You Know You Are Old When

[Norm W]

I was a Sr. in school when JFK was shot. I thought "Rats, now we have Johnson for President."

 

[jjeff]

Anyone remember the clapper commercials? as in clap on, clap off, the clapper. Wife tried telling me siri is like a modern clapper when she got one, that wretched thing is definitely not imo, me clapping like a moron at siri clusterfried it.

 

[WinterDeere]

The way my parents were acting made me a little nervous during the Cuban Missile crisis in '62

Did they make you practice crawling under your desk?

 

[Jstpssng]

Did they make you practice crawling under your desk?

We used to crouch in the school basement, head down with our hands clasped over the backs of our necks.
That must help leave a beautiful corpse when we got nuked.

 

[Hay Dude]

After watching “oppenheimer” on a flight from FL to PA, I can see why people were scared to death of nuclear holocaust.

 

[sixdogs]

We all know where we were when 9/11 happened, and probably Challenger... maybe even Columbia. Same with Waco, and at least for those of us anywhere near Philly, The Move. Many here are old enough to remember the assassinations of Kennedy and MLK Jr.

My earliest memory of a major news event was the death of Elvis in 1977, mostly because that breaking news interrupted whatever cartoon I was watching, and I remember my mother (prime age to be an Elvis fan) shushing me to hear the news on the TV.

I guess I should remember the John Lennon assassination, but since my parents were too old to be into the Beatles, that one didn't even get honorable mention in our house. The Ronald Reagan assassination attempt was much bigger news, at least in our house.

What's the earliest major news event you remember experiencing, live? Anyone here old enough to remember FDR dying in office? Harding? VE or VJ day?

Probably the Cuban Missile Crisis. We weren't much into TV but the neighbors were over and the men were watching the news show Ombudsman with great distress and nervous discussion. Folks genuinely expected a launch from the Soviet Union. In school we practiced getting under our desks. Then the storm passed and we went back to baseball and chili dogs.


Then the Kennedy assassination. We were in class when the PA system, normally used to deliver announcements, was abruptly switched on and the radio was blaring run-on sentences about Kennedy that we couldn't figure out.

Word spread like wildfire that he had been killed and kids and teachers alike were stunned in disbelief. No one was talking but just shuffling around as school was immediately dismissed. No one spoke much on the walk home but everyone was desperate for any bit of information. The same reported sentence with one different word became news in itself. The streets were nearly empty that afternoon, night and next day. No one was out.

 

[MoKelly]

When I first started working, I remember being on a job and heard President Reagan was shot.

We all clustered around a small radio and prayed.

Then some news organization reported he had died.

Then they changed their story.

It was a hugely emotional day.

 

[masseyrider]

We used to crouch in the school basement, head down with our hands clasped over the backs of our necks.
That must help leave a beautiful corpse when we got nuked.

At least you were in the basement. My homeroom was on the second floor with 30 kids under rickety desks.
Teacher told us we'd probably be close to nukes going off because of the Merican and Kanuckistanny power plants near Niagara Falls.

 

[WinterDeere]

To those old enough to remember the JFK assassination, or already an adult when Reagan was shot (I was a kid), how did these events compare to 9/11 in terms of immediate national/social impact?

There's no arguing that 9/11 must be the most impactful event since WW2, in national and even world history. It has literally changed our policy and daily lives forever, through added security and loss of basic rights and privacy, and kicking off a period of foreign war now lasting 23 years. And on the day it happened, I already knew the world would be changing, even if I didn't know how.

Did the JFK and attempted Reagan assassinations hit anywhere near as hard as 9/11? Cuban missile crisis?

 

[sixdogs]

Reagan was sort of a lesser impact because it was reported that way. 9/11 was different because the whole world knew victims and watched the events play out on multiple computer screens across the country and world.

Networks may have bleeped it out but financial people saw the jumping and heard them hitting the awnings at street level. Interview conversations on the street often didn't even pause after an impact but the interview continued. People clung to the ledges with no hope of escape and everyone watched the desperation unfold. Rumors spread in seconds.

I'd say 9/11 and The Cuban Missile Crisis were equals because of the amount of unknowns. JFK was powerful because it was 100% unexpected and he was so well liked. If you were a kid, you'll never forget Nov 22. I note there was no notice of the event on the news this past year. I guess it's history now.

The nukes from Cuba were supposed to be launched the next AM and I recall it reported and talked about that way. Adult men that had fought with fixed bayonets in the sands of Europe were afraid and said so.