Mike at Erie Blogs asked today: “what is the first world news story you remember?”
For me, the earliest news story that I remember is the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981. I was seven. I wish I could say it was the death of John Lennon, but unfortunately I can’t conjure up any real memory of receiving that news even though it was only a few months earlier than Reagan. Guess I just wasn’t that cool of a seven-year-old (as if that were in question). My love of music, including the Beatles, started a little later.
The Reagan news was memorable for me because of the ubiquitous television coverage. My family didn’t have cable yet, so we had nowhere to go on the television dial to escape seeing the attempt over and over and OVER again. I was so annoyed that I couldn’t watch what I wanted to during the nonstop coverage. Concern over our President, not so much. What do you want, I was seven.
Like Mike, the Challenger explosion in 1986 was striking for me. For that story, I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I first heard about it. I was in seventh grade and learned about it after most of my classmates. Several of us were out in the gifted van, which sounds even more ridiculous now than back then, when the news broke. When we got back inside to our classroom, it was dead quiet and everyone was focused on the TV. It felt like we were interrupting something very private.
I’ll go ahead and ask what your first news memory is, even though I’m not sure this mic is on (anyone out there???). So far it’s buckeye tip seekers and Good Todo researchers–any of you care to comment on your first news memory and be my first commenter who isn’t a friend in real life? I promise I won’t bite (hard).
It was Reagan getting shot for me, too. I can distinctly remember Molly and me dancing around singing “Hinckley, Pinkley!”
Challenger was the next one. I was sick, at my great aunt’s house, and we remembered that it was supposed to launch. We turned on the TV like 2 minutes after the explosion when people still didn’t know what was going on. I remember how upset Tom Brokaw was.
Then maybe Ryan White having AIDS. There was another Ryan White in my class so that’s why that stuck out.
I am so excited that Logy Express is live – I just figured that out tonight!