Your earliest news memory

[Forevermarypoppins]

The assassination of Sen Robert Kennedy. I was only 8 and I knew it was bad. My dad cried.

 

[RamblingMad]

We all gathered around the TV in my grade school class to see the first woman/teacher astronaut . . . blow up. Yep. I remember it pretty clearly.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Challenger explosion, I think I was in kindergarten.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

We all gathered around the TV in my grade school class to see the first woman/teacher astronaut . . . blow up. Yep. I remember it pretty clearly.

Challenger? That was my first news memory too. I think I was in kindergarten. We didn't watch it in class though, but I remember the teachers talking about it in front of us and then seeing it on the news that night at home.

 

[RamblingMad]

Challenger? That was my first news memory too. I think I was in kindergarten. We didn't watch it in class though, but I remember the teachers talking about it in front of us and then seeing it on the news that night at home.

My teacher freaked out. They didn't have a playbook for it blowing up.

 

[mom2rtk]

The Watergate hearings. We were spending a week at my Grandparents' farm. And Grandma didn't like them preempting her "stories".

 

[mrsap]

The Watergate hearings. We were spending a week at my Grandparents' farm. And Grandma didn't like them preempting her "stories".

my Grandmother also used to call them her ‘stories!’ Too funny!!

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

My teacher freaked out. They didn't have a playbook for it blowing up.

Aww, that's sad. The kids at the school I work at were pretty freaked about the events at the Capitol, today was our first day back to class and it's all any of them wanted to talk about. Thank goodness we weren't in school watching when it happened, there's definitely not a playbook for that sort of thing.

 

[RedAngie]

Probably Apollo 1 fire/explosion on the launchpad in 1967. All three astronauts were killed.

 

[cleverclovers]

JFK's death. I was in 1st grade

 

[MouseLover]

Watergate. I didn’t have a clue what it was but I remember it being the story night after night.

 

[Debbie Jean]

JFK assassination. I was 11. I also remember seeing Lee Harvey Oswald killed on live TV.

 

[snappy]

JFK assassination. I was 11. I also remember seeing Lee Harvey Oswald killed on live TV.

Me too. We lived just outside of Dallas in 1963. My dad was in downtown Dallas that day, although not near the motorcade route.

 

[Lumpy1106]

The Apollo space missions. I remember my dad having to tinker with the tubes in the B&W TV to get a clear enough picture so we could all watch it.

 

[Communicore1991]

Have you ever visited any of the sites? Flight 93 was the first time in my life I ever had to leave the location I was at because I had tears streaming from my eyes. It was the people listening on phone handsets to the last phone calls on the plane that did me in. I didn't even listen, I could hear others holding the phone out for their spouses to hear.

Following year we went to NYC. To walk around the memorial, the feeling can not be put into words. You can feel their presence as you read the names.

Yes I've gone to the 9/11 Memorial Museum (the official one) multiple times over the last few years. There are SO many artifacts and things to look at, it's impossible to see it all in one visit unless you spend multiple hours there. They also have a rotating exhibit space so there's always going to be something new to see. Certain parts can be overwhelming such as when you hear the audio of people who were in the tower leaving voicemails saying they are fine and would be home later, but they never did. It's a very moving experience and having lived through it and being so close to it, it's one of those things forever embedded in my memory as it is for many.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I remember the adults saying 'Watergate' a lot. No clue what it meant, but I distinctly remember the word. The earliest news story I remember in it's entirety is probably all the stories of the Bicentennial in 1976 because I lived in Philadelphia and it was of course really big news.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

At this exact moment thinking back for big big news things was Princess Diana's death. I remember we were in a hotel on vacation somewhere and I was on the roll out bed and it came on the tv.

After that it would be Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal and the infamous "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" statement

After that was Y2K and all the concerns over computers and our way of life. A lot of people really didn't know what going from 1999 to 2000 was going to do to our technology. I remember when the clock struck midnight in my house this anxiety lifted and then New Year's Day fully came and all the Y2K stuff ebbed away.

After that was 9/11. I was in a study hall and watched the second tower be hit just moments after the tv was turned on by the teacher who was in that study hall period, I remember the TV being shut off a bit after (though with enough time to see things unfold) and I remember my dad picking myself and then my sister up from school and the sheer pandemonium over gasoline at the gas stations and the price gouging. I remember being in a fog that day, the actual understanding of just what had occurred came later.

Some things did happen after I was born but I don't have this strong memory tied to them to recall it the way others have.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Bush/Gore election in 2000 and 9/11 in 2001. I was 10/11, 5th and 6th grade.

Oooo I hadn't read all the comments before making mine. I do remember the Bush/Gore election. I remember my school did a mock election for social studies purposes. I honestly can't remember who won in our mock election but I do now remember that.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I am not sure how I could have forgotten Columbine. It wasn't my earliest memory but it was an early one. There was so much fervor over what caused it--video games, to music, how people dressed, to gun control, to school hierarchies, etc.

In high school several years after it had occurred a few of the survivors came to talk to our high school.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Oooo I hadn't read all the comments before making mine. I do remember the Bush/Gore election. I remember my school did a mock election for social studies purposes. I honestly can't remember who won in our mock election but I do now remember that.

My elementary school also did a mock election. Or at least the 5th grade (my grade) did. Bush won our mock election, which upon reflection surprises me because I live in MA.