Bill (aka my dad!): "Well I remember a lot but the ones that I recall most clearly were... well the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I was in Omaha, Nebraska at Offut Air force base in the base exchange when I heard. My youngest memory was when President Truman fired General McArthur, that probably makes me really old but I don't care. Oh! I remember when the astronauts landed on the moon. I heard it on the radio in my car and I rushed home to watch it on tv. I can remember a lot of stuff about when I was in the Vietnam war, but I don't want to get into that. The only memory I will mention is when I was in a helicopter with a bunch people shooting at us, and a piece of shrapnel hit me in the chest and burned the hell out of me. A more recent event that I remember really well would have to be 9/11. I recall hearing on my way to work just before 8 a witness saying that a plane had flown into the first tower, and a few minutes later the witness confirmed that a second plane had hit the second tower. The witness was a man staring out of his window with his wife watching everything happen and he was yelling "I can't believe it! Another plane just hit the other tower!"It was pretty surreal. I remember when John Lennon died. I was in New York... I had gone to dinner and when I got back to the hotel everyone was talking about it. I remember when Reagan got shot. I remember when that plane landed in the river in New York a few years ago. I remember the first American appearance of the Beatles... they were on the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember when I got black and white tv. I actually remember our first tv. It was an 8 inch screen. It seemed big back then... I remember party lines. Five houses would all be on the same line and have the same phone number. So you'd go to pick up the phone and someone else would be having a conversation so you would hang up and wait your turn. I remember the first computers. I remember 78 records.
Renee (aka my mom!): "Oh gosh. Well, I remember when President Carter pardoned the draft dodgers who had went to Canada to escape the Vietnam War. My mom was SO mad. I will never forget that coming off the news. I was really little, but my parents were so upset that it will always stick in my mind. I was really young but I vaguely remember when JFK died. I really remember when the space shuttle exploded with the school teacher on it. Of course I remember 9/11. I was dropping Sydney off at pre-school and I was in my car. I turned on the news on the radio and heard. I remember when the pope came to Des Moines! My mom went to the living history farm to see him. She rode a bus and had to walk... she was excited. I remember during the Vietnam War when one of my best friend's brothers was killed. Oh gosh I remember when Nixon got pardoned? What was happening? I remember he was in a bunch of trouble... OH! They were trying to impeach him, that's what it was. I remember that being a whole big mess. I remember when Reagan died, we were in California for a wedding. I also remember when the iron curtain was taken down in Russia! I REALLY remember when Princess Diana died. We had come home from a company anniversary thing and your grandma was sitting at the tv crying. She never bought another smut magazine. She was so mad at the paparazzi. She used to go to Medicine More every week for a magazine and some cigarettes and she was so upset that she never bought another trashy magazine. I remember when Elvis died! OH! I stayed up all night to watch the wedding of Princess Diana and Prince Charles. It was like at 4 or 5 in the morning, it was crazy, but I saw the whole thing! I remember Hurricane Katrina... I remember when the Staten Island Ferry ran into the dock in New York. I remember being stuck in Des Moines during the floods of '93. We were driving across a bridge and the water was level with the car. I remember when John F. Kennedy Jr. died. I remember when the Beatles were out. My sister LOVED them. I remember Elvis on the Ed Sullivan Show. They only showed him from the waist up because rock and roll was evil. I remember getting touch tone telephones! Oh, party lines! I would never hang up, I would listen to my neighbors conversations. I remember when they were going to change the whole world to the metric system. I remember when they went albums to a-track players to cassette players to cd players to ipods now.
Now my turn!
When Mrs. Knechel asked me to think about this I started to freak out a little inside. I thought, A"Alright Madison, you don't know that many so you should either heavily explain the one you do know or just start to look stuff up and pretend like you remembered it", but after interviewing my parents I realized that I knew way more than I thought I did. The "newsworthy events"didn't have to be specifically conflicts in different countries, but could be about anything that I had remembered.
I, of course, remember 9/11. I was sitting in my babysitter Mrs. Jeanne's kitchen after she had come and picked me up from school. The ever popular tv show "Big Wolf on Campus" was cancelled and I was of course extremely dissapointed, but Mrs. Jeanne made me keep on the news report that had replaced it. I remember seeing pictures of the world trade center and although I didn't fully understand what was happening I was afraid. I remember when Anna Nicole Smith died! I though people were kidding when they first told me. I remember when Michael Jackson held his baby out of a hotel room window to "say hello to fans" and people freaked out thinking that he was crazy and was trying to kill his child. I remember when Princess Diana died because I got the beanie baby created for her after her death from my babysitter. I remember when Osama Bin Laden was captured. I was prepping to sing the national anthem at the ram's game when it came on the tv. Right before I sang they announced it and I remember the stadium going crazy. I remember when J. Lo and Ben Affleck cancelled their wedding. I remember when Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake broke up. That was awful. I remember when George Busch won the presidential election over John Kerry. I remember when the blonde harp playing girl was found after being abducted from her home and was kidnapped for many years. I remember when Janet Jackson had her nipple incident at the Super Bowl with Justin Timberlake. I remember when Heath Ledger died. I remember the tsunami in Sri Lanka and Hurricane Katrina. I remember when Friends went off of the air. I remember when Mark McGuire was found to have been using steroids. I remember the shooting at Columbine Highschool. I remember when the pope was very sick. I was in Chicago at a dance competition and I sat at the tv with my mom and saw all of the people with candles, crying and praying. I also remember soon after when he passed away. I remember when the Amish school girls were murdered. I remember when scientists decided Pluto was not a planet... and then decided it was again. I remember when the space shuttle exploded. I remember watching former President Reagan's funeral and watching his wife cry on his coffin. I think that if I sat here for a few hours i would remember more and more stories. It doesn't hit you how much you absorb by just listening to the radio or having aol as your homepage on your computer... When i started this I thought I knew nothing, but now I think I might know a little more than I thought!
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