Everyone Knows Where They Were When.......

OK, this isn't new but I have a twist.

Everyone(except George Bush, apparently) knew where they were when JFK was shot.

Everyone knows where they were when 9/11 happened.

This was asked on a ESPN sports radio show, from the guy who's doc O.J. Simpson: Made In America will air on June 11 on ESPN - supposedly eight or so hours of brilliance, it's going to be a long one - "Where were you when the O.J. verdict was handed down".

I honestly don't think I watched it live, as I didn't have a opinion at that time. I didn't know, I worked days at the time and never got a chance, even though I didn't really care, to watch the trial and even though I worked at a newspaper I still really didn't know what to think. I should have known more as it was the trial of the century but I really didn't know.

I truly do not know where I was when this happened. Am I the only one?

I do remember where I was when the Rodney King crap happened but I didn't know it at the time. I just saw cop cars blocking the streets around the traditional old black neighborhoods here in Las Vegas. I was at a English pub drinking Double Diamond with a guy and some chicks from work, watching Shawn Kemp dunk on whoever it was that night. I had no clue that verdict had happened and didn't until the next day. On my way home from the bar I saw the cops, and luckily they did respond or there would have been some havoc wreaked on downtown Las Vegas but I had no clue why that was happening other than something bad.

I really don't think, but I honestly cannot remember, where I was when this was handed out. Heck, I may not have known until later in the day for all I know, hours possibly. News didn't travel that fast in those days.

I remember. I was at work and we listened to it live on the radio. Ruined my whole damn day.

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Ok, how about a addendum? Do you remember where you were when the car chase happened? That I do remember, one of the most awesome days ever in sports was ruined but that crap. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing - watching the Knicks and Rockets in a tiny PIP box on the screen while the damned chase was happening.

I just have no clue where I was when the verdict came out. I might possibly be the anomaly here, hence why I asked the question.

It's pretty irrelevant if George H W Bush stated that he doesn't know where he was when JFK was assassinated.
I wonder why people have allowed this to permeate the situation.

originally posted by: Iamnotadoctor
It's pretty irrelevant if George H W Bush stated that he doesn't know where he was when JFK was assassinated.
I wonder why people have allowed this to permeate the situation.

I wonder how this man could ever have been the president of the United States..

Also everyone knows where they were when they heard Princess Diana died.. (here is the UK especially)

And maybe also Micheal Jackson.. (worldwide)

a reply to: Misterlondon
By the time he was elected he was more qualified than many of the recent presidents/candidates.
Correct?

originally posted by: Iamnotadoctor
a reply to: Misterlondon
By the time he was elected he was more qualified than many of the recent presidents/candidates.
Correct?

God.. You must have had some awful people running for the presidency at that time.. He just comes across as a complete idiot.

a reply to: Misterlondon
You understand that I am not talking about his son don't you?

originally posted by: TheSpanishArcher
a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

Ok, how about a addendum? Do you remember where you were when the car chase happened? That I do remember, one of the most awesome days ever in sports was ruined but that crap. I know exactly where I was and what I was doing - watching the Knicks and Rockets in a tiny PIP box on the screen while the damned chase was happening.

Dude! You stole this right from my head as I read the OP part about the OJ Verdict. I don't remember where I was when the verdict came down, but I remember being pissed off at having to watch that game in a tiny square on a TV dominated by Al Cowlings damned White Ford Bronco.

I remember 9/11 (I was eating breakfast waiting to run out the door to work) and I remember Challenger exploding only because my 3rd grade class was watching it live with all the other grade schools in the country because a school teacher was on the shuttle. Hmm... I also remember Magic Johnson announcing he had the AIDS and I remember the World Series in Oakland when the big quake hit during pregame. Not much else, honestly. I have zero recollection of Princess Diana, Micheal Jackson, Rodney King, etc. Meh.

I was at home at some stage when the verdict was handed down on OJ, I was at home at some stage when the verdict on Rodney king was handed down.
I wasn't at home when JFK was murdered, and I wasn't at home when 9/11 happened.

originally posted by: Iamnotadoctor
a reply to: Misterlondon
You understand that I am not talking about his son don't you?

Lol.. Ok fair enough, I'm a little drunk here. George Bush senior right.. my mistake..

I think it's time for me to get off ats and go to bed..

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

Its not fair, due to my memory being what it is.


But when the car chase went down I was at David and Tierza's house (some friends of mine). I worked 3p-11p at the mental hospital, and was hanging with them before going to work (it was my usual hangout at the time).

When the verdict came down I was in the dayroom on my unit at the aforementioned hospital.

ETA: 9/11, i was a trainer for AOL Tech Support. I didn't have a class that week, so was trying to hide out in my classroom. The site director was out of town, and the VP (his boss) was in town to fire him. He got stuck in Minnesota and couldn't fly in to get fired. AOL closed operations and we sent everyone home for the day. My wife was off that day, so she was at home waiting for me. we had been on the phone all morning while I watched CNN.com and she watched it on TV.

Our site did T-Mobile, too (long before i worked that account) but they didn't close. So we left those folks working, while AOL folks went home. Pissed off the T-Mobile employees quite a bit.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

A friend of mine had bet that the Oakland A's would sweep that series but pushed on the bet as the games didn't happen on the days they were supposed to because of the earthquake. Gotta laugh at that.

I don't remember Diana or Michael or Magic(even though he's a sports guy and I do keep up on the major sports), nor Prince for that matter, as they never were parts of my life. This may come across as callous but I actually don't care that Prince died. For his family, friends, fans, I do feel for them but his music never, ever touched my life. Not once.

Anyway, that's OT stuff. I do find this a very interesting question and the responses have been great.

Thing is, the car chase was unexpected and the timing was brilliant. Let's upstage the NBA finals with the Knick's from NYC, well, they handed us a doozy that night.

The verdict was not unexpected yet it seems from what little I've gleaned so far, even from the interview with the director of the film, that the car chase is more memorable. I'd bet those in the black community may think different, especially those who have lived in the LA area and had been dealing with LAPD crap for God's knows how many years.

I remember the evening of the slow speed chase.
I was at my parents house waiting for my fiancé to come over after work.
We were watching on cnn I think.
No clue about the verdict because I really didn't give a crap.

During the OJ Simpson trial I was in 8th grade English class and we listened to it on the radio because my teacher felt it was an "important historical event". ::insert eye roll::

I found out about Princess Di from the Jerry Lewis telethon that year. I cried. More so for William and Harry because I am the same age as William and it seemed very sad that he and his brother lost their mother.

I really don't remember the whole Rodney King thing.

9/11- I lived in a military town. My job was being closed because it was mostly military wives and they had to get back to base housing ASAP or they wouldn't have been able to get on. The whole drive home I was trying to determine whether it was a really awful joke being played by the local radio station. I drove home and arrived in my apartment just in time to turn the TV on and see the second plane hit.

a reply to: TheSpanishArcher

I was 16.

I didn't care. Hell, back then, I was probably smoking a joint with some of my Hispanic and black friends, realizing that the fate of some ex-athlete and bad actor didn't really matter to our lives in any way.

There's nothing that should be memorable about manufactured issues of racism, so be glad that you don't remember, because it really wasn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of life.

Like several others, I have no memory of the handing down of the verdict but do remember the car chase. We had settled in to watch the only commercial tv show we were still watching at the time---Jeopardy!---and got a "slow-mo" car chase. It was just silly and it ticked me off so badly that I vowed I wouldn't spend one minute of my life following that case. It just seemed too fake to me to be of consequence. But it surely did sell a lot of this 'n that didn't it?
I remember the JFK announcement made by my grade school principal. Math class had just started and I was on my way to the blackboard when the principal's shaky voice came through.
I remember hearing about the assassination of MLK as we were sitting down to breakfast. Same with Bobby Kennedy. We didn't have a tv in those days so we got our first news on radio at breakfast time.
I do remember hearing about the Rodney King verdict because I had followed that trial to some degree because I was reading law at that time and we discussed the case from time to time. We had been discussing it that day and when I left the law library and got into my car, the radio was reporting the verdict. I watched over the next few days as my law professor's predictions of "hell to pay" played out in LA.
So no, you're not an anomaly. There are those of us who didn't get pulled into that particular made-by-tv drama.

I do remember the television announcement of JFK's death, and the temporary closedown that followed.
I remember where I was when Margaret Thatcher resigned; I was working my way up through a department store, escalator by escalator. The route took me through the television department, and the announcement was being displayed on Teletext at the time.

And I've got one that is probably unusual. I remember where I was when the Russians invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. Mainly because this was the only time in my life that I ever learned about an important event in the proverbial way, by a newspaper stall placard. This was in the streets of Inverness.

Also I wonder how many people have memories of the "August coup" which toppled Gorbachov. My collleagues had the office radio tuned to a local station. This was for the sake of the music, but the news bulletins were hourly, and the crisis was the main item as long as it lasted. The bulletin which announced that the coup was over, and the the leaders were in flight from Moscow, was particularly dramatic.