where was i?

It's a meme:

Princess Diana's death - August 31, 1997

Australia is 9-11 hours ahead of Europe so it was Sunday daytime here. We were scheduled to go for lunch at Helen and Gaz's place. We had Foxtel (cable) at the time and had it turned on for some reason and so we saw the very first reports on BBC World of the car crash in Paris that had killed Dodi, including the reports, which continued for a long time, that Diana had escaped with minor injuries. We watched for an hour or more before leaving the house to drive to lunch. I remember having a sense that something was wrong even though there was no hard evidence of it. On the way in the car we had the radio on and about halfway there (it was a 30 minute drive), news came on that Diana had in fact died. We pulled over to the side of the road to listen properly. It felt like a historic moment (something which I now feel sceptical about.) Then we continued on to H and G's, where we sat out in the garden and discussed the news. Suddenly the old Greek man who lived next door came to the fence and called out for Gaz, who is English, to tell him how sorry he was that "your princess" had died.

Margaret Thatcher's Resignation - November 22, 1990
I was in Freud's bar near Covent Garden in London with my close friend Diana (not the princess), it must have been about 6pm. There was a tv above the bar which was carrying the live breaking news - we were both very excited. I don't remember how other people around us reacted. I couldn't quite believe it - in the end it had all unravelled so quickly and mysteriously.

Attack on the Twin Towers - September 11, 2001

Sydney is about 15 hours ahead of New York so the WTC attacks happened late Tuesday night our time (about 11pm, I think). I didn't find out about them till early Wednesday morning, for which I am still thankful. I must have gone to bed relatively early - Olle was two at the time - and slept well. Co-parent often listens to the radio in bed when she can't sleep and heard about the events at about 4am. Around 6am I stirred (Olle was in the bed with us) and co-p whispered to me about the attacks. I told her not to tell me any more - I was seized with fear, not that there'd be more attacks but that the US would retaliate somewhere, in some terrible way. (Interesting that that was my intuitive response.)

I have a hazy memory of having gone up to the top of the World Trade Centre on a visit to NYC in 1989. So hazy is the memory that I'm not sure if it's real, though I suspect it is. Anyway, this photo of me is real (and it's astonishing to think that this was almost 20 years ago now)(and I seem to have burnt my br*).

England's World Cup Semi-Final against Germany - July 4, 1990

Um, this doesn't stand out in my memory. I have no idea where I was - somewhere in England or Europe.

President Kennedy's assassination - November 22, 1963

I was seven. The memory  I have of this event is surprisingly 'young' and nebulous. I would have thought that as a seven year old, I'd have a sharper, more precise understanding of what had occurred. My memory is of sitting on the stairs in our house and being aware that the grown-ups were upset and that something very serious had happened. My impression is that this was some time - maybe days - after the actual event. I think this is a memory of feeling frightened that adults could be frightened.

Comments

[Kirsten]

Interesting. The only one of those events i remember was the two towers - I was asleep in bed and Chris came and woke me up to tell me. In my sleepy state i first thought it must have been a movie. I think I too told me not to tell me any more. I was twenty-something (26 I guess) when Princess Di was killed but i have no memory at all of finding out about it.

[kate]

I was in bed. I remember waking to the radio in the morning after Diana died, then I probably rolled over and went back to sleep. I remember realising that other people were going to think this was important, that it would be big news, but I personally was not very interested.

When planes flew into buildings I was probably in bed too. I don't remember finding out, only later telling a housemate to stop watching the same 'news' over and over and upsetting herself.

I don't remember the rest, I wasn't born for the Kennedy assasination. I do remember watching the fall of the Berlin Wall on the news, but I didn't really understand what it meant.