Where were you when...
Nov. 13th, 2004 06:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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here_be_dragons:
1. Where were you and what were you doing on September 11, 2001?
At my office. My car window had been smashed the night before, so my nanny drove me to work early that day, and Aaron had taken Harry to school - it was his sixth day, I think. I got a cnn-breaking-news-alert email on my Blackberry, then an email from my friend Sue who was down there working at a poll - I think all I said was "run north" in my reply. I went into the boss's office, and was convinced, by the size of the image, that it had been a small plane and an accidental crash - it did happen once at the Empire State Building, back during WWII. I wish I'd been right. I was back in my office and on the phone with Aaron, who was home and watching the tv, when the second plane crashed into the tower - he saw it live, and I was frantically trying to get onto CNN's website. At some point, I started emailing friends in NYC, and I called my mom to go pick up Harry at school, then come downtown to get me - Aaron couldn't, because he was waiting for a conference call with a judge, which would, because of the horror never happen. I stood at the base of my downtown Miami office building, frantic and waiting for my mom, and my cellphone didn't work there and my blackberry didn't have a web browser so I felt very cut off. I wouldn't know if a plane was heading our way, too, or if the three bridges that connect Miami Beach to the mainland were going to be destroyed, or where the President was, or anything. I slowly heard from friends, my mom managed to get to me, my nanny went and picked up her kids and we all sat in the kitchen, staring at the news. When my mom told me my old friend Lauren was with one of the firms in the tower, I almost fainted - but she was on a plane home from Paris, where she and her sister had been at her brother's wedding for the weekend, and they were, we learned later, actually in Canada. In fact, all my friends were safe - but too many of them lost cousins - one casual friend from work lost her husband, who Aaron had known from college. Somewhere, I have all my emails from that day. I really need to archive them.
2. Where were you and what were you doing when Princess Diana died?
Aaron and I had eaten dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa City (which isn't there anymore) and stopped at home to pick up some books to take to DTUT's for s'mores, when I turned on the tv while waiting. She'd been in a crash, but she was still alive when we started watching. And I think I kept watching until one in the morning. We never made it to DTUT's. The day of the funeral, I went to DC in the afternoon, and we wandered over to the British Embassy - I've never seen more flowers in my life.
3. Where were you and what were you doing when the Challenger exploded?"
On the basketball field at my high school. Some of my classmates say they saw a puff in the sky, and others say they heard something, but I don't rememeber anything. We were waiting for gym class to start, but it never did. Our teacher called us into his office and we listened to it on the radio. I went to my internship that afternoon - I was working for a Jewish public access tv station at the time - and we did a montage video about the tragedy for that night's broadcast. Then, we saw Barishnakov dance that night - there was a minute of silence before the show started, and perhaps two minutes into it, he fell. I have never heard of that happening any other time, so I think he might've been impacted by that day as well. I think we all were.
4. Where were you and what were you doing when Reagan was shot?
Fifth grade. I seem to remember them bringing tvs into the classroom, or it may've still been there from the inauguration, which we watched in class while waving little American flags. I don't think I realised then just how bad it was, but remember - we were only a few months from john Lennon having been killed, so all of us knew someone could die by being shot.
5. Where were you and what were you doing when the year rolled over from 1999 to 2000?
In which time zone? I was up to see it in New Zealand, because CNN was supposed to show a bit of the NZ celebration with Split Enz, and I was up most of the day and into the night with five month old Harry, who was still nursing every two hours or so (of course, he did that until he was about 11 months old...). Aaron & I had TerDuckEn for dinner, and chocolate mousse, which I think we finished about midnight. At 11:55, I woke up Harry (STUPID ME?) so he could be with us as the milennium turned, and we stood at the window and watched the fireworks over the beach.
here_be_dragons:1. Where were you and what were you doing on September 11, 2001?
At my office. My car window had been smashed the night before, so my nanny drove me to work early that day, and Aaron had taken Harry to school - it was his sixth day, I think. I got a cnn-breaking-news-alert email on my Blackberry, then an email from my friend Sue who was down there working at a poll - I think all I said was "run north" in my reply. I went into the boss's office, and was convinced, by the size of the image, that it had been a small plane and an accidental crash - it did happen once at the Empire State Building, back during WWII. I wish I'd been right. I was back in my office and on the phone with Aaron, who was home and watching the tv, when the second plane crashed into the tower - he saw it live, and I was frantically trying to get onto CNN's website. At some point, I started emailing friends in NYC, and I called my mom to go pick up Harry at school, then come downtown to get me - Aaron couldn't, because he was waiting for a conference call with a judge, which would, because of the horror never happen. I stood at the base of my downtown Miami office building, frantic and waiting for my mom, and my cellphone didn't work there and my blackberry didn't have a web browser so I felt very cut off. I wouldn't know if a plane was heading our way, too, or if the three bridges that connect Miami Beach to the mainland were going to be destroyed, or where the President was, or anything. I slowly heard from friends, my mom managed to get to me, my nanny went and picked up her kids and we all sat in the kitchen, staring at the news. When my mom told me my old friend Lauren was with one of the firms in the tower, I almost fainted - but she was on a plane home from Paris, where she and her sister had been at her brother's wedding for the weekend, and they were, we learned later, actually in Canada. In fact, all my friends were safe - but too many of them lost cousins - one casual friend from work lost her husband, who Aaron had known from college. Somewhere, I have all my emails from that day. I really need to archive them.
2. Where were you and what were you doing when Princess Diana died?
Aaron and I had eaten dinner at Bobby Flay's Mesa City (which isn't there anymore) and stopped at home to pick up some books to take to DTUT's for s'mores, when I turned on the tv while waiting. She'd been in a crash, but she was still alive when we started watching. And I think I kept watching until one in the morning. We never made it to DTUT's. The day of the funeral, I went to DC in the afternoon, and we wandered over to the British Embassy - I've never seen more flowers in my life.
3. Where were you and what were you doing when the Challenger exploded?"
On the basketball field at my high school. Some of my classmates say they saw a puff in the sky, and others say they heard something, but I don't rememeber anything. We were waiting for gym class to start, but it never did. Our teacher called us into his office and we listened to it on the radio. I went to my internship that afternoon - I was working for a Jewish public access tv station at the time - and we did a montage video about the tragedy for that night's broadcast. Then, we saw Barishnakov dance that night - there was a minute of silence before the show started, and perhaps two minutes into it, he fell. I have never heard of that happening any other time, so I think he might've been impacted by that day as well. I think we all were.
4. Where were you and what were you doing when Reagan was shot?
Fifth grade. I seem to remember them bringing tvs into the classroom, or it may've still been there from the inauguration, which we watched in class while waving little American flags. I don't think I realised then just how bad it was, but remember - we were only a few months from john Lennon having been killed, so all of us knew someone could die by being shot.
5. Where were you and what were you doing when the year rolled over from 1999 to 2000?
In which time zone? I was up to see it in New Zealand, because CNN was supposed to show a bit of the NZ celebration with Split Enz, and I was up most of the day and into the night with five month old Harry, who was still nursing every two hours or so (of course, he did that until he was about 11 months old...). Aaron & I had TerDuckEn for dinner, and chocolate mousse, which I think we finished about midnight. At 11:55, I woke up Harry (STUPID ME?) so he could be with us as the milennium turned, and we stood at the window and watched the fireworks over the beach.
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(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-13 07:13 am (UTC)BUT I remember exactly what I was doing when I learned that Kurt Cobain had shot himself. I remember how I was told, the tone of the person's voice, the looks on everyone's faces etc etc - all in great detail. I wasn't a huge fan but it was a big deal and everyone, including myself, knew it.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-13 09:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-13 09:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-13 03:53 pm (UTC)I watched it live on television in the Uk, totally unbelieving when the towers came down. I'd left work early to pick up my friend's daughter from school as a favour otherwise I'd have been at work. We got back to my friend's house and while the kiddie played outside with her friends, all unknowning of the history unfolding around her, I watched those towers come down as they did. And I wept.
( 2. Where were you and what were you doing when Princess Diana died? )
I was asleep, as Paris is one hour ahead of the UK and by the time I realised what had happened it was all over.
( 3. Where were you and what were you doing when the Challenger exploded? )
I was out with friends when the news came in. We were all in a pub in London and were stunned.
( 4. Where were you and what were you doing when Reagan was shot? )
Have no idea. Reagan was a nonentity to the British public - and it turns out his IQ was way ahead of George W. Bush. We did him a dis-service, obviously.
( 5. Where were you and what were you doing when the year rolled over from 1999 to 2000? )
In hospital, suffering from Pneumonia.
Comments: Read 3 or Add Your Own.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-13 05:37 pm (UTC)I was working at Muhlenberg College. I was in a sattelite office which also housed a federal judge, so the building was evacuated. I went back to my office at the main campus and made calls to students to let them know their night classes were cancelled. Mike and I also spent much of the day trying to get in touch with his family (his sister worked close to WTC and was going under the buildings in the subway during the attack).
( 2. Where were you and what were you doing when Princess Diana died? )
For some unknown reason, I woke up in the middle of the night and turned on the news. I had moved back in with my parents so that I could afford grad school and when I went to wake them up, they were also awake watching it. It was on my birthday.
( 3. Where were you and what were you doing when the Challenger exploded? )
I was in 8th grade and we were watching the launch in a science class. I remember the teacher not knowing what to do. She turned off the tv and tried to pretend that it hadn't happened. Way to miss a teachable moment.
( 4. Where were you and what were you doing when Reagan was shot? )
I was in elementary school. I remember that my friend Matt called to tell me and I turned on the news.
( 5. Where were you and what were you doing when the year rolled over from 1999 to 2000? )
I was with my friends at a place called Gettysbrew in Gettysburg, PA. It is a restaurant in an old Civil War barn and they brew their own beer and soda. It was a great night.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-11-18 05:07 pm (UTC)Two days after I was released from the hospital for a ruptured appendix. My hemoglobin count was still around 6 or 7 at that time so just sitting up wiped me out. My mother woke me up to say something had happened and she was furious with me that my faceplate for the radio in the car was removed so she couldn't listen to the radio.
( 2. Where were you and what were you doing when Princess Diana died? )
Stunned absolutely stunned watching cnn. Thought of flying to England to watch the funeral procession. Kept tons of newspaper clippings, etc.
( 3. Where were you and what were you doing when the Challenger exploded? )
Art class in high school washing my brushes in the sink. The class radio was by the sink. Shocked and stunned.
( 4. Where were you and what were you doing when Reagan was shot? )
I really don't remember.
( 5. Where were you and what were you doing when the year rolled over from 1999 to 2000? )
At home listening to my mother rant that all electricity will go out, banking system will go haywire, etc and we'll all be glad she bought a generator, 5 months worth of canned food and bottled water, etc. She bodily kept any of us from leaving the house that day to go out.