A comment on a thread made me think about where I was when I heard about the Twin Towers and then made me think about other big events that I can clearly remember what I was doing when I heard. So I thought it would be interesting to see what other big events people can remember clearly.
I'll go first:
September 11, 2001.
My sister woke up to the news, thought it was a movie and turned off her TV. Dad woke up an hour or so later and heard it on the radio. He woke mum, who turned on the TV, then woke us all up. I remember standing in front of the TV watching the footage and next thing I was sitting down on the floor. We were all late to work and school. School had a few TV's with the news on, but no one was allowed to be those classrooms on their own.
My uncle was supposed to be in New York during that week. We didn't know where he was for 3 days. He was safe in Texas, just didn't have anyone's numbers to call. He boss finally tracked down my aunty that lived in the same town.
My birthday is September 12, the date is was in Australia when the towers collapsed.
Black Saturday, 7th February 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires
I had gone to our caravan in Torquay after work the night before. I knew it was going to be hot, but no-one expected it to be that hot. My car wouldn't start, so I couldn't get back to Melbourne or get to anywhere that had air con. I was stuck in a caravan that showed 54 celsius (129.2F) inside and 48C (118.4F) outside. The UV was listed as Extreme, but is was far beyond normal 'extreme' levels. I got sunburnt walking the 30m to the toilet block and back.
I was listening to broadcast after broadcast telling people it was too late to leave. Spot fires were starting up to 5kms ahead of the fire front. Fires were traveling over big areas in minutes. I have never been so scared.
When Torquay started to get smoke from the Weerite fire, I had everything ready to go in sealed plastic bags because I seriously thought I would need to run to the beach.
Port Arthur Massacre 28-29 April 1996. (I was 11.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_A...cre_(Australia)
We were all at my Gran's house for some reason when dad yelled for everyone to shut up. The radio station was reporting a shooting in near Port Arthur in Tasmania. They didn't have much information, but at each hourly news break more and more deaths were reported.
We had never had anything like this happen in Oz and it pre-dates easy mobile phone access. Information was patchy. It was 2 or 3 days before even the media understood the scale of what had happened.
I just realised that my biggest 3 are all disasters. Does anyone have any good/happy ones in their top major events?
I'll go first:
September 11, 2001.
My sister woke up to the news, thought it was a movie and turned off her TV. Dad woke up an hour or so later and heard it on the radio. He woke mum, who turned on the TV, then woke us all up. I remember standing in front of the TV watching the footage and next thing I was sitting down on the floor. We were all late to work and school. School had a few TV's with the news on, but no one was allowed to be those classrooms on their own.
My uncle was supposed to be in New York during that week. We didn't know where he was for 3 days. He was safe in Texas, just didn't have anyone's numbers to call. He boss finally tracked down my aunty that lived in the same town.
My birthday is September 12, the date is was in Australia when the towers collapsed.
Black Saturday, 7th February 2009.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Saturday_bushfires
I had gone to our caravan in Torquay after work the night before. I knew it was going to be hot, but no-one expected it to be that hot. My car wouldn't start, so I couldn't get back to Melbourne or get to anywhere that had air con. I was stuck in a caravan that showed 54 celsius (129.2F) inside and 48C (118.4F) outside. The UV was listed as Extreme, but is was far beyond normal 'extreme' levels. I got sunburnt walking the 30m to the toilet block and back.
I was listening to broadcast after broadcast telling people it was too late to leave. Spot fires were starting up to 5kms ahead of the fire front. Fires were traveling over big areas in minutes. I have never been so scared.
When Torquay started to get smoke from the Weerite fire, I had everything ready to go in sealed plastic bags because I seriously thought I would need to run to the beach.
Port Arthur Massacre 28-29 April 1996. (I was 11.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_A...cre_(Australia)
We were all at my Gran's house for some reason when dad yelled for everyone to shut up. The radio station was reporting a shooting in near Port Arthur in Tasmania. They didn't have much information, but at each hourly news break more and more deaths were reported.
We had never had anything like this happen in Oz and it pre-dates easy mobile phone access. Information was patchy. It was 2 or 3 days before even the media understood the scale of what had happened.
I just realised that my biggest 3 are all disasters. Does anyone have any good/happy ones in their top major events?
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