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Opening Question

There are some events that we will never forget. We know exactly where we were, what we were doing, whom we were with when we heard the news. Please complete the following sentence and add a short paragraph of description. 

I will never forget where I was when ...

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Replies

  • the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident in Tohoku, Japan. After the earthquake, I could not contact with my parents who live Ibaraki for a week. My parents could not use water supply for a couple of month but they were safe. During I could not contact with my parents, I watched live earthquake broadcast from Japan on Ustream, which was very helpful to see what was actually happening in Japan and for Japanese people.

    When I saw news in Japan and the US,  I realized how differently media informed about the earthquake, in particular nuclear accident. Japanese government attempted to avoid Japanese people were in panic regarding nuclear accident; therefore, the government gradually revealed what was happening at the nuclear plant. I think this is very terrible. I believe having access to several media with different perspectives is very important for us.

  • the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. My father had just picked us up from school and as we were listening to the radio- cars started to pull over as the news unfolded. We lived in Venezuela and not having the background significance of the events, my father started to talk to us about the United States. I will never forget how intrigued I felt about the United States of America and my future travels...

  • ...the United States made the first moon landing. Black and white TV is pretty lame compared High Definition surround sound in color but the event captured my full attention and reminds me now of how far we've advanced technologically. It also represented a celebration of sorts; that man could reach far beyond the earth and that in this New World science could lead us to greater understanding as long as we balanced this knowledge with the lessons of the past. 

  • I heard that Sarah Palin had been nominated as the republican choice for vice president. I received a text from a friend, verified online, and was still so shocked I walked down the hallway at school to try and find someone who had heard the same news. That was the beginning of traveling outside Alaska and having people's first question be, "what do you think of Sarah Palin?"
  • the twin towers fell.  I just happened to turn on the news while I was getting ready for work.  It had been a long night with my 3 month old who decided to change her sleeping schedule, so it took a couple of minutes to register what I was seeing on the t.v.  I tried to wake my husband telling him that I thought there was something real important going on, and that he needed to see it.  When I arrived at school, it was all the kids wanted to talk about.  We all were trying to make sense of the tragedy.

  • Of course I too have the strong memories of 9-11, but I also strangely remember seeing a music video on MTV for the 1st time.  I remember having to go to my friend's house because my parents didn't have cable.  I remember the iconic image of Max Headroom.  

    On a more serious note I recall seeing the trucker being ripped from the cab of his truck and beaten in the middle of the intersection of Florence and Normandie in Inglewood. I was so scared because my father is a truck driver and frequently hauled into Los Angeles.  I was already on edge because the LA riots had been on the TV for weeks.

  • I will never forget September 11, 2001. It was early morning and I was getting ready for a day of college. I was loving life because my best friend and I were roommates in our very own apartment. As I was finishing my makeup our phone rang and my friend's mom called to tell us what had happened. Liz and I stopped what we were doing and started watching our tiny TV. Everywhere we went that day TVs were on. Even now, when I see images of that day I can picture Liz and I sitting together on her bed watching that tiny TV.

  • ...the Twin Towers were hit.  I was so confused by what I was seeing on the TV.  I stood in the living room just mesmerized by the images I saw.  I was teaching 6th grade at Chinook at the time but I remember not wanting to go to work but just wanting to stay at home, glued to the TV so I could try to make sense of what was going on.  Many students came to school with concerns.  We had a staff meeting before school started to talk about how to help the students stay calm and alleviate any fears that they had.

  • The space shuttle Challenger exploded. I was home alone and watching the program thinking how cool it was that an everyday person, a teacher at that was going into space. The whole idea got me wondering how soon it would be a common occurrence for civilians to travel in space. They had the count down and there it goes.....amazed with the whole thing then in the air something exploded and the smoke trail went crazy and then there was nothing in the air. What just happened? The rush of thoughts...OMG, no this was a mistake, disbelief...I slumped in my seat and was in a stupor.
  • the Gulf War began.  We were closing our unit in Germany and had just returned from a convoy to Hahn Air Base, a few hundred miles south of us.  We had delivered some of our equipment and supplies to the southern base.  We were exhausted and went to bed.  We were awaken by the phone ringing in the hallway.  One of the guys mother was calling to make sure he was ok and told us that we had started bombing to remove the Iraqi troops from Kuwait.  We wound up sending a great deal of our supplies directly to Saudi Arabia to support the troops stationed there.  I was stationed in a mobile radar unit.  We could deploy anywhere and keep track of all the aircraft in the area.  In essence, we were mobile air traffic controllers.  If our unit had not already been closed, I am sure we would have been moved into the war zone.  That is what we had trained for for the previous three years.    

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