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5K views 60 replies 33 participants last post by  gdwriter 
#1 ·
We have a fairly diverse age group ranging from 16-60 so I figured it would be interesting to see what events we remember the most in our lifetime thus far.

If I had to the biggest event I remember, it would have to be the end of the Cold War and the disbanding of the Soviet Union. I remember in '91 when they announced over the loudspeak that the Soviet Union was disbanded and it was no longer a communist nation. We all gathered in the gym and turned on the old tv to see what the news was saying. It was quite the moment, anyone else remember this?

I would say September 11, but this was probably bigger in terms of global impact.

What is the most significant event in your lifetime thus far?
 
#2 ·
September 11, I remember hearing about it and thinking "oh this can't be true" then I saw it on TV in my 3-D design class and I was like "whoa, ok this is worse than Columbine"...those words coming from a 14 year old's mouth, so don't take them too seriously. :)
 
#3 ·
9/11, hands down. I remember it clear as day. I was walking into my 3rd period Earth Science class in 9th grade, and my teacher was just setting up a TV and turning it on. It came on and they were playing re-run after re-run of the first plane. When I first saw it, I thought it was a movie. When the teacher made a point of telling everyone this is real, I just kind of sat there watching...it didn't really click yet. Then I saw the 2nd plane hit the 2nd tower, live, and it all kind of clicked. Bad day.
 
#4 ·
If you're talking world events, there are several, I'll try to keep the list short:

1) MLK assassination. I live in Memphis, I was almost four years old but I remember the curfews and my father working in downtown Memphis. We were worried he wouldn't get out before the riots started. (nobody was surprised when they started)

2) Nixon resignation

3) Hostages taken in Iran.

4) Reagan shot.

5) 9/11

6) Shock & Awe--Three years ago when we bombed Baghdad and they showed it live around lunch time. I'll never forget that or Desert Storm in '91.
 
#6 ·
Definitely September 11. Our principal walked into our biology lab and told the teacher she needed to turn the TV on because there was something we needed to see. What I remember most is not being able to figure out how I should feel or react to any of it, or even whether or not I should believe it in the first place. Nothing else in my life time comes anywhere near that.

I vaguely remember the collapse of the Soviet Union. But I was way too young to understand what the significance was at the time.
 
#12 ·
September 11 was another day that I remember much clearer. I was in college and I was about to head to my 9:30 class when I turned my tv on to watch a litte bit of the Today Show. After a few minutes, they cut the show to broadcast the 9/11 report. I immediately dropped my books on the floor and stared in awe of what was unraveling before my eyes. I sat back down to see more and was watching it for a little while more until the 2nd plane hit. I kept saying that this couldn't be happening, but only a little while longer and I witnessed the fall of the 1st tower. I then uncontrollably started to cry, and watched in horror of the following events. I called my mother and asked her if she was watching the same thing I was, and she sobbed a yes. I watched the 2nd tower fall and then I was in total shock.

It was a day I will never forget.
 
#14 ·
The Day my Father died, September 2nd 1985.
The Day my Mom ded, the 4th of July, 1995.
The day our one & only was born, March 7th 1984 (the only good occasion, here)
and the worst day;
December 1st 1988, when I had to sign my Mom into
a nursing home and sign papers declairing her mentally
incompetant due to Alzheimer's. I cried for 3 hours
straight, and then daily for a month. I am still a wreck
every 4th of July, and stay home & do nothing.

The next will be May 12 2006 when "the baby" graduates college Only 5 more weeks !
 
#15 · (Edited)
Obviously, most people would name the events of 9/11/01 as the 'most memorable', because that's probably the biggest "global", if I may be so bold, event that's happened in recent memory.

In terms of personal events, I'd have to say the birth of my son, and seeing him for the first time just a few minutes after he was delivered, was the single most "memorable" event in my lifetime.

It's odd - I can remember almost exactly what I was doing for many of the most memorable events of the last ...ahem..cough cough...bunch of years..

1991 - I heard about the fall of the Berlin Wall watching the morning TV news while getting dressed for work.

I remember seeing one of the first actual news breaks about Robert Ballard finding the Titanic in 1985.

I remember Live Aid in Philly.

Reagan got shot while I was sitting at my desk in a Real Estate office. It came over the radio.

Nixon resigned while I was working on a factory assembly line.

In terms of external events, and discounting 9/11, I'd have to say it was probably the moon landing oh so late that night back in July, 1969.

Oddly enough, about a month later, I took part in another event aways up in upstate New York, that I have only the dimmest memories off because I didn't think it was gonna be that big of a thing...something about music and peace and love... lol

I also specifically remember the night MLK was shot, I and a few of my friends were at one house working on an 8th grade social studies project for the next day, preparing an Indian meal with curry and rice and such.

I was in Fifth grade, it was a coolish November afternoon in 1963 - I remember that, too. I was goofing off with a classmate who lived right next to the school, and he seemed happy about it - I guess his parents were Republicans.

I was in 2nd grade when the whole elementary school went to the auditorium to watch John Glenn orbit.

In fact, now that I think about it a bit, I even remember the first time I went on the "internet" - or to be more specific, "UseNet" - as a Compuserve subscriber way back around 1990 or so.. I even remember the very first incarnation of AOL, of which I was a member for a couple of months. Before that, it was all BBS's with Telix and/or Procomm.

And I'd have to say, in more recent times, meeting my lady friend and now fiancee, Melissa, for the first time back in January of 2004.


Most of the rest of my life is a blur, though.. :confused:
 
#16 · (Edited)
This may sound nuts, because I was like 2, but I can remember the Challenger. My parents were on vacation and I was staying with my grandfather. I remember watching TV with him and him explaining that the space shuttle crashed. I also remember him talking on the phone with my mom about it. I have no idea why, but I can remember that pretty clearly.

I was watching the 1989 World Series with my parents when the earthquake hit, that kind of freaked me out. I remember the start of the Gulf War, the first one. My dad and I made an event out of watching the bombing on CNN. The 1993 WTC bombing sticks out in my mind too. For some weird reason my dad had his Dept two-way radio at home, so I got to hear all the police communications from that day. I remember Oklahoma City, I was home sick from school that day and was watching TV when they broke in with news of the bombing. Another day I stayed home sick the North Ridge earthquake hit LA, I watched that unfold too. I also remember TWA Flight 800, I was watching the 11:30 Simpsons rerun when they broke in with the news. Princess Diana's death was the same deal, I was watching TV late at night and the news broke in. I don't even want to get into 9/11, the memory of the sight and smell of the smoke from Ground Zero still fills me with all kinds of rage.

My favorite historical-type memory though is of Game 6 of the 1996 World Series. I could not actually believe the Yankees won the World Series. I remember sitting on my bed and having no clue as to how I should be reacting. It was just awesome.
 
#17 ·
Biggest event for me , that changed my life personally and the world...

9/11 ....

Im asleep , in alaska , still a few hours before i normally wake up and have breakfast and go to the shop....

Phone rings .....Its dad ....
Me: "Dad , why the hell are you calling so early?"
Dad: "Your mother wants to know if your leaving"
Me: "Sure in 2 hours ill be headed to work"
Dad: "Michael , she wants to know if your going to the middle east"
Me: "Dad , i dont know whats wrong with her but last time i checked i was going to korea next may"
Dad:"You beatter turn on the TV"
Me: "sure what network?"
Dad (coldly) "Any of them"
Me: (as i turn on the TV) "This isnt good is it?"
Me : "Dad , why is mom flipping out over a plane running into a building? I mean its happend in new york before at the empire state"
Dad: "I know, she thinks this is diffrent"
Me and Dad at the same time: "HOLY SHIT" (Second plane hits)
Me: "Dad , tell mom to stay close to a phone , i gotta wake up the guys in the squadron and get them into work,ill call her if i gotta go but i doubt it will be today"...

I wasnt real worried ...till 3 of our F16s took off together in a direction they dont normally go .....Later turned out they were scrambeling after a Korean 747 , who wasnt able to contact the tower in fairbanks ...could there be a worse day to have your airplanes radio go out ? But before i had known that i figured each and every non airforce jet was going to crash into something that day ....few hours later i was a little calmer ...

The other big event was challenger (i was in the second grade , we all ran outside to watch it go (perks of living in florida) , the con-trail went all sqiggly....I asked dad when i got home that night "why did it do that?" ....The TV awnsered that question too ....

Coarse the fall of communisim too ...I sat with my grandfather as the wall came down , hes a ww2 vet , he exlpained how big it was ....
 
#18 ·
When the second plane hit the WTC my dad and I were listening to his police scanner, he had it on the Emergency Service Unit frequency. I distinctly remember a cop screaming (and this is way out of proper radio protocal) "Central, be advised, a f***ing commercial airliner just hit the second f***ing tower!!!!!" Followed by I think it was the police commissioner saying "Contact the Pentagon, we need fighter plane coverage". That's when I said, Holy F***, this is heavy shit.
 
#19 ·
I remember several world events such as the Challenger Disaster, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dianas death and so on.

I especially remember 9/11 as I was on my lunch break and I got a call from one of the guys in the office who told me a plane had hit one of the towers. We were all like, "wow, what an accident!". Then I got a phone call form him telling me the second plane had hit and that's when we realised it was an intentional act and we got our arse back to work.
As we were an ISP we had SO many customers calling up telling us their internet connection was down. Obviously they were only checking the news sites which were all swamped.
When we saw the towers fall we knew that USA was no-way going to let anyone get away with that and that the world had just changed.
I remember speaking on IRC to a friend who worked for an ISP not too far from the towers who was running on diesel generators and trying to arrange for trucks to deliver. He had about 3 or 5 days of fuel before everything would sut down and a load of businesses (both large and small) in the NY area would be offline. All the contracts they had with suppliers to deliver weren't worth a c**p of course.


In my personal life, there are a few that I'll always remember, the ususal sort of thing:

The first time a girl told me she loved me and my first kiss etc.
The first time a girl really broke my heart.
My trip to California which to this day I consider heaven on earth...
Buying my first car.
Buying my first American car.
Doing the deal to buy the company I now work for and co-own.

There's a few...
 
#20 ·
9-11, duh. I remember my mom telling me she heard sonic booms early in the morning, then later we turned on the TV and saw that Columbia had broken up. That's about it for big national/international events.

As for personal events I'll never forget the most positively hellacious road trip ever, driving my ETC back from CT, getting pulled over, having my car towed, then being stuck for 3 days in a blizzard followed by a blowout, then the loss of use of my cell phone, followed by another blowout and sliding into a ditch, then making the final 1650 miles in under 23hrs.
 
#21 ·
Well there is the obvious - 9/11, that had an effect personally and globally.

Globally
  • Reagan Shot (7th Grade - came on tv when I was in French Class)
  • Iran Hostage situation (444 days of captivity (trivial pursuit question))
  • Columbia disaster (12th Grade)
  • The Oklahoma City Bombing (living in OKC)
  • Challenger disaster (living in Dallas, boom woke me and my 3 year old) and I was doing a contract at Cape Canaveral at the time. Had to return Monday to a very somber Cape/KSC.
Personally
  • Getting lost in Germany when I was 7 years old. A trauma that lasted many years.
  • The day my parents told me they were getting divorced (14 yrs old)
  • My first drive (1976 Cadillac Sedan DeVille, IIRC had the 500cu in motor)
  • Getting my 69 Chevelle SS (16 years old)
  • Winning my first drag race event (High School Drag challenge at Kansas City Int't Raceway)
  • The day I joined the Air Force
  • The day I bought my Corvette (24 yrs old)
  • My first date with my wife
  • The day I was married
  • The day my daughter was born (she has been the source of many memorable days since)
 
#22 ·
Seeing the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese sandwich
Clinton not having sexual relations with "that woman"
Miss America in Playboy
Bush Sr. pukes in China and on China
Plymouth American Motors and Oldsmobile die
Seeing Janet Jackson's teet

I forgot the question. Was it signs of the apocalypse?
 
#23 ·
The day i got my Brougham.
The day my mother found out she had brain cancer.
The day my mother died.
The day i was dropped off at military school.
The day my dad went to Maryland.
My first hand job when i was 13.
The day i got my apartment.
THE HURRICANES that swept through central florida 2 years ago(some of the best times of my life)

These are not in chronological order.
 
#24 ·
On a personal level, there's been far too many high's & lows to list coherently...

On a global level, I would have to say:

1) 9/11. I was working, I was still an outside guy, so I go into a customers house, and he says "You gotta see this." We sit down in front of the TV, the first tower is burning. A couple minutes later, we see the jetliner hit the second building. Unreal.

2) Space Shuttle Blowing up. I was driving to school, I was still in College, they interrupted the radio and said "the Space Shuttle has just blown up." I ran to the student union, and there it was, blowing up. I distinctly recall the launches had become so routine, they weren't even televising them anymore. My brother and I were seriously planning to go to Florida to watch a launch. A few years later, we did go to Florida, but they delayed it a few times, and vacation time ran out, and we came home having seen nothing.
 
#25 ·
Watching a man land on the moon. (World Event)
Nixon resigning as President (W.E.)
Iran hostage crisis (W.E.)
Graduating Boot Camp (Personal event)
Duty in Beruit (P.E.)
Space Shuttle explosion (W.E.)
Duty in the Persian Gulf (P.E.)
Duty in the Gulf of Sidra / Line of Death (P.E.)
Getting car bombed in Italy (P.E.)
Tiananmen Square massacre (W.E.)
Berlin Wall coming down (W.E.)
Watching Desert Storm on T.V. (W.E.)
Attempted Soviet Coup / end of the USSR (W.E.)
O.J. simpson verdict (event)
President Clinton impeachment (W.E.)
9/11 attack - War on Terror beginning (W.E.)
 
#26 ·
This pretty much turned into the "where were you on 9/11" thread,so i'll tell my story...

It was 3rd period my 9th grade year.I was in Mr. Purtles class,Business Systems and Technology(fancy name for learning how to use power point).We turned on the news after someone came in the class room and told us what happened.I was like damn that sucks bad,it really didnt sink in.Then i saw the second plane hit and i was like damn this is crazy.A couple minutes later,our power went out.The whole buildings power went out.Everyone became silent and it was pretty weird.Then a couple minutes later the power was back on and everyone was like WOW that was nuts!

I never really let it get to me,not something i really spent time thinking about,mainly because i didnt know anyone that was involved at all.I never once felt any more scared for my safety and well being.I have never felt that some terroists are going to try to harm me.I have never been scared of a terrorist attack.I have enough confidence in our intelligence agencies to figure that crap out.That whole color-coded "terrorist alert" thingy is rediculous.
 
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