QOTW - 2008/10/06
And the Question of the Week is…
What, if any, historical events occurred during your elementary school days? Middle school? High school?
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I was in first grade (I think) when the Challenger exploded.
I remember going out to watch the next shuttle launch (it was a couple of years later, I think) on the lawn of my school. We all held our breath and cheered when nothing bad happened.
I'm sure there were other things, that's just what stands out.
I remember going out to watch the next shuttle launch (it was a couple of years later, I think) on the lawn of my school. We all held our breath and cheered when nothing bad happened.
I'm sure there were other things, that's just what stands out.
Posted by DadaMama on October 06, 2008 at 09:06 AM | #
I remember lying in the orthodontist's chair when Challenger exploded. Rows of chairs of preteens, ortho assistants, all silent as it came over the radio piped into the office.
I also remember watching the Berlin wall come down on TV at home.
I also remember watching the Berlin wall come down on TV at home.
Posted by betharoopie on October 06, 2008 at 09:40 AM | #
Everything after 1950. There were just no TV sets everywhere then. A space launch was a big deal and we watched the first ones in high school. The first big event for me was during my Freshman year in college. I was running from a class in a dorm basement to a class at the top of another building when a boy ran past and yelled "they shot Kennedy!". I ran back down to the dorm where there was a TV. It had just happened - the news had just gotten out. All the commuter students ended up in the student union to watch TV and meet their riders. Classes immediately ended and we watched in horror as events unfolded.
Hm... not sure what happened when i was in elementary or middle school. I remember columbine shootings while i was in middle school and the principal came on the PA and told our teachers to turn off the TVs and get back to work. 9/11 happened when I was in high school and even though I had no connection to NY or anything I walked around school in fog all day.
DadaMama, I hate you. I was in college when that happened. :(
When I was in 2nd grade, it snowed in South Florida. What year did the Berlin Wall go down?
And I suppose I was in school when the very first space shuttle was launched.
And middle school when John Lennon was killed. And I just passed my 10th birthday when Elvis died...
Clearly my brain is not functioning in chronological order.
When I was in 2nd grade, it snowed in South Florida. What year did the Berlin Wall go down?
And I suppose I was in school when the very first space shuttle was launched.
And middle school when John Lennon was killed. And I just passed my 10th birthday when Elvis died...
Clearly my brain is not functioning in chronological order.
High school when John Lennon was shot, high school also for the assassination attempt on Reagan, elementary school when Nixon resigned and when we evacuated the embassy in Saigon. I remember being dully amazed that the Vietnam war really, actually ended - it had been a constant feature of my childhood, and it was hard to conceive of it not going on any more, kind of an impossible wish finally fulfilled. Makes me wonder what kids growing up now will think & feel about Iraq.
My verification string is "peace." May it be so.
My verification string is "peace." May it be so.
Posted by Liz (the crazed weasel) on October 06, 2008 at 11:16 AM | #
Challenger for me too. My entire elementary school was standing outside watching when it happened. That is what actually made me decide I wanted to get a degree in Aerospace Engineering. I asked my teacher what happened and how it could be stopped from happening again. She told me something about needing more/better engineers.
I remember the day that John Glenn went up in space. Our teach told us about it and we all prayed for him. You could do that back then. I also remember the day Kennedy was killed. I was in 8th grade English class when it was announced over the PA.
I remember the killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. They were killed about two miles from my home. People came walking down our little rural road, looking for their bodies. They were missing for three weeks before the FBI finally found an informant who told them they had been buried in a levee to a pond that was being built at the time they were killed.
I remember all the anti-Kennedy talk, espcially against Bobby Kennedy who was pushing integration. I can acutally remember hearing friends of my father say, "He needs killing. I'd kill him myself if I knew someone would take care of my family." Usually this was when they were sitting around talking after church and Sunday dinner. I never heard my father say that, thank goodness.
I remember hearing about Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King being killed. I think I heard the latter while mopping the living room floor with the TV on. I also heard about Woodstock the same way the next year. I was at least equally impressed with hearing about Woodstock.
Also, when I was in High School, the nightly news with Dan Rather was showing the war in Viet Nam.
I remember the killing of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. They were killed about two miles from my home. People came walking down our little rural road, looking for their bodies. They were missing for three weeks before the FBI finally found an informant who told them they had been buried in a levee to a pond that was being built at the time they were killed.
I remember all the anti-Kennedy talk, espcially against Bobby Kennedy who was pushing integration. I can acutally remember hearing friends of my father say, "He needs killing. I'd kill him myself if I knew someone would take care of my family." Usually this was when they were sitting around talking after church and Sunday dinner. I never heard my father say that, thank goodness.
I remember hearing about Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King being killed. I think I heard the latter while mopping the living room floor with the TV on. I also heard about Woodstock the same way the next year. I was at least equally impressed with hearing about Woodstock.
Also, when I was in High School, the nightly news with Dan Rather was showing the war in Viet Nam.
Posted by Joanne Clarke on October 06, 2008 at 11:27 AM | #
The first thing I remember was being in the first Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans after WWII. In grade school I remember Eisenhower being elected (my folks were for Stevenson) and bits of the Korean War, mostly newsreels from the movies.
In junior high, the Space Age beginning with Sputnik.
In high school, the amazing 1957 cars,
In college, the assassination of JFK; the public murder of Oswald.
Just after college, the moon landings.
Unca Joe
In junior high, the Space Age beginning with Sputnik.
In high school, the amazing 1957 cars,
In college, the assassination of JFK; the public murder of Oswald.
Just after college, the moon landings.
Unca Joe
Posted by Joe Haldeman on October 06, 2008 at 12:05 PM | #
Regan was shot, and the space shuttle blew up on lift off. We were watching the lift off in class. I will never forget that. Years later when the next shuttle mission went up we all cheered when they announced it had made it to orbit.
Posted by sandyknits on October 06, 2008 at 12:59 PM | #
2nd grade - hearing grownups talk about a war in a strange place called Korea; about the same time, hearing them listen to people on TV saying things like "I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself" when asked if they were members of the communist party - I really didn't understand any of that and I guess the grownups sheltered me from it all by explaining it was too complicated to explain
6th grade - Sputnik - my father took me out into the backyard and showed it to me as it went overhead - well, maybe that's what we saw - we wanted to think we did
7th grade - Pope Pius XII died and we learned about black smoke and white smoke notifying the world that a new pope was elected, only to have him die when I was in 11th grade
9th grade - Bay of Pigs invasion; minor awareness of something called a war in a strange place called Vietnam
9th, 10th grades - love of rock 'n roll replaced by love of folk music; beginnings of manned space flight - we would be allowed to watch rocket launches on a small tv in a crowded small meeting area at Western - how different when a few years later I got to watch them for real at the Cape, and now from my front yard! And who could forget the removal of prayer from public schools, thanks to the illustrious Baltimorean Madalyn Murray.
12th grade - JFK murder (I was in a hallway at Western High School, changing classes and then chaos and tears from students and teachers alike); the Beatles replaced love of folk music with love of Beatles music and a whole new popular culture
Makes me feel sort of like a geezer to see that so many of you experienced my high school era events when you were in elementary school or not even born yet! I'm glad there's at least a few others of us who are past the age of not being able to be trusted... (Never trust anyone over 30 - an old hippie slogan from the 60's)
6th grade - Sputnik - my father took me out into the backyard and showed it to me as it went overhead - well, maybe that's what we saw - we wanted to think we did
7th grade - Pope Pius XII died and we learned about black smoke and white smoke notifying the world that a new pope was elected, only to have him die when I was in 11th grade
9th grade - Bay of Pigs invasion; minor awareness of something called a war in a strange place called Vietnam
9th, 10th grades - love of rock 'n roll replaced by love of folk music; beginnings of manned space flight - we would be allowed to watch rocket launches on a small tv in a crowded small meeting area at Western - how different when a few years later I got to watch them for real at the Cape, and now from my front yard! And who could forget the removal of prayer from public schools, thanks to the illustrious Baltimorean Madalyn Murray.
12th grade - JFK murder (I was in a hallway at Western High School, changing classes and then chaos and tears from students and teachers alike); the Beatles replaced love of folk music with love of Beatles music and a whole new popular culture
Makes me feel sort of like a geezer to see that so many of you experienced my high school era events when you were in elementary school or not even born yet! I'm glad there's at least a few others of us who are past the age of not being able to be trusted... (Never trust anyone over 30 - an old hippie slogan from the 60's)
Posted by alicesenior on October 06, 2008 at 03:55 PM | #
Whoa Alice - all that rememberin today had me thinking the same thing - But it was later explained that they meant "anyone over 30 in the 60's". Now our kids are those people over 30.
So what happened to the people our parents warned us about? I guess we've become them, but it's all ok since not only us but also our kids are all over 30 and we have to trust somebody.
Posted by alicesenior on October 06, 2008 at 05:55 PM | #
What a time trip this is!
I have a vivid memory of sitting with my grandmother in her living room when the Salk vaccine to prevent polio was announced, 1952.
Aunt Gay
I have a vivid memory of sitting with my grandmother in her living room when the Salk vaccine to prevent polio was announced, 1952.
Aunt Gay
Posted by Gay Haldeman on October 06, 2008 at 05:59 PM | #
What amazing memories to have! I'm kinda jealous of you Boomers, but I don't know if it's because you have such seminal societal events to remember, of it it's because you just remember yours better...my own brain is a fog of contextual associations more than scientifically recall-able dates...the things I remember most specifically are: being in 9th grade English class when Challenger exploded; sitting in my armchair at home (early college) when notified that the Gulf War had officially begun; and not in school at all but definitely a fish out of water in the buckle of the Bible Belt, Pensacola, when 9/11 happened. My first political memory is the Carter/Reagan presidential running, seeing their faces side-by-side on TV, and hearing my Dad say something about hoping Carter wins...
My first political memory is the phrase " I Like Ike." (Technically not a Boomer - born at the end of the actual War).
My UK perspective:
In elementary school, 2nd grade - Queen's Silver Jubilee of 1977 - we had a street party and parade, I carried paper plates sprayed with gold paint as cymbals!
Charles and Di getting hitched, in 5th grade.
The IRA bombed the Tory Party Conference in Brighton, the tv pictures looked like hell on earth. I was in middle school, 8th grade.
Lockerbie - In High school. I remember the shock of realising something so huge had happened so close to home, just 75 miles away. I was in 12th grade.
Great question, Miss L!
In elementary school, 2nd grade - Queen's Silver Jubilee of 1977 - we had a street party and parade, I carried paper plates sprayed with gold paint as cymbals!
Charles and Di getting hitched, in 5th grade.
The IRA bombed the Tory Party Conference in Brighton, the tv pictures looked like hell on earth. I was in middle school, 8th grade.
Lockerbie - In High school. I remember the shock of realising something so huge had happened so close to home, just 75 miles away. I was in 12th grade.
Great question, Miss L!
Posted by Karen on October 07, 2008 at 08:26 AM | #
OOh! I remember the TV coverage of the Coronation...it was a big deal to get TV from England. We had coloring books and paper dolls and all kinds of Queen stuff over here.
You beat me to it. Karen's comment reminded me of the Coronation also. Yes, a big event even for us here in the Colonies. My sister recently sent me one of the Coronation toys we had - the Queen's chair, in minature, of course. the Coronation was a couple years before she was born so she wasn't quite sure what it was but my mother had kept it all these years.
The Stone of Scone is missing,though. My brother and I used to tease each other by hiding it from one another. I'll have to make one out of fimo.
The Stone of Scone is missing,though. My brother and I used to tease each other by hiding it from one another. I'll have to make one out of fimo.
Posted by alicesenior on October 07, 2008 at 07:06 PM | #
great discussion. whilst reading i talked to my girlfriend from junior high school and she said NBO day , may 7th. National Beat Off day; lend a friend a helping hand.
now , That's Funny.
for me, i remember going to visit friends who had color tv to watch the wonderful world of disney..
now , That's Funny.
for me, i remember going to visit friends who had color tv to watch the wonderful world of disney..
Posted by marie in florida on October 08, 2008 at 11:42 AM | #
I remember John Lennon's murder when I was in middle school, and mostly what I remember is asking my mom about the Beatles and her saying that she didn't like them because she thought they encouraged people to use drugs. She apparently didn't think I was old enough to understand anything else about their music or political ideas...I also remember the Nixon hearings from elementary school, and his resignation speech.
Posted by knitknaked on October 08, 2008 at 12:04 PM | #
I vaguely remember when President John F. Kennedy was shot.
I recall watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon's surface.
I vividly remember President Richard M. Nixon's resignation.
I must be getting old . . . and they say the MEMORY is the first thing to go.
Blessings all,
Linda
MEME EXPRESS – daily blog prompts
I recall watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the moon's surface.
I vividly remember President Richard M. Nixon's resignation.
I must be getting old . . . and they say the MEMORY is the first thing to go.
Blessings all,
Linda
MEME EXPRESS – daily blog prompts
Posted by Nickers and Ink on October 11, 2008 at 11:51 AM | #
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