What was your personally most impactful "I remember it clearly" moment?

[Stinky The Clown]

The classic "I remember it clearly" moments are 911, the Challenger, JFK's assassination, Pearl Harbor. But there could just as easily be a lot of personal such moments around lesser events.

What such moment impacted you most deeply?

[donco6]

1. For me: Challenger

I was not long out of college and working in a factory. Everyone shut everything down and watched the little TVs in the corner. It was eerie.

[Chulanowa]

31. It's actually one of my first memories

My mother and godmother had just brought me home from K-mart in Mobile, AL, and we turned on the TV to watch the takeoff and... there it went. I remember being super-excited because mom and Tami were telling me all about people going into space, they'd bought me a toy space shuttle and everything and...

[donco6]

32. Dude, that's horrible.

Did you ever play with that shuttle?

[Chulanowa]

39. Yeah, actually, it became a bath toy

And then my dog ate it.

[Ratty]

99. The reaction to that at Berkeley

I was going to UC Berkeley at the time and that accident made me cry my eyes out. I could not believe it. The next morning more than one person expressed to me how elated they were. The military industrial complex had been hurt bad and that was good news to them. I was beyond disgusted. I want to be fair and stress it wasn't like people were dancing in the streets or anything - most people were as appalled as me. But I often think back to that when I hear how some conservatives become the way they are as a reaction to what they perceive as left wing lunacy. I'm, if anything, more liberal than ever today so I managed to survive my brush with that lunacy. There will always be nutcases on both sides of the divide.

[Brickbat]

2. Do you mean on a historic level? Something others would have heard of? It was when I heard

Wellstone's plane had crashed and he and his wife and everyone else on the plane were dead.

ETA: It personally affected me because we were so involved in politics and union work at that time. I had held the senator up on a union parade float and we gave him a ride home after the parade. He recognized my son and called him by name whenever he saw him at a union rally. I had served as an interpreter for him at a campaign stop, where he gave me a hug and a kiss when he saw me (that was the last time I saw him). I had worked on his first campaign when I was in college, working at the phone bank for someone I had never met. By the time he was dead, he was a friend.

That was the beginning of a long, dark time for us -- both politically and personally. It was devastating for us.

ETA, again: I remember a lot of other historic moments (Watergate hearings interrupting my Sesame Street time, Reagan and the pope getting shot, Challenger, Berlin Wall, USSR voting itself out of existence, 9/11, etc.), but they didn't affect me directly.

[truedelphi]

11. I have to say that your post jogged my heart and my memory about that sad sad

Day.

I have not watched very much on CNN since that day. With Wolf Blitzer running out into the Eveleth MN air field, grabbing the mike away from the local woman reporter, contradicting her report. His insistence was "The bad weather here was the cause of the crash."

I envy you meeting the Senator. I spent a lot of time on the phone with various of his staffers, and found them to be a wonderful group of people: Knowledgeable, friendly, patient, and exceptionally devoted. I have no idea if the main staffer I spoke with was among those who died with him that day.

[Brickbat]

17. I didn't watch much of the coverage -- my mom called me, near tears, said, "I'm so sorry" and I

didn't know what she was talking about. It was terrible.

He surrounded himself with good people, and they all so clearly loved their work. It really felt like a microcosm of what this world could be if everyone were engaged and excited and working for something instead of against each other.

Have you been to the memorial? It's lovely.

[truedelphi]

77. See my response under this one - the response didn't

Go under your remark but under mine. Sorry about that.

[truedelphi]

75. Where is the Memorial Located?

I live on the West Coast, and often my plane stops in Minneapolis. If the Memorial is there, and not in Washington DC, I bet I could arrange flight times so the two of us could check it out.

[Brickbat]

78. It's at the crash site.

There's a walking trail with memorials and a story of Paul and Sheila's work and life. There is a large stone for every person who was on the plane, and people bring stones and branches and beads and candles to leave there. It's beautiful and peaceful. There's a long steel bar that points off into the woods; it follows the plane's last moments. The crash site is about a mile into the woods, I think.

Lemme know if you're ever around -- I like going there. :hi:

[msanthrope]

93. October 18th, 1977. Being a kid and watching Reggie Jackson smash 3 against

the Dodgers....in Yankee Stadium. It was transcendent...

Especially after the boogeyman had been caught---that fucker, Davey Berkowitz.

I still remember that perp walk, that disgustingly hot summer, and that SERIES with crystal clarity.

[SharonAnn]

94. Nixon resigning, Moon landing, MLK assasination, Kent State killlings,

U.S. troops sent to Little Rock to desegregate the high school.

Guess I'm showing my age.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. Much the same. Challenger, Berlin Wall, 911

and the all nighter in the office on 12/31/1999 (worked for a mainframe COBOL shop).

Too young to remember Kent State.

[XemaSab]

4. I remember VIVIDLY

Challenger, 911, and the 1989 earthquake.

Being there in person for the quake helped immeasurably with the vividness of THAT memory.

[Still Sensible]

5. JFK. n/t

[Mojeoux]

6. Kennedy's assassination.

They let us out of school and I remember the toughest meanest teacher at my Jr.High was crying.

[DJ13]

7. Watching a 17 yr old get gunned down by a gang member right in front of me

I still have nightmares from that.

[Odin2005]

58. OMG, that's awful!

:(

[Skittles]

8. when three astronauts died on launchpad

I was a kid and that space stuff was exciting - had not quite learned how dangerous it was until then

[Morning Dew]

15. You bet. - Grissom, White and Chaffee

sad day indeed.

[Skittles]

23. in the seventies I was in the Air Force

I was preparing a dependent ID for a widow - had to scan a copy of the death certificate - cause of death: "asphyxiation on Apollo" - it was Grissom's widow

[Morning Dew]

25. Oh, man.

There was a documentary I saw a while back that interviewed the widows - strong ladies, all of them.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

97. I knew a court reporter in Houston named Marilyn See.

She was the widow of Elliot See, who crashed a T-38 into the McDonnell facility, misjudging his approach. He is considered one of the original astronauts, due to be on Gemini 9, although he was not one of the Mercury Seven.

I met her years later. Nice lady.

[Art_from_Ark]

73. That space stuff was indeed, exciting.

One of the first non-cartoon TV shows I remember watching was Lost in Space. For a while, someone (a breakfast cereal, perhaps) was giving away solar system maps (I LOVED those) and for a brief time, Malt-O-Meal was giving away "Saturn V rockets" that were "launched" with a rubber band. And my brother had some really neat rocket set that where the hard plastic rocket was launched by filling it up to a point with water, then pumping it with enough air to give it sufficient pressure to launch. And I'll never forget the Christmas Eve 1968 message from the Apollo 8 astronauts, or the July 1969 moon landing. Very exciting times for a kid, indeed.

[Bluebear]

9. Detroit riots, Munich Olympics, Challenger, Tiananmin Square, 2000 Selection, 9/11

[Autumn Colors]

10. John Lennon being killed (nt)

[deutsey]

49. Me too

I was in 11th grade and usually had to be reminded several times that I had to get out of bed or I'd be late for school.

That morning, however, I woke up at 4 or 5 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep, so I turned on the radio next to my bed and found "A Day in the Life" while searching the dial. It's one of my favorite songs, so I just lay there in the dark with my eyes closed enjoying the music. At the end, during the long fade-out after the final chords thundered, the DJ somberly said: "John Lennon. Dead at age 40."

I was in shock, even more so when I learned of the violent end to his life. I spent the rest of the day at school in something of a daze. I remember I wrote a poem about Lennon that day that was published in the school newspaper.

[msanthrope]

91. I was woken up by my mother crying. It spread through NYC so fast--within minutes

the local news, the local tv and radio stations had coverage....I remember that night.

[Art_from_Ark]

12. Besides those events you mentioned

(and I remember all of them except Pearl Harbor), I remember when I first became environmentally aware. Although I remember hearing about the Santa Barbara oil spill, and I remember one of the major news networks showing a clip of kids singing "Oil Drops Keep Falling on My Head" to mark the first Earth Day in 1970, I wasn't really sure what it was all about until about a year later, when my class was shown a video about pollution, narrated by Lorne Greene ("Ben Cartwright"), who talked about "blood (from a meatpacking plant)... flowing into the Missouri River" as the video showed a drainpipe spewing gunk into the river. That really struck a chord with me. That could have been around the same time as the "crying Indian" public service announcement on TV, which also had an impact on me.

[XemaSab]

41. Flying over the oil spill from Exxon Valdez was also memorable

I was 12, and I remember the water being rainbow colored (like an oil sheen in a parking lot) for miles and miles under the plane. :(

[Art_from_Ark]

44. I took a trip to Prince William Sound about 4 years after the spill

and there were still oily places. I got my hand covered with black gunk. Yuck.

[Bluenorthwest]

59. That crying man, his name was Iron Eyes Cody

just fyi

[Art_from_Ark]

68. Iron Eyes Cody

Now I know.

Would you happen to know where that commercial was filmed? I heard it was in Ohio somewhere.

[DefenseLawyer]

13. I remember that weird scene on Election Night 2004

When W summoned the press up to the residence and all the Bushes were sitting on some big awful modular couch. And Bush said he just wanted to tell everyone he was going to win. Right after that bizarre scene, the press started saying "We're hearing from the Bush camp that they think some of the exit polling is wrong..." I remember at the beginning thinking is was just weird and by the end I knew the fix was in.

[Morning Dew]

14. I distinctly remember the days after the Kennedy assassination

but the day is not distinct for me... I was 6.

The moon landing was memorable and had such a feeling of wonder for me. Lots of hope for our future there.

Kent State was a big one as well.

I remember the Nixon resignation - that gave me some hope.

Challenger, of course.

John Lennon's murder affected me a lot.

Protesting the First Gulf War on a cold night.

I can still summon the gut punch I felt when I learned Jerry Garcia died.

9/11 - remember it as if it was yesterday.

The Obama election - Big Woo Hoo !

[XemaSab]

42. I know which TREE I was standing next to when I heard Jerry died

:P

[conscious evolution]

48. "The Dead on Armed Forces Radio Europe?"

"WTH!?"
Five minutes later a friend called from the States with the news.

Touch of Gray

[Morning Dew]

53. In a way, I don't know that I've completely recovered.. funny, ain't that?

With current events, I keep hearing:

"I see the Gulf Of Mexico, as tiny as a tear..."

[Initech]

16. The days up to and after the supreme court Bush V. Gore decision.

[Terra Alta]

18. Columbine

I was a senior in high school at the time, and it really hit home for me.

[nevergiveup]

19. The Cuban Missle Crisis 1962

I was just a kid and I thought we were all going to die.

[Raine]

46. Me too, I was a really little kid but

I had nightmares even though I really didn't have a clue as to what it was about. To this day I can remember the nightmares in detail and feel the fear again. :-(

[tabatha]

20. JFK, Mandela's election, 911, Lucky Dube's death, Obama win.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

21. JFK

[HipChick]

22. Princess Di Death..Flight being delayed, I didn't make it to someone dying

to say goodbye:cry:

[DefenseLawyer]

27. Were those connected?

Or just happened on the same day? I don't remember her death delaying flights, but then that is obviously not one of my most vivid memories.

[CoffeeCat]

24. Election night 2000...

My husband had gone to bed. He couldn't wait it out. I had my charts, paper
and pen--and I was adding up the electoral votes and crossing off states. Florida
was called for Gore. I peaked in to our bedroom and told my husband that Gore had
won. He smiled and went back to sleep.

I went back out to the television...and we all know what happened after that. Mayhem,
confusion and utter despair. I stayed up for hours. My first child was nine months
old and I was so scared for her future. I was literally shocked and so upset--to have
Florida called for Bush.

I crawled back into bed and told my husband that Bush won. He didn't believe me until he
awoke the next morning.

I knew that election would be pivotal. I knew nothing would ever be the same.

[tabatha]

26. Yup, everything has gone downhill since then.

[Ramulux]

29. So glad I was only 11

I dont think I would have been able to handle that whole clusterfuck. That moment just destroyed so many peoples faith in our political system and took a lot of people out of the process. I still meet people who literally stopped caring after that election.

[donco6]

28. I have to add 911 as well.

I think I read the question as the FIRST "I remember it clearly moment," and that was Challenger.

But 911 is also indelibly etched.

I remember the color of shirt I was putting on when I turned on the TV.

[EFerrari]

30. My first one is the day Castro rolled into Havana.

I remember my family sitting around the table listening to the radio. And my take away was that it was important to listen to what was happening in the Big Outside because it mattered to my whole family. I was three and a half.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

33. Chenobyl

[madamesilverspurs]

34. JFK, MLK, RFK -- the end of my youth.

Nixon resignation, Iranian hostage situation, Challenger, 2000 election, 9-11.

Have to mention Nov.4th 2008 -- being in that room filled with people who had worked and called and knocked and walked and registered voters and drove voters to polls and delivered yard signs and answered phones and campaigned and campaigned and campaigned, being in that room when it erupted in cheers and tears of joy, joining those who quite literally danced out into the street as we laughed and hugged and ran back inside to stare at the TVs to make sure that we'd heard correctly that Barack Obama had been resoundingly elected -- a day and hour indelibly imprinted in memory.

And then holding our breath until January 20th 2009, until we heard him say "...so help me God" and then we all cried and cheered and danced again. Still makes me smile.


-

[HughMoran]

35. I well up reading the first 3

I was only 2 when JFK was assassinated, yet I well up whenever I think about it. Uggh.

[Lex]

36. Nixon resigning is my first clear memory of a political/historic act.

Also, my dad made me watch the first man to walk on the moon, but I was barely 4 years old, so I didn't really know what I was watching, but I remember watching it nonetheless.

[Dawson Leery]

37. The 2000 Election.

[proteus_lives]

38. 911, invasion of Iraq, fall of the Berlin wall.

[flvegan]

40. Mine's far more personal. First dog I ever stole.

That liberation impacted my life, future and decisions more than I think any other event.

[XemaSab]

43. .

:patriot:

[pnwmom]

45. I will never forget walking into the family room at about 7 in the morning

and seeing -- on our TV -- one of the towers coming down; thinking that this couldn't be real, until I realized it was; having my eight year old come up behind me and ask what was going on.

I'll never forget that day for the rest of my life.

[Dr Morbius]

47. I've thought about this.

I think the thing which enables us to remember is emotion. The things we remember most, we also can remember how we felt at the time. Strong emotions, emotions like pride or embarrassment or anguish, trace pathways through our brains so we can remember the event. If you recall 9/11, it's probably because like me, you were shocked to the core. This CAN, and did, happen here. If you recall Lennon's assassination, you felt the loss of a part of your life. Lennon was a spokesman for his generation. And so on, to the things in our personal lives. What do we recall best? Those things which had the greatest emotional impact.

I tell you this: find a sensitive person, and you've found someone with a good memory. 'Tis it not the truth?

[lunatica]

50. The first time I saw George Bush on the TV

He already had 40 million dollars and was suddenly there with backing from the likes of his father's supporters. I remember the first smirk I saw, accompanied with the strut and then the fucking ridiculous grammar and syntax. I remember knowing down to my bones that this man was going to destroy our country. Whatever it was that hit me it was certainly prescient.

I've had all the other moments too, but even the worst, like Kennedy being shot didn't elicit the images of Bush's legacy. And they've all come to pass. Maybe even the coup one.

[Obamanaut]

51. Personal, not historic. Watching Ms O sail over the handlebars

of her motorscooter and hit the pavement headfirst, then not move.

She was badly damaged, but in the nearly four years since has recovered to about 90%.

The recovery process made us appreciate one another more, much more. Made us realize how circumstances can change in a moment. Gave us an opportunity to learn the strength of our two grown daughters.

[Toots]

52. May 19th 1968

My company came under heavy enemy attack by NVA regulars. We were humping the boonies about a half click from the DMZ. While I try to forget, it just doesn't go away.

[Brickbat]

67. You're in my thoughts.

[Odin2005]

54. Historic: 9/11 Personal: stepdad's death, friend telling me she'd been raped.

I still remember the footage of people jumping to their deaths. :cry:

Personal: A tie between my stepdad dying in the hospital from Pancreatitis and my friend with cerebral palsy telling me that she had been raped. :(

[zipplewrath]

55. Kent State

Probably because of my age, but it was the first "political" event that I "understood". And the "depth" is measured not by the moment, but the longevity.

On a more "personal" level, our communities movement into "busing" of kids to balance out the racial segregation wasn't an "event" but it continually exposed me to the severe biases of my neighbors and members of my church that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. It has left me with a life long "suspicion" of my communities, of what is bubbling just under the surface.

[GreenEyedLefty]

56. The hostages in Iran

That was the first time something on the news impacted me.

I'd have to say the most impactful thing was 9/11. For a while afterward I thought we'd be different as a country until that scoundrel Bush told us to carry on as usual. I viscerally hated him after that.

[cbdo2007]

57. Probably when Gary Coleman died because it was so recent.

I can remember Friday very, very clearly.

Beyond that most things besides 9/11 are a blur but there are many things that take me back. Like I was out of town when Obama was elected President but I found a brochure from the vacation home we were staying at the other day and it took me back to that day and I could remember very very specific things about it, like meals that I ate and things my wife and I talked about. So things have to trigger the more vivid memories but nothing stands out like 9/11 for me.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

60. The Challenger explosion.

Why?

I witnessed it live. I was 5 years old at the time and my family was vacationing in Florida.

[11 Bravo]

61. Eighth grade, Mrs. Harris's English class, November 22, 1963 ...

Our principal came on the intercom and told us that the President had been shot. A few minutes later my Dad picked me up at school for a dentist's appointment. He was driving a Triumph Spitfire 4 that did not have a radio, and had not heard the news until I told him. We raced to the dentist where we learned that JFK had died. What I mostly remember is that the dentist said he was too upset to work on me, and I was glad, because I hated going to the dentist. The other thing I remember from that weekend is the bugler missing a note as he played Taps for the fallen President. That was when my mom started sobbing.

[unhappycamper]

62. 1/31/1968 - the Tet offensive

At the time I was stationed on the Chu Lai airbase. Our company was living in tents next to the wire.

Around 0000~0030 we started taking incoming 122mm rockets. We could hear them coming over our heads and landing in the rear of our position.

That afternoon a convoy of 18 S&Ps loaded with 500 lb. bombs got in too late to disperse, so the wizards in charge parked them all in the air base ammo dump. As luck would have it a 122mm rocket landing right in the middle of that gaggle. A rather large boom was heard and the sky lit up. A gigantic mushroom cloud rose from the airbase. For a moment I thought Uncle Ho used a nuke.

The force of the explosion tossed an F-4 Phantom thru a nearby hanger.

China Beach was blacked as far as the eye could see.

I didn't piss my pants, but I can damn close.

[Maru Kitteh]

63. 9/11

[Skidmore]

64. Sitting in a basement holding a frightened toddler with a 6 year old huddled close to

me, listening to air raid sirens, and listening to missiles explode. It was the moment I understood the feeling of complete and utter hopelessness and what it means to be at the whim of nations and their leaders besot with power. It was also the moment at which I understood with clarity that there were millions like me all over the world who felt that same lack of control and that their desparation protect their loved ones were met with indifference by faceless peoples caught up in their own vanities.

[pipi_k]

65. What can be more deeply felt than the death of a child...

I was 22, just a child myself.

My third child was 3 months old. I went to get her up one morning and found that she had died of SIDs during the night.

I never have, and never will, forget that day, even though it was 35 years ago.

[Skidmore]

66. Oh, so sorry for such a deep loss for you. I watched my brother

and his wife struggle with their daughter's death from SIDS about that long ago. I remember how fearful I was for their mental health for some time afterwards. Their marriage fell apart eventually and it was directly attributable to that shattering loss for them. I can appreciate the pain you describe.

[Stinky The Clown]

80. ..

:hug:

[Populist_Prole]

69. Very interesting stories here

Sounds cliche and "me too" but 9-11 really did rock me.

Even more ground swelling to me in terms of long term effects though was the passage of NAFTA in late '93. My apologies if it sounds crass.

I had been following the issue intently and it felt like a sucker-punch. Right then I know that their ability to railroad that through despite massive popular dissent would be a watershed and that the citizens of this country would never again have the ability guide the direction of policy. It would be the elite's bellwether.

[Romulox]

70. 9/11, live on TV. Also Challenger... nt

[Mad_Dem_X]

71. 9/11, and two deaths - one person I knew and one I didn't

I remember when I found out my cousin had committed suicide. My sister and I were visiting our parents. I had gone out into the kitchen to get something to drink, when my mother said that they had "devastating news" to tell us. She'd never, ever used that word before, so I knew it was really bad. I thought someone in our family had gotten murdered. When Mom and Dad told us that our cousin had taken his own life, I was in shock for a long time.

The other death was that of Heath Ledger. I was coming home from work and heard it on the radio. Then I got home and read about it on the internet. Long story short, I lost my mind for a little while after that.

ETA: 9/11, I was in Cleveland with my sister and my husband. We were getting ready to leave the hotel, and I just happened to turn the TV on...

[ensho]

72. when poppy/neo cons murdered John Kennedy

and that day americans went on living as if

[hunter]

74. I couldn't take any more of my girlfriend's crap, so I jumped out of her car.

Unfortunately it was moving.

I lost some skin and blood, but by some twisted good fortune I didn't break anything.

That was a long time ago, back when Ronald Reagan was president.

When Ronald Reagan was elected I remember thinking all too clearly how it was going to be a disaster.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

76. The Cuban missile crisis

I remember how frightened my parents were, and how we watched the Special Reports on our old B&w tv, me knowing but not quite understanding why America was about to be destroyed in an atomic war.

I was seven years old at the time. I had nightmares about mushroom clouds for several years.

[StarlightGold]

79. The Princess of Wales

being killed in a car wreck. 9/11.

[pinboy3niner]

81. Jan. 29, 1970

The day Joe Rufty got hit by machine gun fire and was down with a sucking chest wound nearby, and ground fire was too intense for the Medevac chopper to get in.

I had 36 men in my Infantry platoon, and they volunteered--unanimously--to rappel into the firefight in what certainly would have been a suicidal attempt to take the pressure off so Joe could be extracted. HQ turned us down, and we couldn't have saved Joe anyway.

Years later I was at a party in Westwood, CA when I heard, from behind me, the sound of a laugh box--a novelty toy that plays taped laughter when its button is pushed. Suddenly, tears were pouring down my face, and I didn't know why. It scared the hell out of me.

It wasn't until I went into the bathroom to wash my face (and hide) that it came back to me. On Christmas day, 1969, we were on a hill out in the jungle when the resupply chopper dropped off a package from home for Joe. In the package were a bottle of whiskey, some chocolate chip cookies Joe's wife had baked-- and a laugh box.

Joe shared the cookies, and the whiskey--making sure everybody got a taste, but only a taste--in case we got some action. As we played cards on that jungle hilltop, every so often someone would hit the button on the laugh box, and we'd all crack up.

Christmas was otherwise uneventful, though we had numerous engagements in the following weeks. During that time, Joe and I had to coordinate by radio, and he would often activate the laugh box over the radio, giving all of us a laugh and a brief respite from the war.

The laugh box, the selflessness of those good, good men I was privileged to serve with, and being so close by yet unable to help Joe (when I knew he would have been there for me if I was down), combined to make Joe's loss more impactful for me than the day I was wounded nine days after Joe died.

It only added to that impact when I found Joe's family 20 years later--and learned he'd been named after an uncle who was KIA at Anzio in WWII.


Joe Hearne Rufty
Panel 14W, Line 80


(ETA additional laugh box detail)

[localroger]

82. Katrina

We didn't even lose our home; we were evacuated in Knoxville, TN at my father in law's place. But watching the TV images pour in and being told, no, you can't go home yet. What do you mean I can't go home? The storm's passed. But no, we couldn't go home. And when I did go home, earlier than most because I work for a critical industrial contractor, I found out why. I never thought I would see anything like that in the USA.

[Initech]

83. April 26th, 1992 - the LA riots.

[closeupready]

84. Three Mile Island - China Syndrome had just been released, I had the mumps, and was

home sick, sweating my guts out, and was afraid the whole country was going to be contaminated.

[Rex]

85. The Theft Of Our Presidential Election 2000 & 2004.

I knew once those happened, we were doomed for failure. Hellbound in leather.

[cameozalaznick]

86. The televised Watergate hearings...

They helped me form an early opinion that Republicans are all a bunch of liars.

[gleaner]

87. I would have to say this oil spill on a big scale ....

Having seen the results of much smaller oil spills when I was a kid here in California, just the sheer scope of this, its ability to destroy so many ecosystems at once and the complete impotence we have in dealing with something so massive makes it seem overwhelming and endless.

My smaller and much more personal moment was the loss of the first friend I had who died in Viet Nam. He had enlisted in the Marines and when he got there and saw what the war was about he deeply regretted having gone. But he felt that he had to finish his tour of duty so that he would not "dishonor" his family and his country. He was 18 years old. His family had recently immigrated from Mexico and he was one of the children who was born here, so he felt he had a lot to prove because of the overt racism hr and his family had to face. He was bright and optimistic and he could have had a wonderful future. The last time I saw him he was on furlough and he came home to see his family and his friends. He told me how bad it was in Viet Nam without going into too many details. I suggested that he go to the Quakers and leave the US. He didn't think that was an option. I held his hand and just listened after that until he was talked out. I hugged him goodbye the day before he had to go back. I'll miss him forever, and I will always wonder what he would have done with his life if it had not been for Viet Nam. His family was nearly destroyed by his death. They had never wanted him to enlist in the first place. What he thought was the best thing he could do for them was their worst nightmare.

[bettyellen]

88. when i found out my two sisters were dead. before that i had been told they were in a car accidnet

soI had been imagining them i wheel chairs or hospital beads- way banged up. but they were lying to us, they were DOA, a drunk driver when they were crossing the street. they were just waiting for my parents to come back from the hospital and a priest to help them break it to us. they were teenagers, I was eights years old my brothers 10 1nd 12.

[pinboy3niner]

89. I'm so sorry for your loss

I've experienced trauma in my life, but I can't imagine what it's like to have to deal with such tragedy as a child.

A parallel that comes to mind involves children who lost an older sibling in Vietnam. I've listened to many of them tell the same story: at the time of the loss, well-meaning people focused attention and support on the parents, and the grief of the siblings went largely unrecognized and unvalidated.

I hope that wasn't your experience, and that you've found a way to come to terms with your loss--though I know it will always be with you. My deepest condolences.

Love & Peace,
pinboy3niner

[AsahinaKimi]

90. San Francisco Earthquake 1989

I was smack in the middle of it.

[Carolina]

92. JFK's assassination

[IDemo]

95. Two near the same moment in my life, personal and historical

The first was the death of my father when I was just shy of my twelfth birthday. He and several of his co-workers died in the crash of a B-25 bomber near L.A. They were all electronics engineers in the aerospace industry.

Two months later, I was at a summer camp for diabetic youth courtesy of UCLA. We returned from a rainy horseback ride and one of the counselors (UCLA students) burst out of the cafeteria shouting "They landed! They landed!" The clouds cleared that night and the moon was in full, glorious view. I remember being torn between the terrific realization that Neil Armstrong and company were within that view, and sorrow that Dad hadn't survived to see it.

[pinboy3niner]

96. Wrong thread

How did THAT happen????

[WCGreen]

98. The Cuban missile Crisis...

Because JKK's speech about the crisis came on right as we were getting ready eat my 5th birthday cake...

[n2doc]

100. Challenger, Iraq war start, Columbia

I remember the start of the war because I was in an airport, having just landed, and all the screens were showing "Shock and Awe". I just remember feeling like the life had been drained out of me.

The second shuttle accident, I was out walking with my son when my wife came driving up and had us get in, as the accident had happened literally over our heads and there were warnings about being hit by debris.

[Subdivisions]

101. The moment I watched the second tower collapse on 9/11 and realized both

towers were brought down by some sort of controlled demolition. The second most memorable moment was watching WTC 7 come down later in the day and realizing it, too, was brought down by design. Before that, it was most definately Challenger.