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When Elvis died

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by SF_Express, Aug 16, 2007.

  1. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    The summer of 1977 was a helluva year, and I was nowhere close to NYC. My young ass had never heard even one song on the "Bronx Is Burning" soundtrack.

    (That didn't happen till circa 1994.)

    I was staying with my aunt & uncle and remember my cousin waking me up to say Son of Sam had been caught.

    I remember watching TV and all 3 networks going to bar code about 9:30 CT because of the blackout.

    I was watching whatever was on at 3:30 that year (Three Stooges or somesuch) and a voice-over breaking in to say Elvis had died.

    And I remember the space shuttle breaking away off the back of a 747 and gliding to a landing on a nationally-broadcasted test flight.

    Oh yeah, I kissed a girl for the first time on the Fourth of July. (My first lay, sadly, would not happen for another 6 1/2 years.)
     
  2. RustyHampton

    RustyHampton Member

    Parking lot of my college dorm, moving in for sophomore year. A teammate from the baseball team drove up and told a bunch of us. He was a big Elvis fan and very hurt that most of us really didn't care. I was in Oregon then. If I was where I am now when it happened, I'm sure it would have been a much bigger deal to me.
     
  3. Jesus_Muscatel

    Jesus_Muscatel Well-Known Member

    Cape Hatteras, N.C. Before my senior year of college.

    My brain cells took a beating on that trip.

    Transistor radio told me and my boys the news.

    In the middle of the night.

    I think.
     
  4. Claws for Concern

    Claws for Concern Active Member

    A friend sent this to me and other friends today:

    I still remember that day, thirty years ago. Dennis & I rode up his driveway on our BMX bikes (mine had shock absorbers). School was out; it was the middle of summer and I was about to have my birthday. Walked into his house -- the place was dark, except for a few candles burning, and quiet, except for the smooth baritone coming from the Realistic and the sobs of Dennis' mother, who was sitting at the kitchen table w/ an open bottle of chablis, listening to "Loving You" and bawling her eyes out, a tissue crunched in one fist and a cigarette in the other.
     
  5. kingcreole

    kingcreole Active Member

    Having my diaper changed, probably. I was eight months old when The King died.

    My first "Where were you?" moment came when I was in the third grade when the Challenger exploded. They called all the teachers in the building to the lounge, and so of course, we acted like a bunch of hoodlums until the teacher returned. She walked in the room, turned her back to us, closed the door and then turned around. She was crying, and we all sat silent while she slowly broke the news.

    I also vaguely remember my parents telling me when Joe Delaney died. I don't recall where I was, but I remember saying something like, "Those stupid kids!" and starting to cry.
     
  6. Frank_Ridgeway

    Frank_Ridgeway Well-Known Member

    "Jesus Mentioned"

    I'm going down to Memphis
    Memphis, Tennessee
    I'm going down to Graceland
    Thinking about the King
    Remembering him sing
    About those heavenly mansions
    Jesus mentioned

    Can't you just imagine
    Digging up the King
    Begging him to sing
    About those heavenly mansions
    Jesus mentioned

    He went walking on the water
    He went walking on the water
    He went walking on the water
    With his pills

    Can't you just imagine
    Digging up the King
    Begging him to sing
    About those heavenly mansions
    Jesus mentioned

    -- Warren Zevon from the album "The Envoy."
     
  7. Stupid

    Stupid Member

    I was 11, visiting my mom's relatives in Missouri, at my 90-something great-granddad's house in Hamilton, Mo., watching it on TV.
     
  8. Yodel

    Yodel Active Member

    I was swimming in amniotic fluid. Hard for me to really remember my initial thoughts.
     
  9. Jesus_Muscatel

    Jesus_Muscatel Well-Known Member

    RIP to Elvis and Warren.
     
  10. SF_Express

    SF_Express Active Member

    Well, that's possible given the nature of your trip, but the news broke on the PM cycle for a midwestern newspaper, so you would have been getting it late if that's when you heard.
     
  11. Dan Rydell

    Dan Rydell Guest


    ESPN wasn't around in 1977. It launched in 1979.
     
  12. hankschu

    hankschu Member

    Seventeen years old, on vacation with my parents in a motel room at Lake Tahoe, saw it as a "crawl" across the screen while watching something or other.
     
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