The Swamp

So this is a direct rip from http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/whats- ... 1783225504 but the first story I remember hearing about was the OJ trial. I was pretty sheltered in E. Washington without (non-movie) TV but I was in the 4th grade.

Yeah, saw that on twitter. For me it is some vague combination of Ayatollah in Iran and Russians in Afghanistan. The hostage crisis and the Olympic boycott.

when are we really coherent of things happening? Age 10?

Sports wise I remember 1986. Stanley Cup Final, World Cup and World Series. Don't remember 85 at all so that's the cutoff.
News wise? probably the challenger explosion also in 86

Edit: was born on 76

Probably the 84 Olympics or the 84 Tigers. I have very vague recollections of the embassy hostages in Iran when I was 7, but I wouldn't swear to anything specific.

I don't know if there's one specific thing I remember. It's kind of a mish-mash of the oil crisis in the late 1970s and the Iranian hostage situation.

Remember this pretty well....along with Mark Spitz and Olga Korbut from the same Olympics.

born december 1956; 6(and a half!) yo at the time.
This.



and a tune to accompany

Think it was Apollo 7 or 8.

If you were young enough that the first story in 1968 you remember is Apollo 8, bless you. Everything that preceded it that year sucked ass. (Except the Tigers beating the Cards in the World Series. Mickey Lolich credit for my first big gambling score, at 11yo, prob 4 or 5 dollars.)

Born in '78, so the early/mid 80's are where I first gained a vague awareness of things going on in the wider world. Earliest news things I remember are: the '84 election, the '84 Olympics (largely because I lived in the L.A. area), the stuff with Qaddafi...but the first singular thing that was quickly recognizable as being of major historical importance would probably be the Challenger disaster.

One other thing I remember from around the same time was AIDS first coming to public prominence. Only my young mind wildly misunderstood what was going on--at the time there was a popular diet supplement called AYDS that was regularly advertised on TV. I saw all the news stories about Rock Hudson and thought that he had some mysterious unknown disease and was taking AYDS to try to cure it.

I can remember John Lennon being killed, mostly because I remember how it affected my mom. I would have been 5 going on 6 at the time, and I can't recall anything major prior to that.

Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Bill Clinton's 32nd birthday.

I was 4 when Kennedy was shot. Vague recollection. First big thing I remember well:



eta: I also remember MLK and RFK being shot.

Challenger.

When baby Jessica feel down the well? I was 4, but I remember that.

Otherwise, the first Iraq war. I was turning 7 during that.

Challenger. Remember watching on a grainy black and white tv in my third grade classroom while other students were at lunch or at recess. Before that would be '84 Olympics, mainly Carl Lewis and Mary Lou.

Regular sporting events would be '86 World Series. Cried my self to sleep after the ball went through Buckner's legs. The principal at my mom's school was married to a doctor from NE area. He had a subscription to the Red Sox fanzine. When he was done, I would get them and poured over them all season. Also, when the Colts moved to Indy. I still have the painters hat they handed out at training camp that year. A nice perk of living in a training camp town.

I clearly remember the 84 winter olympics as well as summer (mostly Mary Lou) and the Tigers season/ WS win. Then I remember Live Aid in '85. Challenger was the first thing I remember in a school context. They sent us home early. I watched game shows and ate soup.

I might remember the figure skating from the 1980 olympics, but I was only a little over 3 so I'm probably remembering reruns of the routines.

ETA I was born in December of 1976.

For me, it's Magic Johnson's HIV diagnosis. There may have been earlier stories that got some of my attention, but that's the first one for which I have any vivid memories.

I'll be Jackie Robinson I'm December, so I can clearly remember the 1980 presidential election. I also have vague memories of being pissed at Iran and Thurman Munson's plane crash ('79) and the Miracle on Ice and the Phillies first title ('80).

I'd say OJ, though I had no idea of what it meant. I just knew a famous bad man did something bad and everyone cared about it.

As far as understanding the implications of what was going on, probably the OKC bombing. I had just turned 8.

Post your age or year born, would make this more interesting IMO. So many listed bring back such vivid memories of where I was when I learned of all these events, but there was a great study by a Swedish psychologist showing no correlation between how confident people were in the accuracy of their memories and the accuracy of their memories. He did a study when the Swedish President or monarch was assassinated. He had people write a journal about where they were and how they learned, then had them write their recollections every X number of years. People's recollections often completely completely changed over time, yet they were confident their memory was accurate. I would think writing the journal shortly after the event would solidify the memory. That's how my memory works, anyways. Not sure if it qualifies as a photographic memory, but on tests in college, if I didn't know the answer to a question, I could remember where on the page in my notebook I had the answer, then could picture the page in my head and reread the page. Life was s much easier with multiple choice tests...

We ate dinner with Dan Rather on in the background my entire childhood. Looking back, it makes no sense that I was the only one with a decent view of the TV. I had to look at a year by year list of top news stories to figure out the years of events. Born in 1976, and 1981 seems to be the earliest events I remember. I remember Reagan being shot and the air traffic controllers strike for some reason. I also remember watching the Prince Charles/Diana wedding, and the Pope being shot. Not sure the order of those events.

Interesting because now you mention it I do have vague recollections of the pope and Reagan being shot, as well as the Miracle on Ice. But I would have been about 7 for those, so they're not really clear as specific, several memories about the 84 Olympics and the 84 Tigers (when I was 10).

I said challenger above. I was in third grade (born 1977) and we were all watching the launch as we did all launches. As kids we didn't really know what was happening, looked like fireworks show but didn't really think about the fact that the astronauts were dead. The teacher, Mrs. Rice, immediately started crying, and they turned the TV off pretty quickly because then some kids started crying probably because she was upset more than it hitting home what was happening . The assistant principal came around to the classes over the next few days after we'd kinda figured out what a big deal it was. I guess it was a grief counseling of some strain, but I can't say I remember being really grief-stricken.

Edit: I guess I need to revise a bit, because I also remember Pete Rose getting the hit that broke Ty Cobb's record, which a quick google tells me was before the Challenger. I think sports are probably different than big "news" stories, but I swear I feel like I was watching the game, even though this was before every reds game being on TV or live look ins. It was early in the game so I suppose it was on WGN or TBS or something just because it was a potential record-breaker.

I was born in '70, so a lot of my early stories kind of mash together and it's REALLY difficult to tell if I remember them now because they are kind of iconic and have been brought up so much, or if I remember them because of the impact that they had on my young mind.

I'd say stuff that I distinctly remember were lines at the gas stations because of OPEC, the whole Patty Hearst thing fascinated me, Jonestown freaked me the fuck out, Cambodia and Pol Pot...

But, by for the biggest event for me that I know is not a retroactive thing was Jimmy Carter beating Ford in '76. Growing up a huge MI fan, Ford was the first time I kind of grappled with loving a guy because of sports, but really not liking him off the field. My mom was a huge lib (still is) and I got really sucked into that race. Saw Ford stump in person, and cried tears of joy when Carter won.

(Just to give a bit more context, 4 years later I was going door-to-door pushing John Anderson's candidacy to the often bemusement and befuddlement of my neighbors.)

Miracle on Ice (it did take place a town over) and Lennon.

I do remember long gas lines during the oil embargo, but I don't think I knew why.

Born late '72.

Born in 1965. I think I remember the Munich Olympics hostage taking. But I am sure I remember hearing that Roberto Clemente had died. Otherwise my earliest news stories would be Watergate and the Yom Kippur War of 1973.

rass wrote:I can remember John Lennon being killed, mostly because I remember how it affected my mom. I would have been 5 going on 6 at the time, and I can't recall anything major prior to that.

i was 4 when the lennon was shot, but i feel like the words "gun" and "shot" are words that i have always subconsciously associated with lennon's death. my mom followed that closely as well since she played the magical mystery tour lp non-stop when i was a kid. that and fucking carly simon.

the other story that i remember around that same time was when someone was threatening to blow up the washington monument. because he wanted to ban nukes. awesome.

'84 Olympics. Between Mary Lou Retton and Carl Lewis, there was a pretty strong Houston connection. I vaguely remember the NC State/UH game, but the first college basketball game I remember really being into was the Georgetown/Villanova final.

Born in 1953.

First strong recollection is JFK assassination. Was home for lunch and they interrupted my Mom's soap with the news. Saw it on a 13" B&W television.

When I was home from kindergarten to eat lunch I heard the news of JFK's death.

Going home for lunch in grade school was awesome.

I missed the freedom to do this when my parents moved during first grade and I was incarcerated during lunch period at the new school because I was now a bus rider.

howard wrote:Going home for lunch in grade school was awesome.

God, yes. It's funny how that was so different than today. I hadn't even thought about that for decades.

I wonder how much of the departure from this was due to fear of kids getting kidnapped or killed or whatever, or how much due to kids needing free/reduced school lunch, and how much is due to the fact that in most cases Mom is working all day.

howard wrote:Going home for lunch in grade school was awesome.

It really was. I can remember in Junior High, going to a buddy's house where we watched the Gong Show every day. Comedy gold!

I was born in 1970.

I had a vague knowledge about Vietnam, but no actual memories. I also vaguely remember the energy crisis and seeing long lines for gas on the news (don't remember seeing any of those lines in real life).

The one memory I can clearly place is Reagan's inauguration when Iran released the hostages. I had been taken out of school that day to go skiing for the first time (Massanutten in Virginia). They announced the freeing of the hostages over the loudspeakers and everyone on the slopes cheered.

Shirley wrote:I was born in 1970.

I had a vague knowledge about Vietnam, but no actual memories. I also vaguely remember the energy crisis and seeing long lines for gas on the news (don't remember seeing any of those lines in real life).

The one memory I can clearly place is Reagan's inauguration when Iran released the hostages. I had been taken out of school that day to go skiing for the first time (Massanutten in Virginia). They announced the freeing of the hostages over the loudspeakers and everyone on the slopes cheered.

...causing the great Massanutten Avalanche of 1981.

This isn't news, per se, but based on a conversation with my mom last weekend, I'm pretty sure my first very clear memory is dealing with intense confusion at 4 or 5 when I was staying over with my paternal grandmother and when she ran out of milk in the morning, she poured OJ on her cereal like it was nothing.

mister d wrote:This isn't news, per se, but based on a conversation with my mom last weekend, I'm pretty sure my first very clear memory is dealing with intense confusion at 4 or 5 when I was staying over with my paternal grandmother and when she ran out of milk in the morning, she poured OJ on her cereal like it was nothing.

My grandfather would use water, sometimes when milk was available.

A_B wrote:

mister d wrote:This isn't news, per se, but based on a conversation with my mom last weekend, I'm pretty sure my first very clear memory is dealing with intense confusion at 4 or 5 when I was staying over with my paternal grandmother and when she ran out of milk in the morning, she poured OJ on her cereal like it was nothing.

My grandfather would use water, sometimes when milk was available.

Born in '76, so the standard Reagan shot / Challenger / 84 Olympics stories.

(Always trips me out when I'm reminded AB is younger than me.)