Author Topic: 25 years ago today  (Read 5318 times)

simonp


Zipperhead

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #1 on: 28 January, 2011, 03:58:06 pm »
I remember being in the office in LA when the news came in. I can remember how shocked everybody was.
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interzen

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #2 on: 28 January, 2011, 04:09:29 pm »
I remember it well.
A late friend of my father was working for NASA at the time, and he regularly sent me the mission patches for the various STS flights. I remember receiving the patch for Challenger's final mission a few days before the launch proper.

I had them all framed, eventually, and they currently live at my parents house - the patch from STS-51-L, which featured a little apple by Christa McAuliffe's name, is in a black-bordered frame of its own.

Even now, it still stands out as one of the few events in my life which left me genuinely shocked - I remember having similar feelings when Columbia went down during re-entry in 2003.

Jaded

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #3 on: 28 January, 2011, 04:10:39 pm »
I was in London, well, Watford to be precise, wondering what to do because a Cup Tie replay had been cancelled.

The TV coverage was riveting. The end of the clean All-American Space Dream.
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simonp

Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #4 on: 28 January, 2011, 04:11:26 pm »
I remember coming home from school, putting the telly on, and seeing that image on the news.

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #5 on: 28 January, 2011, 04:50:02 pm »
I remember coming home from school, putting the telly on, and seeing that image on the news.


Similar to me except I wasn't at school that day for some reason. Highly unlikely to be due to illness (mum being a nurse meant no getting away with that sort of thing!), so it is possible that we were snowed in that day (pretty common event being up in the hills of the peak district).

It is weird to think in the days before mobiles and the internet etc. That I was the one who broke the news to my folks when they got back from work.

Still a truly shocking event that really sticks with me. Amazing that it was 25 years ago, makes me feel old for sure.
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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #6 on: 28 January, 2011, 04:58:22 pm »
My MD or the time invited me into his office to watch the TV news footage with a rather panicy "quick,quick,come see this"
We were both speechless for a few moments,not believing what we had seen.
It certainly is one of those "what were you doing when..." moments in life,similar to Lennon's murder & Kennedy's assasination.

Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #7 on: 28 January, 2011, 05:03:12 pm »
I remember coming home from school, putting the telly on, and seeing that image on the news.


From what I remember, the presenter on Newsround looked pretty shaken.
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simonp

Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #8 on: 28 January, 2011, 05:06:56 pm »
My MD or the time invited me into his office to watch the TV news footage with a rather panicy "quick,quick,come see this"
We were both speechless for a few moments,not believing what we had seen.
It certainly is one of those "what were you doing when..." moments in life,similar to Lennon's murder & Kennedy's assasination.

Kennedy was before my time, Lennon I recall but I was only about 8 or so IIRC, didn't really register as a Big Thing.

Challenger, yes.

Lockerbie: I was at my uncle's house when he said he'd heard some radio chatter on his coast guard radio (he was a volunteer) that suggested a plane had come down.

9/11 - I had been in a Japanese lesson at work.  Back down to the office, it was on about 4 tellies at the same time (we were developing Freeview decoders) with the News 24 coverage.

Columbia.  I was at home, in the morning, think it was the weekend.  Came downstairs, put the telly on, it's all over the news.

Can't offhand think of any other major events that I can remember where I was when I heard about it.

simonp

Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #9 on: 28 January, 2011, 05:08:00 pm »
Oh, Diana.  I was unaware until about 10am the following morning, when my housemate told me about it.

Woofage

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #10 on: 28 January, 2011, 05:24:24 pm »
Oh, Diana.  I was unaware until about 10am the following morning, when my housemate told me about it.


That's one I cannot forget. It was the day after Mrs Woofage and I tied the knot.

I remember the space shuttle disaster. I was a student at the time and had gone round to a friend's house to watch a fillum (I didn't have a telly myself).
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interzen

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #11 on: 28 January, 2011, 05:37:10 pm »
JFK was before my time, I remember Lennon's assassination quite vividly - as a kid I was a big fan of The Beatles (still am) and after I'd got up to get ready to go to school, my mother told me that John Lennon had been shot, although at the time nobody was sure whether or not he'd actually been killed. No prizes for guessing what the topic of that day's music lesson was (music teacher was a major Beatles fan too)

Diana's death had a certain 'WTF?!' factor to it because of the circumstances, but the one thing that stands out in my mind is riding up to see my parents on the day of her funeral and there being hardly anything else on the roads. The cynical republican in me wants to say 'best ride ever' ...

9/11 I was working at York Uni, and was wondering why it was damn near impossible to access the BBC News website when a colleague stuck his head round the door and said that a plane had flown into the WTC - we thought he was kidding. He wasn't. The rest, as they say, is history.

Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #12 on: 28 January, 2011, 06:08:25 pm »
On that day my mate asked me what does NASA stand for – need another seven astronauts

hellymedic

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #13 on: 28 January, 2011, 06:18:14 pm »
My then boyfriend & I had seen IMAX  film about shuttle in Bradford just a few weeks previously. Very sad.

spindrift

Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #14 on: 28 January, 2011, 06:29:24 pm »
I remember being incredibly angry with the cameraman who went for an extreme close-up of the teacher's parents after the explosion.

mattc

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #15 on: 28 January, 2011, 06:33:10 pm »
Challenger, yes.

Lockerbie: I was at my uncle's house when he said he'd heard some radio chatter on his coast guard radio (he was a volunteer) that suggested a plane had come down.

9/11 - I had been in a Japanese lesson at work.  Back down to the office, it was on about 4 tellies at the same time (we were developing Freeview decoders) with the News 24 coverage.

Columbia.  I was at home, in the morning, think it was the weekend.  Came downstairs, put the telly on, it's all over the news.

Can't offhand think of any other major events that I can remember where I was when I heard about it.

I mean no disrespect to Diana, her family or her many fans, here:
There is no way her death is in the same league as the above events.

(although I'll always remember it, due to being on a stag-do that night - the corresponding wedding was the same day as Di's funeral. I'll always feel sorry for the happy couple, but I think they're still together!  :thumbsup:

9/11 is my only other "Where were you when ..." event - like Simon's, our office had masses of cable TVs showing the coverage.)
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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #16 on: 28 January, 2011, 08:29:28 pm »
I remember when I heard Elvis had died.  I didn't know who he was, though.
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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #17 on: 28 January, 2011, 08:38:43 pm »
I was in London, well, Watford to be precise..

I do that. Where do you live? they say. Um, North London, I reply.

I was in Watford too. At school, I think. Don't remember anything else. A TV was on, I don't know how I got to see a TV at school. Maybe someone set one up? maybe I didn't see it until after school. I was in Watford though, that much I can be reasonably sure of. But only because I didn't ever go anywhere else except in the summer.

andygates

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #18 on: 28 January, 2011, 08:48:59 pm »
Newsround.  I swear I saw it live, but apparently most people think that and are wrong.

It still scores evens with 9/11 for "woah. dude. crap." pants-and-perspective moment.
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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #19 on: 28 January, 2011, 08:53:18 pm »
9/11

I was working on a Business Continuity contract at the time and out and about on the day in the car. I phoned one of our service providers for some reason or other and the chap who answered apologised for the delay answering because everybody was in a meeting as 'a plane had just flown into one of the World Trade Centre towers in New York'. I was completely thrown, on a 'is this for real or a drill' level. I spent the rest of the day in a cafe with a TV watching the second plane going in and the towers coming down. A dreadful day.

The WTC housed a lot of emergency response functions and consequently a lot of companies in the BC/DR business had offices there. Basically, everybody in the office that day died.

Wowbagger

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #20 on: 28 January, 2011, 09:27:15 pm »
Challenger, yes.

Lockerbie: I was at my uncle's house when he said he'd heard some radio chatter on his coast guard radio (he was a volunteer) that suggested a plane had come down.

9/11 - I had been in a Japanese lesson at work.  Back down to the office, it was on about 4 tellies at the same time (we were developing Freeview decoders) with the News 24 coverage.

Columbia.  I was at home, in the morning, think it was the weekend.  Came downstairs, put the telly on, it's all over the news.

Can't offhand think of any other major events that I can remember where I was when I heard about it.

I mean no disrespect to Diana, her family or her many fans, here:
There is no way her death is in the same league as the above events.

(although I'll always remember it, due to being on a stag-do that night - the corresponding wedding was the same day as Di's funeral. I'll always feel sorry for the happy couple, but I think they're still together!  :thumbsup:

9/11 is my only other "Where were you when ..." event - like Simon's, our office had masses of cable TVs showing the coverage.)

I'd agree about Diana. Mind you, I thought the Shuttle disaster was a "just one of those things" rather than an epoch-making event.

There are some other events which I'd say are more significant than the above: US withdrawing from Vietnam being one, the fall of apartheid a second and the fall of Milosevic being a third. There were some who were comparing Milosevic to Hitler as a potential threat and I remember being extremely relieved when John Simpson liberated Belgrade.

Oh, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis but only because of the genuine fear radiated by my mum. I remember a few news bulletins but nothing by way of detail.
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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #21 on: 28 January, 2011, 09:29:56 pm »
Space stuff never having interested me in the slightest (other than as a total waste of money and an unusual example of standard exploiting/fooling the masses) I have no recollection of the event whatsoever.

All bollox.
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hellymedic

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #22 on: 28 January, 2011, 11:49:06 pm »
Challenger, yes.

Lockerbie: I was at my uncle's house when he said he'd heard some radio chatter on his coast guard radio (he was a volunteer) that suggested a plane had come down.

9/11 - I had been in a Japanese lesson at work.  Back down to the office, it was on about 4 tellies at the same time (we were developing Freeview decoders) with the News 24 coverage.

Columbia.  I was at home, in the morning, think it was the weekend.  Came downstairs, put the telly on, it's all over the news.

Can't offhand think of any other major events that I can remember where I was when I heard about it.

I mean no disrespect to Diana, her family or her many fans, here:
There is no way her death is in the same league as the above events.

(although I'll always remember it, due to being on a stag-do that night - the corresponding wedding was the same day as Di's funeral. I'll always feel sorry for the happy couple, but I think they're still together!  :thumbsup:

9/11 is my only other "Where were you when ..." event - like Simon's, our office had masses of cable TVs showing the coverage.)

I'd agree about Diana. Mind you, I thought the Shuttle disaster was a "just one of those things" rather than an epoch-making event.

There are some other events which I'd say are more significant than the above: US withdrawing from Vietnam being one, the fall of apartheid a second and the fall of Milosevic being a third. There were some who were comparing Milosevic to Hitler as a potential threat and I remember being extremely relieved when John Simpson liberated Belgrade.

Oh, I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis but only because of the genuine fear radiated by my mum. I remember a few news bulletins but nothing by way of detail.

My grandmother termed Milosevic 'a little Hitler' on the day she died.
She was 101.

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #23 on: 29 January, 2011, 12:04:43 am »
Came home from university & the flatmates were sitting transfixed by the umpteenth repeat of the fireworks.

Jaded

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Re: 25 years ago today
« Reply #24 on: 29 January, 2011, 12:08:09 am »
9/11 I remember well.

I nearly crashed my car. I'd been with a friend (now mortally ill) taking promotional photos. I turned on R4 expecting an afternoon play and got aural armageddon. I was in the middle of treatment for PTSD and I shook all the way home. Followed by 12 hours of alternating between hiding behind the sofa and being glued to the TV.

Some time later I had nightmares of being on the floor of the 2nd tower where the plane hit.

Isn't the brain a wonderful machine.
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