still in bed when the phone rang. It was a friend of mine calling from NY. He was a Firefighter and was driving to his station on a city wide recall. Turned the T.V. on and just a few minutes later saw the second plane.hit. My friend died that day in the Tower 2.

It was a tough day for Firefighters nationwide.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[LuckyMcSwervy 0]

mjosparky

11/22/1963 – Working in the stock room of Sage’s Baseline, a grocery store in my home town.

1/28/86 - Working Fire St. #8, watching the launch on T.V. It got real quiet and no one said anything for about 30 minutes.

9/11/2000 – I was still in bed when the phone rang. It was a friend of mine calling from NY. He was a Firefighter and was driving to his station on a city wide recall. Turned the T.V. on and just a few minutes later saw the second plane.hit. My friend died that day in the Tower 2.

It was a tough day for Firefighters nationwide.

Sparky

They were psychics?

Always be kinder than you feel.

[mjosparky 3]

LuckyMcSwervy

***11/22/1963 – Working in the stock room of Sage’s Baseline, a grocery store in my home town.

1/28/86 - Working Fire St. #8, watching the launch on T.V. It got real quiet and no one said anything for about 30 minutes.

9/11/2001 – I was still in bed when the phone rang. It was a friend of mine calling from NY. He was a Firefighter and was driving to his station on a city wide recall. Turned the T.V. on and just a few minutes later saw the second plane.hit. My friend died that day in the Tower 2.

It was a tough day for Firefighters nationwide.

Sparky

They were psychics?

???
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[LuckyMcSwervy 0]

mjosparky

******11/22/1963 – Working in the stock room of Sage’s Baseline, a grocery store in my home town.

1/28/86 - Working Fire St. #8, watching the launch on T.V. It got real quiet and no one said anything for about 30 minutes.

9/11/2000 – I was still in bed when the phone rang. It was a friend of mine calling from NY. He was a Firefighter and was driving to his station on a city wide recall. Turned the T.V. on and just a few minutes later saw the second plane.hit. My friend died that day in the Tower 2.

It was a tough day for Firefighters nationwide.

Sparky

They were psychics?

???
Sparky

I'm sorry I was being a smacker. Your date is listed as the year 2000 when the tragedy occurred in 2001. I had to go back and correct mine. I had it as 09-11-2011.

Bad joke attempt. Sorry!!

Always be kinder than you feel.

[muff528 3]

1963 - 8th grade art class. Heard about on the radio, which the teacher just happened to turn on that day. She never played the radio for us before.

1986 - Stepped outside to watch the launch from about 120 miles away. Cold as hell but bright and clear. Of course everyone was wondering why the exhaust trail split into the "Y" shape.

2001 - heard it on the news at work. We spent the rest of the morning huddled around the 13" TV we scrounged up.

[mjosparky 3]

Not a bad joke...thanks for the edit.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[LuckyMcSwervy 0]

mjosparky

Not a bad joke...thanks for the edit.

Sparky

Thanks.

Always be kinder than you feel.