Where were you moments

[Non_Comformist]

I was thinking lately about moments in history that I can recall exactly where I was

#1. When Magic announced he had HIV. I was on the bus on the way home from middle school, He was my all time favorite player on my favorite team. I was devastated.

#2. The OJ verdict. I was in the Army serving in Korea. MY roommate and I woke up at 3:00AM to watch it live. I still remember the feeling of tension and excitment waiting. It came he was innocent, we were stunned. A roar was heard through the barracks, we weren't the only ones up. Then we went back to bed to try to get some sleep before PT.

[jdl22]

Sounds like you're a few years older than me. Here are the first few that come to mind:

1. September 11. I was in a summer Economics math prep course at the University of Oregon (GO DUCKS!!!). Just before it started a guy I knew in the class from Hong Kong told me what happened. He basically said "Two planes ran into the World Trade Center and the buildings got knocked down." Despite this guys fluency in English I simply could not and did not believe what he was telling me. After the first hour of the class we got a break and I went to the bookstore to see the footage and get that feeling in the pit of my stomach that we all had.

2. OJ verdict. I was in my freshman or sophomore year in high school. We were supposed to go to Social Studies class but our class and a couple others went to a classroom with a tv where they showed the verdict. Then we spent the whole social studies class discussing the verdict.

Sadly that's all I can think of as far as historical events. I think for our generation these are by far the two biggest events. I'm a little too young for things like the Berlin wall coming down and Reagan getting shot to remember those this specifically.

Here are some sports related memories of mine though:

3. Oregon - Washington 1994: I was in section 12 row 5 seat 17 of Autzen stadium when Kenny Wheaton stepped in front of Damon Huard's pass and ran 99 yards for an Oregon touchdown. Actually I was standing in front of that seat when the play started and was generally running around and jumping up and down in the surrounding area after he made the pick.

these next two you will enjoy more
4. 2000 LA - Portland game 7 of Western Conference finals: I was watching the earlier part of the game from my dorm room. Either at halftime or in the third quarter I walked 2 blocks to my sisters' apartment to watch the rest of the game. Portland proceeded to blow a 15 point (?) lead in the worst quarter any team at any level has ever played in the history of basketball. Portland had a damn good team then and if they had won that game would still probably be one of the 2 or 3 dominant teams in the league and still likely would have Jermaine Oneill.

5. November 1999 Oregon - Oregon State: For the first and last time I watched a football game at the only high school football stadium located on a college campus and named for a frozen burrito company. The weather was awful. My seat was awful. The OSU fans were awful and somehow thought they were good. The announcer a few times during the game said over the loudspeaker "twelth man time!" come on buddy everyone screaming their heads off in that stadium isn't going to generate enough noise to do anything. Worst of all Joey was awful. I think his leading receiver was wearing a black jersey. It was a horrible, miserable experience that I will never forget.

6. Sevilla qualifies for UEFA cup: Sadly I was sitting alone in my apartment listening to a broadcast of the game over the internet. It was very exciting Sevilla had to win and have Villarreal not win in order to qualify. Villarreal were getting crushed but Sevilla didn't manage to score by halftime. In the 55th minute Julio Cesar Baptista scored a goal which had me jumping up and down and screaming (keep in mind I was in my apartment alone). Things got close near the end and I continued to jump up and down and swing my Sevilla scarf over my head. It was sad and amazing at the same time.

[Non_Comformist]

I can't believe I left out 9/11

I was getting ready for class (Go OSU)in my living room when I turned on the TV. I didn't see the planes hit but watched as both towers came down and I called my dad.

I remember watching the Bush- Gore election results, staying up until 3:00AM when Bush was finally announced as the winner. Going to bed and then waking up to find out nothing had been decided.

[tyfromm]

I remember the moment I discovered that Greg Raymer won the WSOP. I woke up that morning, logged into the 2+2 forums, and BAM.... there it was posted on a thread. Still gives me goosebumps.

[SossMan]

[ QUOTE ]
I remember the moment I discovered that Greg Raymer won the WSOP. I woke up that morning, logged into the 2+2 forums, and BAM.... there it was posted on a thread. Still gives me goosebumps.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's funny, I was in Spain, and the internet costs about 3 euros for 15 min. So, my girlfried is sitting the checking email, chatting w/ friends, and I'm like, goddammit, don't you know the WSOP results are up??? Actually, I just sat there like a little bitch until she was done. I was stunned when i saw greg won.

[Rushmore]

In addition to those mentioned:

--When John Lennon died (Frank Gifford told me).

--When Kurt Cobain died (Kurt Loder told me).

--When the space shuttle blew up (I was sitting at Houlihan's in Friendship Heights, DC, drinking a gin and tonic; I saw it happen live on TV).

9/11 is, of course, the Big One. That was the moment the world changed, and watching it live on TV was fairly terrifying and disgusting and devastating. This is not something one shakes off easily.

[juanez]

In no particular order...

Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion: 8th grade science class, watched that live.

Space Shuttle Columbia Explosion: sitting at my computer working away. Wierd thing...I couldn't sleep that night and was up at like 4:00 AM MST, so decided to get some work done and put Fox News on. Saw that live too.

OJ Verdict: sitting in rush hour traffic, stopped in swealtering heat, heard it on the radio. It was pretty funny to see the reactions of the folks in the cars around me.

Spetember 11: I just got a cup of coffee and was beginning to paint my girlfriends basement. I turned on the local FM rock station for some tunes and heard what sounded like AM news. After 30 seconds, I dropped the paintbrush and was running upstairs to the TV. I'm originally from NY and that day was the worst of my entire life. I actually saw the second plane hit and then watched both towers fall live on TV....I still get all tense thinking about those poor souls jumping.....very, very sad.

[John Cole]

You're serious about the Magic Johnson HIV announcement when you call it a "moment in history"?

PS. Don't mind me, I'm being irrascible right now. The sports cliches warped my mind.

[M2d]

Being from hawaii, I have a little different take on these moments than many people. Lenin shot, Reagan shot, Space Shuttle blown up (take one)...I woke up to all of these, and a sad (ish) face on my dad as he told me the events of the "night" before.

magic announicing was a big one for this laker fan. I skipped class and watched the press conference. Gore-Bush verdict was observed in a business motel in vegas.

The big ones for my life were
Magic (huge laker fan because of Magic)
Lenin (my dad and mom are huge beatle fans)
Space Shuttle (for kids in Hawaii, this was the tragedy of a lifetime. Hawaii's first astronaut was on that ship).

Oddly, I can't quite recall where I was when I first got confirmation that Milli Vanilli didn't really sing.

[daryn]

strange... magic came onto your school bus to announce he had aids?

[youtalkfunny]

I was dealing in a 1-5 stud game one night. Every player at the table was at least 3-times as old as me.

They were having this same discussion. It prominently featured JFK and Pearl Harbor.

[Duke]

9/11 - I was sleeping, and was woken up by a call from my then girlfriend asking if I was OK. After some discussion I figured out what she meant, and I put the TV on in time to see tower #2 get hit. I then explained that Las Vegas was rather far from New York.

'86 Challenger - I was in Elementary School, and it was recess. We were all corralled into the media center to watch the videos again and again, as some of the teachers wept. I couldn't stop wondering if that would be the end of the space program. Even at 9 years old I suppose I valued broadening our horizons more than a few lives. I had read Asimov by then, and knew the Zeroeth law of robotics.

Feynman's Death in '88 - I was eating spaghetti and they said it on the news as an afterthought. I was in shock. I never wanted to go to Cal Tech after that. It was a few days before the anniversary of my grandfather's death.

The Night it REALLY Snowed in Vegas - I woke my niece up at 2 in the morning and took her out to build a snowman and have a snowball fight. She may never see that much snow in the back yard again, or any at all for that matter. Most of the kids around here likely slept through it, and only caught the melting remnants in the morning.

~D

[tyfromm]

9/11 - I had a video tape due that day, so I was watching it until 11 am(EDT). Then got in my car to return it to the library (radio not on). Finally at 11:30 I walk inside to see everyone listening to the radio.

My first thoughts about it? It reminded me of Augustus and his reaction to the loss of 2 Roman Legions north of the Danube. For years after that he would ask people "Were are my Legions?". To me, 9/11 was a historical event from the first moment it happened, and it didn't affect me much because shocking tragedies happens every so many years.

In a real sense, 9/11 struck me as a "so what?" moment. Hey 10,000 Americans die everyday. One day with a 13,000 person death toll instead of the normal 10,000 is not that significant.

Everyone I've told this to seems to think I must be a borderline anti-social psychopath, but I think my mindset probably helps my poker play.

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
Everyone I've told this to seems to think I must be a borderline anti-social psychopath, but I think my mindset probably helps my poker play.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think you're that out of line with your thoughts on the matter, but it was sorta a big day in US history. We don't get attacks of that symbolic magnitude very often. Watching the WTC fall was kinda like finding out that your dad really can't beat up everyone else, but for grown-ups.

The biggest result of that event, though, is that Bush has decided to run the following war as a Vietnam #2. By that I mean that the current goals are ill-defined, the presence is unwelcome and tense, and though the bodycount is lower than that of Vietnam, a bodycount of anything greater than 0 is unacceptable for the current "operation." "Terror" is the new "communism." At least in my opinion.

So yeah - as far as the body count of 9/11, well, yeah it's not much of a smudge in the big picture. But as a defining period in our nation's history it's a big deal.

Off-topic (though tangentially related) commentary:

When are we going to stop playing gunslinger to the world, and instead just hang back and mind our own business? It'll earn us a few fewer friends, but I think the enemies that we've earned through our policies are insanely dangerous (dangerous and insane, not intended as a modifier on dangerous) enough to cancel out any sunny day friends we have earned.

~D

[tyfromm]

[ QUOTE ]
as far as the body count of 9/11, well, yeah it's not much of a smudge in the big picture.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well the body count of the Afgan and Iraq wars don't amount to much either (compared to the 10,000 a day death rate in the US)

[BeerMoney]

I know this isn't as serious as the earlier ones mentioned, but what about when USA Mark McGwire broke the HR record?

[SlyAK]

[ QUOTE ]
When are we going to stop playing gunslinger to the world, and instead just hang back and mind our own business? It'll earn us a few fewer friends, but I think the enemies that we've earned through our policies are insanely dangerous (dangerous and insane, not intended as a modifier on dangerous) enough to cancel out any sunny day friends we have earned.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree w/u Duke. This is the idea behind the 'Monroe Doctrine' if I remember correctly from my history classes. A mind our own business policy. I am all for strong DEFENSE, like missile defense etc. Some of our offensive moves seem a bit extreme however.

Sly

[Wyrm2]

On 9/11 I was in my first week of teaching high school and we heard the news over the loudspeakers. I don't remember a whole lot except for trying to get through to home because my father is a consultant who occasionally worked in WTC. (Thankfully not that day).

For the first shuttle explosion I was taking my 10th grade English midterm in Ms. Barrett's class (funny how much I remember or think I do about that test).

From these two memories, I suspect I spend too much time in school /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[adios]

1. Kennedy Assassanation

I was in junior high and some loud mouth girl was screaming that the president had been killed in the halls while classes were changing. I couldn't believe it and told a friend of mine that the screwy girl was spouting off again. Then it was announced over the loudspeaker and we were sent home for the day. My dad was waiting for us when we got home as he left work early himself since he was worried about a possible nuclear war (he didn't tell us that at the time). He was worried that the Soviets had engineered the assassanation. No joke, times were like that back then.


2. 9/11 - I was watching CNBC and they showed the first Trade tower right after is was hit. I saw the second plane hit the other tower live. Sad day, made me outrageously angry about it. I basically still am.

[CORed]

9/11: I was listening to my radio on the way to work when I heard that the second tower had been hit. I was at home when I heard that the first tower had been hit, and thought, "What a terrible accident. How could that have happened?" When I heard about the second impact, I realized that it was not an accident. Of course, it just got worse from there: The Pentagon was hit, the towers collapsed, etc.

[nolanfan34]

9-11: My wife woke me up as she had turned on the Today show. We're west coasters, so I saw the second plane fly into the tower, and the towers collapse as well.

I was working in TV news at the time, and in the typical cynicism of a local news reporter, my first thoughts were that the day was going to suck because of all of the local tie-ins the management would be trying to dream up, that we'd have to go cover. Part of the reason I got out of that business, makes you lose your soul after a while, covering tragedy, after car crash, after fire, after murder.

And where was I for Nolan Ryan's last MLB pitch? Sitting behind home plate, in the 300 level of the Kingdome. He didn't get out of the first inning, which was capped off by a Dann Howitt grand slam. I knew in my heart something was wrong when he came out. Turned out he hurt his arm and never pitched again. I still have my ticket stub.

On a happier note, I'm glad I can remember things like the first time I saw my wife (fall 1997, Studio A in the Edward R. Murrow building, at Washington State U.), my first eagle in golf (summer 1997, Falcon's Fire golf course in Orlando, hole #4), and the Cougs beating the Huskies to go to the Rose Bowl (Husky Stadium, Nov 1997, taping highlights on the sideline).

[cold_cash]

.

[paland]

When I first heard that the Huns were invading the empire, I was sitting in a vomitorium. The feast had been too much and I had to let loose. We were all just celebrating after watching several Christians get eaten by some lions at the Collesium. Everyone in Rome was in such a stir. I'll never forget that day.

[mosta]

I also saw all of Sep 11 in real time on CNBC. I was in the office around 5:45 (California market hours), alone. CNBC was fixed on a shot of the twilit tower with a little black slot across the middle up high, giving off a little smoke. They were chatting bemusedly about what might have happened. I pictured a Cesna wedged in between the desks and the acoustic tiles of a single floor with a guy in the cockpit who might even have survived it. It really didn't look big, on the building. I imagined the little plane gently swooping around the tall buildings and then getting blown into the tower by a big gust of wind. It was getting close to the bell and still no one knew much of anything, and I went down to the floor and got in my spot. About five minutes before, they announced the opening bell would be delayed, probably for ten minutes. Still didn't know what was going on. We milled around expecting to get going any time. Another delay and I wandered upstairs to watch from the sofa in the office. That's where I saw the second plane hit. I remember very distinctly the fat guy on CNBC reacting as he saw the same thing and saying (something like), Alright, that's it, I'm going to say it--this is no accident--this is an attack. It was great newscasting, the exact moment the story broke. I called two friends (in CA) just saying, Get up, turn on the TV. I called the front desk on the floor to confirm that we weren't going to open that day. He was rattled, really scared. And I went home and watched the news nonstop for a week.