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DEL.ICIO.USWhere were you when…
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Where were you when..” (fill in the blank with any historic or momentous event)?
Have you ever been in a conversation and someone asked that question? Growing up the most common event referenced in that conversation between the “adults” was the assassination of then President John F. Kennedy.
Other such events mentioned might be Woodstock, Elvis’ death, Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon and the birth of Woody Bass III. (I’m kidding!)
While most of those events didn’t even happen in my lifetime, I do have a few examples I can share from the last (coughs) years that I believe will be forever burned to memory.
Space Shuttle Challenger - It was 1986, I was in class at Walker Junior High School watching the launch live on TV and saw it explode shortly after take off. I lived in Orlando no more than about 45 minutes from Cape Canaveral at the time.
Operation Desert Storm - I was in class in college and my professor was asked to step out of the room, and about 5 minutes later she came in to inform us that the U.S. had just gone to war in the Middle East. She excused us all and we were invited to the library where TVs had been set up to watch the live news reports.
O. J. Simpson Trial - I was working in Marietta at the time, and quite literally the entire office was crammed into the break room, shoulder to shoulder, and watched as the final verdict was released.
9/11 - I was in the process of packing for a camping trip at Cloudland Canyon State Park and received a call saying that something bad had happened and to turn on the news. It was then I learned that the first commercial airliner had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York City. Shortly after, live on TV over the shoulder of the reporter, I witnessed the second airliner making its way to the Twin Towers.
These events are the sorts of horror you, unfortunately, can never forget. However, the events don’t always have to be a disaster or some other terrible event - they can also be very profound and historic.
This week we will have one such once in a lifetime opportunity to witness history in the making.
In honor of the Inauguration of the United States first African American President, Barack Obama, I thought this would be the perfect time for my readers to share their own stories of life changing events, share where you think you might be during the inauguration and discuss how this may (or may not) be another such life changing event.
So,“Where were you when…”
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By BW
January 19, 2009 1:31 PM | Link to this
The assassination of President John F. Kennedy, at school, sent home early, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and MLK, at work. Woodstock, well I was at Woodstock. Nixon quiting, sitting at a bar in the Adirondack Mountains and the place was laughing at the Nixon comedy. The Space Shuttle Challenger, at work watching it on television, sad.
9/11, just returned late the night before from a trip to the N.C. coast, I was sleeping in when my wife woke me saying “Something hit the World Trade Center”. I seen the second plane hit and told this isn’t somekind of freak accident, we’re being attacked. Sadly I knew a few of my fellow Brothers.
With the Inauguration of Obama tomorrow, it brings be back to the 2000 Bush election, funny it all hung on his brothers state. Then Bush running to the Supreme Court against our Constitution which gives the states full control over elections. Since it was over such a period, most of the time I spent in the bathroom puking.
By LT5000
January 19, 2009 4:25 PM | Link to this
Where were you when..
Woody posted his latest insipid blog.
Here, watching the AJC die a slow painful death as it allowed third rate hacks, like Badie and Bass, to post idiotic blog after idiotic blog that overlooked the truly pressing issues of Gwinnett County.
*This past Monday, AJC staffers were informed about the sudden “retirement” of their boss, publisher John Mellott. Perhaps the first question that popped into everyone’s mind was, Who retires at 51? *
*On Wednesday, during the newspaper’s quarterly staff meeting, employees got to meet the new publisher, one Doug Franklin, who has years of experience as a veteran newspaper executive. (Mellott, by contrast, had previously run another Cox subsidiary, Dent Wizard.) *
*They were told that the bottom had fallen out of the embattled paper’s revenues sometime around October, which served to confirm the widely held suspicion that Mellott had been pushed out. *
*Franklin also told the assembled crowd that the AJC is currently losing about $1 million every week. *
http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/freshloaf/2009/01/15/ajc-is-losing-1-million-a-week/
LT5000
By DB
January 19, 2009 11:28 PM | Link to this
Kennedy Assassination: In 1st grade, on the way the the babysitter’s house for our Friday half-day lunch. Babysitter was sobbing at the kitchen table. Watched the news for a while, then went out to play. Annoyed on Saturday that the cartoons were pre-empted. Parents drove me to D.C. for the lying in state — in line for seven hours in the cold on Sunday, and I still remember climbing the steps to the Capitol and looking back and seeing the silent, never-ending lines of mourners stretching down both sides of the Mall.
Nixon Resignation: At my girlfriend’s house, start of my senior year in high school. Just glad that it was over!
Landing on the moon: Brother was 6 weeks old, I was much older, very conscious of the fact that, for me, it would always be a heroic feat, and for him, it would be just a musty history fact.
Challenger: Was at a lunch meeting in Palm Beach, a TV going on in the corner. We were glancing at the launch out out of the corner of our eye while we were talking, and suddenly, the entire restaurant goes silent …
9/11: Talking on the phone with a friend, muted the TV while talking to him. Saw a headline across the bottom of some morning show, turned to CNN, and watched the coverage. Told friend to turn his TV on, and we watched together, commenting for a while — at first, it seemed like a private plane had hit, not an airliner. Then the second plane hit — we both were silent, and I said, “THAT wasn’t an accident.” He said, quietly: “No.” And we hung up. Glued to the TV for the rest of the week.
By Dr. K
January 22, 2009 3:22 PM | Link to this
When the Desert Storm started, I had just returned from work in Cheshire, Connecticut. The two CNN guys were trapped on the top of the Bagdad Hotel broadcasting the war LIVE! We were watching intensely at the sortees. Just then a huge electrical storm was rolling through central Connecticut. Lightning hit a transformer on the street where we lived and knocked out power for 10 blocks. We were FREAKING OUT…thinking that we were under attack. All the people in our apartment complex began to huddle together. There was SHEAR PANIC…then we realized…it was just the storm that knocked out the power-lines. After collectively changing our under britches, we resumed watching the war!!
By What happend to talented bloggers?
January 23, 2009 1:07 PM | Link to this
What happened to the really talented bloggers at the Gwinnett News? All of the women bloggers are gone. How does Bass hang on and others so much more talented and informed are let go? What a shame for the AJC and their readers.
By Mark
January 23, 2009 2:05 PM | Link to this
I remember being at work when the news that LT5000 gave his first b***** to a black priest. He gulped down that black man’s jism like he hadn’t eaten in a week……..