What's the First Big News Story You Were Aware Of As a Kid?

Yep. I had come home from morning kindergarten, my mom had finished her ironing and we were in the living room watching her favorite show, As the World Turns, when Kennedy was assassinated. She got on her knees and prayed.

I was at my grandmother's (I think it was a Saturday) watching when Oswald was shot, and I recall the riderless horse at Kennedy's funeral spooked he hell out of me.

My first big news event memories were probably the first manned space launches and capsule pickups with Alan Shepard and Virgil Grissom.

 

The original plan wasn't even for Apollo 8 to go to the moon. Only reason it did was because the glitch-infested LEM was not ready for its earth-orbit maneuvers, and the honchos needed SOMETHING done on Apollo 8 to advance the mission. So they simply switched Apollo 8 and 9 (and just left the LEM off of 8). Ballsy move.

8 gets all the love, but 9 really accomplished much more.

 

Non sports division is probably the Challenger explosion. We had three classes piled into one room - Mrs. Hayward's class - to watch the launch because there weren't enough TVs for each classroom. I remember the horrified gasps and one of the teachers shutting the TV off after it became clear that everyone on board had most assuredly died (it took them a few minutes to realize that).

Sports division is Righetti's Fourth of July no-hitter against the Red Sox in '83. I was 4 years old and at a family reunion in Long Island. I was playing outside with my cousins when my dad called us all in to watch the ninth inning.

 

On the Apollo 8 decision, the NASA honchos, who had operated under the aegis of Dem administrations since before the decision to go to the moon was even made in 1961, also felt they needed a spectacular, world-shaking success under their belts if and when Nixon came in, something so momentous it would dispel any doubts the voyage was even possible, and make it politically impossible for Nixon to pull the plug.

 

Good thread.

For me, the MLK assassination, followed by the RFK assassination. Both times I remember my mom yelling up the stairway to me and my brothers. We had done a little parade with bikes around our block with little handmade Kennedy signs that spring.

I remember Apollo 8 that winter, but the only thing I remember about it was being pissed that they kept breaking in and interrupting Batman and Lost In Space. My 8-year-old self was so annoyed.

 

The Reagan Assassination attempt. They told us at school. I came home and told my mom, who promptly turned on the TV.

The British Invasion of the Falkland Islands ... I only remember this because the three networks - we didn't have cable - preempted the Saturday morning cartoons for reports all morning.

 

I was pissed at Al Bean for accidentally pointing the TV camera at the sun and frying its lens, thereby depriving ME of being able to watch Apollo 12 moonwalks. After the really grainy and fuzzy B/W footage from Apollo 11, the images from Apollo 12 were supposed to be much better.

 

The 1980 election, which took place a couple of weeks before I turned 5. Remember my parents (now dyed in the wool tea partiers) being pissed that Carter lost.

 

Reagan was the first one I was aware was a big deal. Challenger the first one I really understood and was affected by. Was in science class watching. All the teachers I saw were so shaken up.

Later, the San Fran earthquake during the World Series was the first one I couldn't stop watching as the news rolled in.

 

Vaguely remember the Cuban Missile Crisis at age 3 1/2, with somewhat clearer memories of the Kennedy assassination at age 4 1/2. My parents (now in their 80s) insist that I had a hissy fit the day after the assassination because the coverage pre-empted Saturday morning cartoons -- could be true, but I don't remember that. One thing I do recall is going to the grandparents' house for Thanksgiving the next week and almost all of the adults' conversation being about Kennedy, Oswald and Ruby.

 

Not the OJ/Columbine kid.

 

We had a very rare snow day in Alabama when the Challenger exploded. We were outside playing when a friend walked over and said the shuttle had blown up. I remember everything pretty clearly, especially when we went back to school and had moments of silence for them.

Much more vivid for me at the time of the event, however, was Van Tiffin's kick a couple months earlier to beat Auburn as time expired. When it went through, my dad jumped from his recliner in our tiny house across the living room toward the TV. I'll never forget that.