Does Anyone Remember Where They Where in '63?  By  spandi (Read 786 times)

It was around noon time, and I had just gone home for lunch. Our house was just across the street from the school. I was a freshman in Hi School. My Mom was frantic, and said to be quiet and watch the (B&W Philco)TV .

Yea, I remember it well, as with the moon landing, In technical school at Sheppard AFB Tx.

But, what did I do yesterday?
CRS!!!!!

I was on active duty repairing an AN/SPS-23 surface search radar on the Coast Guard Cutter Tupelo (a harbor tug) in Toledo Harbor, Ohio.

I was 3 years old but still remember seeing it on tv and my mom crying

I wasn't even in my dad's ball sack,
I probably was a carrot, to be eaten by a rabbit, to be pooped out and turn into a shzz/fest for maggots, to be turned into a blade of grass, to be eaten by a cow, which was slaughtered by humans and eaten by my dad.
Somewhere along those lines I must have been around there....

Where was I? Not born yet.

Mom was getting her hair done, and said Dad was in ND pheasant-hunting. She was saddened but wasn't devastated as she wasn't that enamoured with Pres Kennedy. But she was glued to her mom's tv for the next days watching everything.

There was a very interesting show last night on NBC about this.

As for us younger ones, I agree that our equivalents are the Challenger explosion (I was in my dorm-room, my clock radio went silent, then the announcer said "The space shuttle just blew up." I was dressed and down six floors to the tv room in about two minutes) and 9-11 (driving to work and the dj thought it was a small plane that had hit; got to work and learned the magnitude of what happened)

Dave, why is it terrible events stay with us forever, but like you said yest is gone away?

>'Kat

I was in my first grade class when the teacher came back into the room after talking with the principal. I could tell right away something was very wrong; she was visibly upset and had a hard time telling us. In the end she kind of blurted out "our president got shot". Because she was upset it kind of came out a bit garbled and I thought she said he got a shot. I thought that was something odd to tell us and caught us (me anyway) off balance. What is a 7 year old having not been exposed to such a horror before to think about anyway? It later became more clear what was going on. Left me confused and worried.

The shuttle disaster happened on my birthday. I'm a grown man, but I cried..... more than I'd like to admit.... Heartbroken and saddened.

9-11 I was lying in bed and just flipped the TV on to see and hear anguished reporters and then see a smoking hole in one of the towers. Then to see a jet flying in the area. I said "Hey, that plane shouldn't be in the area with a building on fire." Then to my horror, watch it as it made a beeline for the other building and go right into it and fire and debris blast out the other side. My heart hit my stomach with the realization of what just happened. That anguish and horror was compounded with the collapse of the buildings. It was horribly surreal. I was sick with anxiety a good long while afterward. 

Where I live, aircraft make a long final to Oakland/Pontiac Intl. airport over the neighborhood. It was eerily quiet with no planes passing by and only being able to see military jets making contrail circles over the Selfridge Air force base off in the distance. I couldn't fly my ultralight aircraft (Trike) during that time because of the restrictions that were in force. I didn't fly much after that.

Sad events all of them.

Like a lot of us old farts here, it seems our short term memory IS short and long term memory goes back a long way.

A different view on 9-11.

My nephew was about 4 years old. He would ask his folks if he could see the planes break the buildings again. He had no comprehension about what was going on, that there were people both on the planes and inside the buildings. They finally got him to understand if wasn't a funny thing but a very serious and sad thing.

I didn't get home 'til after 10 that night, due to work and afterwards a class 40 miles away. I stayed up 'til 3 watching repeats of all the news reports, and crying.

I also almost got to pay $10/gallon for gas. The sheriff had contacted the AG and the clerk came out and put the price back down. Yes, that station was one found guilty of profiteering and had to pay hundreds in penalties to each person who'd been overcharged. Darn, if that sheriff had only been five minutes slower....

And one more view--I saw a PBS special a year or two later where they talked with the architect who'd designed the Towers. Towards the end he said he could sit at his desk and look out and see the crowning achievement of his career; now he looks out at the emptiness and wonders if he could've done better to prevent the tragedy. I cried for that, too.

>'Kat