I don't remember where I was when I heard Michael Jackson had died.

Things have changed so much that what was important, like a moon landing, is equal to or of lessor importance than celebrity coming and goings.

I wonder if people felt the same way generations ago, when they learned Amelia Earheart had disappeared and probably crashed.

Novemeber 1963-the principal of my junior high school, Mr. Danielson, ordered all the teachers to bring every student into the auditorium without explanation where no one said anything. Principal and janitors rushed every TV into the auditorium and turned them all on.

My girlfriends parents were kind enough have me and several of my beach bum buddies to thier cottage over-looking the cove in Orleans where we all sat and watched Armstrong. No one said a word. My girlfriend was tickling the underside of my thigh the whole time I sat there on the couch with her.

No one mentioned the last marine on top of the american embassey in Saigon fighting off everyone who wanted to get on the last chopper out.

I was getting a haircut on 9/11 in Hanson. Barber was a pro. Never stopped cutting but turned my chair to the TV. There was 30 or so people in the small shop when I left. I said we are at war when I was walking out and one of the Conway Country girls made a smartass comment to me about being full of it. Wonder what she thought when the second one hit.

The seminal event for my parent's generation was Pearl Harbor. Everyone in that time remembered where they were when they heard about it.

My generation has several. JFK's assassination was the first. The moon landing. Challenger exploding. And 9/11. I can remember all 4 down to the last detail even now.

I watched that one small step from the living room of our summer place in So. Plymouth on a fuzzy B&W portable. The whole family gathered to watch it. Mom, dad, my sister and two sets of aunts and uncles.

The seminal event for my parent's generation was Pearl Harbor. Everyone in that time remembered where they were when they heard about it.

My generation has several. JFK's assassination was the first. The moon landing. Challenger exploding. And 9/11. I can remember all 4 down to the last detail even now.

I watched that one small step from the living room of our summer place in So. Plymouth on a fuzzy B&W portable. The whole family gathered to watch it. Mom, dad, my sister and two sets of aunts and uncles.


Same here but I'd also add Adli Stevenson's UN "Hell Freezes Over" speech to Valerian Zorin (Russian ambassador to UN) during the Cuban missile crisis. Would come home from elementary school and be glued to the B&W watching what was about to happen as I needed to know whether to take hiding under my school desk drills seriously or not in case of nuclear war!:smash:

http://www.yourtowntube.com/video/1769/Cuban-Missile-Crisis--Adlai-Stevenson-Princeton-22

For some strange reason I also remember hearing over the radio that Rocky Marciano had died in a plane crash....in Iowa? Coincidence: I now live in the house in which he lived while World Champ....and I was born in IA!

My Mom told me I was breast feeding while she watched Armstrong take his first step.

My Mom told me I was breast feeding while she watched Armstrong take his first step.

Sucks you don't remember

I was just old enough to be able to stay up late enough to see his first steps on another celestrial body.
I was at work when the Challenger exploded, as well as on 911.
I was also at work when the very first shuttle landed back on earth.
It was a stunning moment in time when NASA had chosen the longest runway in the country to give the shuttle all the room it could need.
Then the shuttle landed and traveled about as far as a commercial airliner, shocking pretty much everyone. I laughed because the shuttle was at one end of the runway and everyone and everything else was at the other (where theyu presumed the shuttle would have come to a stop.

I was at home when the second shuttle disaster occurred.

So, basically, we all have selective memory when it comes to historic events. Thankfully they are truly HISTORIC events, that changed the world around us forever!

Neil Armstrong was part of one such event.

Sucks you don't remember

I get strangely hungry whenever I look at the moon?

Same here but I'd also add Adli Stevenson's UN "Hell Freezes Over" speech to Valerian Zorin (Russian ambassador to UN) during the Cuban missile crisis. Would come home from elementary school and be glued to the B&W watching what was about to happen as I needed to know whether to take hiding under my school desk drills seriously or not in case of nuclear war!:smash:

YourTownTube.com - Cuban Missile Crisis - Adlai Stevenson Princeton '22 (http://www.yourtowntube.com/video/1769/Cuban-Missile-Crisis--Adlai-Stevenson-Princeton-22)

For some strange reason I also remember hearing over the radio that Rocky Marciano had died in a plane crash....in Iowa? Coincidence: I now live in the house in which he lived while World Champ....and I was born in IA!

I had forgotten all about those under the desk drills..... my mother cried for two days after the JFK assasination...and like other here.. the whole family gathered around 12" b&w tv to watch the moon walk..... my Great grandmother who was in her mid 90's stared in disbelief.. as she thought she had seen it all with the introduction of the automobile..
priorities and values sure have changed...

I was told I was at the supermarket with my mom when JFK was assassinated. I remember watching the moon landing at my great grandmothers' house in Pittsfield with my grandparents, parents and brothers also on a black and white tv. it was an awe inspiring moment for sure.
I remember painting the house when my mother came outside crying to tell me Elvis had died, she was a huge fan.
I was working in Natick adding a dormer addition to a house when the Challenger blew up, the homeowner came up and told us and we went and watched the tv for a bit, sad tragic day for sure.
I was home watching tv and surfing S-B.com when 9/11/01 happened.

Definitely Challenger was the first big event like that I remember...

-spence

I was in Woonsocket Hospital in bed watching the moon landing. I had just had the meniscus in my left knee removed a few days before.

When JFK was shot I was in line on the stairs in Holy Trinity School. All the nuns were very upset and kept us in the lines an unusually long time before letting us back into the class rooms. I suppose they were coming up with the official school announcement about the event.

Challenger explosion I was at my desk at Pfizer. One of the Process Engineers was going around telling everybody.

911-- I was in the cafeteria at TI getting a morning coffee. It was on the TV in the cafeteria but nobody was there. I sat down all alone to see what was going on as the smoke was coming out of the WTC. I then saw the second plane hit. Then shortly after the towers came down. Watched it all unfold over a cup of coffee.

Remember JFK and the moon and 67 Sox and Orr but can't remember where I put my darn glasses an hour ago
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Remember JFK and the moon and 67 Sox and Orr but can't remember where I put my darn glasses an hour ago
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Orr's goal came on Mother's Day. All I saw live was him flying through the air and the dejected look on the Blues' defenseman.

The two things I remember most from 67 were Conigliaro's beaning, and rubber-armed Jose Tartabull making the throw of his life to cut down the tying run at the plate during a key game against the White Sox (with a huge assist from Elston Howard's left shinguard, blocking the plate).

JFK was before my time and while not feeding on the moon like RIJ I was certainly crapping some diapers.

I was home & watching TV when Reagan was shot.

Was listening to AFN when the announced the Beirut Marines in 83

The Challenger explosion I have a vague recollection of watching it live after school was out but we were in one of the science rooms (the same rooms we would test Chernobyl fallout a couple months later)

Between Challenger and Chernobyl was El Dorado Canyon. By the time the school buses got on base day was half over.

9/11 - I was home that day, my wife called me into the living room to see the TV after the first plane hit. I had my 10 month old son on my shoulder burping when the second plane hit. That is when I stated we were at war.

The seminal event for my parent's generation was Pearl Harbor. Everyone in that time remembered where they were when they heard about it.

Ours is clearly 9/11 and hopefully that remains the high water mark of disasters against us.

Same here but I'd also add Adli Stevenson's UN "Hell Freezes Over" speech to Valerian Zorin (Russian ambassador to UN) during the Cuban missile crisis. Phil - no recollections of the CMC but my dad was on the USS Essex at the time and told a few stories.

My Mom told me I was breast feeding while she watched Armstrong take his first step.Sucks you don't remember I get strangely hungry whenever I look at the moon?

:rotf2: