One that very few can say, "I was there"?
What notable or famous event did you attend?
by Anonymous | reply 144 | July 18, 2025 11:43 PM |
I attended the inauguration of George H. W. Bush. My dad an I were so far back in the crowd that we couldn't see or hear a thing. Fortunately someone in the crowd had brought a portable battery-powered radio along and was playing it loud enough for us to hear.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 2, 2025 1:20 AM |
I was in the audience for David Foster Wallace’s commencement address “This is Water” at Kenyon College, considered by many to be the best ever, and later made into an (edited) viral video/short film. I think of it every time I’m annoyed in public.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 2, 2025 1:28 AM |
I was there when Abraham Lincoln was shot. I didn't see anything because I was checking my emails on my iphone.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 2, 2025 1:33 AM |
Woodstock. I was 16 years old and in way over my head. What I remember most was hearing Santana, a band I’d never heard of, play Soul Sacrifice. And then being back in high school a couple weeks later acting like the coolest guy on the planet.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 2, 2025 1:44 AM |
My partner was at the Pentagon during 9/11. I was two blocks away. :(
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 2, 2025 1:51 AM |
Charlottesville Unite the Right. I lived downtown. Horrible and tragic. Changed the city in a terrible way. All the shine is gone.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 2, 2025 2:30 AM |
I handed that brick to Marsha P Johnson
by Anonymous | reply 7 | July 2, 2025 2:51 AM |
[quote]I handed that brick to Marsha P Johnson
You were in Bryant Park r7 ?
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 2, 2025 3:02 AM |
I waded in the reflecting pond in front of the Washington monument in DC on July 4, 1976. I was 11. The crowd was so big and it was so hot the Park Service didn't try to tell anyone not to get in the water.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 2, 2025 3:17 AM |
I went to a Presidential Debate starring Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and H. Ross Perot. I had a great seat too. But I realized that you see it much better on TV. The live audience is just a prop. I've had other chances to go to televised Presidential debates but I passed.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 2, 2025 3:31 AM |
Live Aid at Wembly.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 2, 2025 5:30 AM |
Not exactly world famous, but I was at the opening of San Francisco's BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system at MacArthur Station in Oakland. Somewhere, I still have a souvenir button they were giving out. The trains were so cool. Space Age!
More notable, at age 18, I was coming home from an evening class at SF State. The whole transit system was messed up and I ended up walking near Castro Street when I noticed that all hell had broken loose, like a war. There were cops everywhere, sirens, and the smell of fires. I knew that there had been protests of the slap on the wrist sentence ("The Twinky Defense") that murderer Dan White had gotten for assassinating Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone but didn't put it together until some guys yelled at me to go home (which I was trying to do) because the cops were randomly beating people up. It became known as The White Night Riots. I ended up running terrified with all of my books for a few miles - up and down hills - until I got to my parents' friend's house. I was silently attracted to other guys but not out. Would the cops just know and beat me up? I was so paranoid. They must have thought I was high or had seen a ghost. They turned the TV to the news and called my Mom to say that I'd be sleeping on their couch.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 2, 2025 5:37 AM |
The big stadium concert in Munich 1980 with Fleetwood Mac.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 2, 2025 6:13 AM |
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded before my very eyes.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 2, 2025 6:22 AM |
I don't understand why OP is lined out.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 2, 2025 6:25 AM |
I was a ticketed passenger for PSA Flight 182 on that day. I had a last-minute change of plans, so I few a day early...
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 2, 2025 6:48 AM |
I was one of the people in the huge crowd on the Golden Gate Bridge, when it closed for it's a 50th anniversary on May 24, 1987. There were so many people on the bridge that the span lost its graceful arch and flattened out instead. My friend and I decided to go very last minute. We got to San Francisco the night before and got what seemed to be the last hotel room in town. A dump on Van Ness Street. The next morning we lucked out and got a cab. The driver dropped us off as close to the bridge as he could, and we walked the rest of the way. It was an epic day.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 2, 2025 6:50 AM |
Not me, but a close friend saw Anwar Sadat’s assassination. Her dad was an Exxon executive and they were in the parade bleachers.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 2, 2025 6:53 AM |
I worked at the '84 Olympics in Los Angeles, and attended the Opening Ceremonies. I was also at the women's gymnastics finals, sitting just a few feet away from the vaulting horse when MaryLou Retton did her perfect 10.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 2, 2025 6:59 AM |
I was at the world premiere of the Peter Jackson version of King Kong. The stars were all there. In fact most of the male actors except the leads were sitting in the row behind me.
Naomi Watts went into the ladies room when my friend was in there. She spoke to my friend and was lovely and funny.
George Lucas was there. To my mortification, a few friends I was with heard that and went up to get autographs from him. They got them but also got yelled at.
Kyle Chandler was there with his folks. He seemed not very happy with his performance — on the escalator on the way down after the movie, his folks kept reassuring him he had done well. I agreed with them (I mean, to myself, I didn’t interfere).
All in all, a memorable experience, even though the movie was more uneven than I had expected.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 2, 2025 7:14 AM |
1981, I was at the Diana Ross Central Park Concert that got rained out after she sang three songs. I remember she seemed insistent on performing. But it started to rain really hard by her 3rd song and everyone was afraid she'd get electrocuted.
It started as a beautiful summer-like evening. I walked cross-town to Central Park. Then the rains came. And boy, did they!
By the time I got back home, I was completely covered in mud.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 2, 2025 7:28 AM |
This wasn't a famous event, but it was really cool.
When I was 10 or 11 years old I went to a backyard BBQ in Long Beach CA with my older sister and her very cool older boyfriend (he was about 19). The party was full of musician types.
I can't remember why I was allowed to tag along. I think they were babysitting me or something.
After a little while, a band started playing. I remember being transfixed by the frontman, this small blonde guy.
It was Nirvana. So I saw them a year or so before Nevermind.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 2, 2025 7:38 AM |
I am sure I am not the only one here, but I was standing on 6th Avenue and watched the second tower fall. It was very surreal and I distinctly remember thinking I’m watching history unfold right before my eyes. Honestly it felt like the end of the world in that moment. It was equally exciting and scary. That was the emotion.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 2, 2025 8:16 AM |
I demonstrated and helped shut down the Bay Bridge back in '91? at the start of the Guld war! I was a student at U C Berkley!
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 2, 2025 10:33 AM |
Gulf War. Gulf not Guld.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 2, 2025 10:34 AM |
I got to go to the wrap party for the first Daniel Craig Bond movie. They spent £££££ on that party. I only got to go as my friend had worked on it, I was not involvedmyself. Mr. Craig was about my height - maybe 5'9"? Petite! He was NOT in the mood to smile. We just got shit-faced with the cameramen and editors. Fun times.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 2, 2025 11:08 AM |
July 22 1983. Central Park NYC. I was there with my significant other, I'll never forget the subway ride home wet, muddy, and totally ecstatic it was perfect! I got scared for about 5 minutes but Ms Ross had the crowd under control. Added bonus it seems at the hottest members of NYPD were there!
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 2, 2025 11:21 AM |
Northridge was 1994.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 2, 2025 11:36 AM |
Not a particularly notable event, but my Wolfie was cruising Central Park in the early 60s and saw an open limo with JFK and Jackie sitting in it. One other car parked in front of them.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 2, 2025 11:47 AM |
The opening of an envelope in Fresno in 1953.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 2, 2025 12:16 PM |
I was at Yankee Stadium on July 4th, 1983 and watched Dave Righetti pitch a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 2, 2025 12:31 PM |
I was in West Berlin a few weeks after the wall was down. It was an incredible time.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 2, 2025 12:47 PM |
I was in Europe when they converted to the Euro, Jan 1 2002.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 2, 2025 1:13 PM |
The opening of our Hobby Lobby & Chic-fil-A on the SAME DAY PEOPLE!
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 2, 2025 2:09 PM |
I got to experience both the Loma Prieta and the Northridge earthquakes. For the Loma Prieta, I was a shop bottom at Neiman Marcus Union Square. The legend was building was built on rollers to withstand earthquakes, which other architects pooh poohed. The building started shaking, and my friend was trying to cram a little old lady under a table, but she had a death grip on him. After the shaking subsided, the only things that were damaged were some housewares on the top floor. We were evacuated out, and the street had what seemed like 3" of shattered glass covering it- all the windows from the I. Magnin building had blown out.
I couldn't go home that night, as I lived in Oakland, and the BART was closed down, so I stayed with a friend in the S.F. hills. It was eerie- there was no power, and looking out, the city was completely blacked out, with 2 fires dotting the landscape.
I moved to West Hollywood in '93, and for the Northridge earthquake, I woke up, thought, "Oh it's an earthquake" and went back to sleep.. My good friend from AZ appeared at my door (he lived 2 blocks away) wild eyed and asking if I was okay, I didn't realize how destructive the earthquake was until driving through the valley neighborhoods.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 2, 2025 2:43 PM |
In the subway coming from Brooklyn to lower Manhattan for classes at Sterns on 8:45 AM on September 11th 2001. I saw people running towards the cars as people were trying to exit. It felt like there was an earthquake. I reminded myself we were in Lower Manhattan so not an earthquake.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 2, 2025 2:46 PM |
Same as R24 about an hour earlier
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 2, 2025 2:46 PM |
The Democratic Campaign Rally at the Boston Garden, November 7, 1960. I saw JFK make the final speech of his Presidential campaign to 22,000 people while sitting on my father's shoulders.
The largest single concert of Judy Garland's career on the Boston Common, August 31, 1967: a bit more than 100,000 people heard her. My uncle Bud was a Boston cop working the show and got me backstage.
The Blizzard of February 1978 where my boss was the only physician who stayed in the hospital where he practiced. Eastern Massachusetts was shut down for most of a week under three feet of snow. I stayed there, too, because most of the hospital staff couldn't get to work. I made beds, served meals, swept floors and helped unload a National Guard half-track that brought meds and clean laundry. Patients could smoke in the hospital then and on the third snowbound day lots of 'em were out of cigarettes. I was a hero when I walked from the Medical Area to Northeastern University where the underground part of the Green Line subway starts, went downtown to SS Pierce on Tremont Street, and came back with 40 cartons of ciggies.
The induction of a friend into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013. I was happy to see her get elected as it's a very prestigious organization and her work is important. But I've known my friend for years so was more interested in meeting one of the other inductees, Sally Field, who was so pleasant to everyone: a roomful of some of the most brilliant people in the United States were lined up to meet the Flying Nun.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 2, 2025 3:35 PM |
I joined 100K+ at the National AIDS Candlelight March. I was fortunate enough to meet Elizabeth Taylor at a pre-march reception at the Rayburn HOB and to secure a seat on stage for the Lincoln Memorial program. After many years of devastating deaths, the march, highlighted by the display of the AIDS Quilt on the National Mall, was an extremely emotional experience I will always cherish attending.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 2, 2025 3:36 PM |
I was an extra in The Disappearance of Aimee.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | July 2, 2025 3:39 PM |
I've got one some here might appreciate:
I went to the 1999 Daytime Emmy Awards and saw Susan Lucci win her first Daytime Emmy.
I can still hear Shemar Moore yell "The streak is over!"
Our seats were right on the aisle and the actors would have to pass by when they went up the stairs to use the restroom or whatever they did. Carly and Alexis from GH went by about three times. Sonny and Jonathan Jackson each went once.
Very cool experience. I didn't watch Susan's show, but I was happy she won. The whole place erupted in cheers when she was announced.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 2, 2025 3:44 PM |
I remember that movie, r42. Wasn't it Our Faye?
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 2, 2025 4:09 PM |
I was in London shortly after QE2 died. I saw the insane multi-mile long line to look at her coffin. I was wandering around near Tower Bridge and I think the line stretched even further east.
She actually died the day I flew out. My first thought when I saw the news was basically "fuck, I hope this doesn't negatively impact my vacation".
by Anonymous | reply 45 | July 2, 2025 4:10 PM |
I participated in Hands Across America on May 25, 1986
by Anonymous | reply 46 | July 2, 2025 4:33 PM |
I went on the Bicentennial Train in Santa Barbara.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 2, 2025 4:42 PM |
R45, why was the line "insane"?
Do you mean "long"?
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 2, 2025 5:27 PM |
R24 here, I should quickly mention the beginning of it all. I was 25, working for H&M at the time in Soho. Every morning we had to unload the trucks and car went past blaring the news instead of music which I thought was odd. Someone mentioned a plane flew into the WTC. A group of us walked over to West Broadway to see the building downtown. There was a huge gaping hole, what seemed like at least 10-15 stories. My first thought was, "Wow, people had to have died in that," and "Great, we're going to have to look at a scaffolding for the next I don't know how many years." We all went back to work waiting for the news to come in, which got worse, obviously. They let us go and we all started walking north. I remember coming up past Washington Square Park and looking back and seeing only one Tower. That was really an "Oh, SHIT!" moment. I distinctly remember an older Asian women walking in the opposite direction of us, downtown as fast as she could saying her daughter was in the building. Then there was a huge gasp from everyone and I turned around on 6th and about 4th St. and that is when I just saw the second tower twist ever so slightly and collapse in a huge cloud.
I am not going to lie. It was exciting in an out of body way. I felt like my eyes were recording history, trying to take it all in, remembering everything. You heard absolutely nothing. That was the amazing thing. Something that big happening you'd think it would break through the normal hum of the city. Nothing. You'd think something like that would envelop the atmosphere, but it didn't. The city looked normal, no screaming, no honking. And yes, the sky was SO blue that day. And in the proceeding days, the silence is what became the most unsettling.
Later I went out with my video camera and just started recording everything - the garbage trucks lined up on Houston, all the doctors waiting outside of Saint Vincents for patients that would never arrive, the pile that was building 7, and days later all of the missing persons fliers and the banner in Union Square that everyone, including me, signed.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | July 2, 2025 6:05 PM |
The first Us Festival, Labor Day Weekend 1982, staged by Steve Wozniak at Glen Helen Regional Park. All three days. It was 110 degrees.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 2, 2025 6:58 PM |
Grace Jone's 50th birthday bash at Life in 1997. I was sitting at her booth when they brought out the cake. I was a nobody who snuck in and had absolutely not right being there. But there I was, basically right next to her.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | July 2, 2025 7:02 PM |
You should be able to answer that question using context and basic human intelligence, r48. Yes, I thought the people were insane for sending in a very long line to pay tribute to a dead person. I'm not very sentimental.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | July 2, 2025 7:15 PM |
Orange Skies Day was the weirdest thing I've ever experienced.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | July 2, 2025 7:35 PM |
So no takers for Judy then.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | July 2, 2025 7:37 PM |
Well, R48, apparently you don't take hints easily. Which is fine, as mostly it was a joke.
But equating your lack of sentiment with the fact that many people stood on line mistakes the underlying truth that many did not do it out of sentiment but respect, honor, and appreciation, of which seems to involve the insane.
But one must use a little more than "basic human intelligence" to see that, perhaps.
Have a lovely day.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | July 2, 2025 7:55 PM |
I was at Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops’ performance of the 1812 Overture at the Hatch Shell on July 4th, 1976.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | July 2, 2025 8:27 PM |
I still have burn scars from Pompeii.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | July 2, 2025 9:51 PM |
I was at Foxboro’s then-Schaefer Stadium to see Elton John that night, R56
by Anonymous | reply 58 | July 2, 2025 10:06 PM |
I got to attend the record breaking performance of "Grease" when it broke the Broadway record for longest running musical of all time in 1980. That night it was invitation only and the original stars, Barry Bostwick, Carol Demas, Adrienne Barbeau and such came back and played their roles for that night. I also got to meet and talk with fellow invitees, John Travolta and Olivia Newton. Travolta was filming "Urban Cowboy" and Olivia was making "Xanadu" which she called a "Roller Disco Movie".
by Anonymous | reply 59 | July 2, 2025 10:09 PM |
Well if you ever needed proof that most Dataloungers live quietly in their mother's basement in Atlanta, this thread is it.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | July 2, 2025 10:16 PM |
I was at one of the 1984 Olympics track meets and saw the Mary Decker/Zola Budd collision. (What I remember just as vividly that day was the medal ceremony for another competition. The silver medalist was absolutely beaming with happiness, tears streaming down her face. It seems that a lot of athletics, reporters too, look at the silver medal as a disappointment, so that memory has always stuck with me.)
by Anonymous | reply 61 | July 2, 2025 10:52 PM |
R20 here. I have similar memories from the medal ceremonies, R61. Here in the US we think of Gold as the only win, but for so many athletes just getting to the games is an accomplishment. Silver and Bronze medalists are rightfully proud of their wins. I love it when the Gold medalist insists on the other two joining him/her on the top stand.
Along those same lines, our television coverage is extremely biased towards American athletes and world favorites. If you attend a gymnastics event you'll see hundreds of athletes that get absolutely no television time -you'd never know they were there. That is particularly hard on those from smaller countries, who rely on the US TV feeds for their coverage. And if you did see all the competitors, you'd appreciate the top contenders even more!
by Anonymous | reply 62 | July 2, 2025 11:04 PM |
That's why I have a VPN and watched the Paris Olympics on French channels. They didn't omit anything from the opening ceremonies like the U.S. did (parts of the Gojira/Marie Antoinette number, the drag queens, and one other thing I can't remember), and the announcers don't talk constantly. They also show more countries competitors other than the U.S.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | July 2, 2025 11:41 PM |
9/11 front row seat, also witnessed WTC 7 demise first hand. Top that.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | July 3, 2025 12:22 AM |
For me nothing equals my father's participation in the Olympics. He was an athlete.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | July 3, 2025 1:26 AM |
I was in the Tony Awards audience the year Rosie ODonnell hosted, and it opened with performances of leading ladies: Patti LuPone, Jennifer Holliday, and Betty Buckley (1998)
by Anonymous | reply 66 | July 3, 2025 3:13 AM |
I saw one of Nadia Comaneci's perfect tens in the 1976 olympics. Don't ask for details. I was on acid.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | July 3, 2025 3:23 AM |
R4 that is awesome. I love Santana.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | July 3, 2025 3:29 AM |
I was on the set of the movie version of "Deathtrap" and got to see Michael Caine kiss Christopher Reeve. They only did a couple of takes.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | July 3, 2025 3:36 AM |
She looks like Britney Spears there
by Anonymous | reply 70 | July 3, 2025 3:40 AM |
I wasn't in attendance, but, as a child, I saw Jack Ruby fatally shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on live television. I realize that lots of people saw this. But most of them are dead by now.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | July 3, 2025 9:16 PM |
I did, too, R71. Had to go to church anyway, post live-TV Sunday morning shooting.
If our innocence wasn’t over then, it would be shortly.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | July 3, 2025 9:53 PM |
I went to the first "Gay Night" at Disneyland on May 25, 1978, which was sponsored by Studio One.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | July 3, 2025 10:51 PM |
The Funeral Mass of John Cardinal Ritter.
At 14, I took two buses to arrive an hour early to get a good pew. I couldn't understand why no one wanted to go with me,
by Anonymous | reply 74 | July 3, 2025 11:18 PM |
Op, I actually remember the day Judy Garland died. My mother came to pick me up one afternoon from elementary school, and on the way home the corner news stand had several different newspapers with the bold Judy Garland is Dead headlines. My mother was shocked, but as a kid I only knew her from her role as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | July 4, 2025 12:13 AM |
In 1984, a good friend of mine was very active in the Walter Mondale Presidential campaign. He invited me to the private election night “victory” party that was held in a night club in St Paul. There perhaps 75 people there. All of the Mondales were present. It was very interesting to see them let their guard down. They were nothing like their public persona. And that was when I realized that what we see on TV is tightly scripted and controlled. It’s like a scripted show.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | July 4, 2025 12:24 AM |
Final Wham concert at Wembley.
by Anonymous | reply 77 | July 4, 2025 12:25 AM |
Prince's final concert in ATL
by Anonymous | reply 78 | July 4, 2025 12:32 AM |
R64, Same. Many people dont realize how dense a residential area the FD is (along with Battery Park City). I lost visibility when tower 2 was a few floors down, in perspective looked like 2', but it seems similar to the day Kennedy was assassinated, everyone remembers where they were when they 'saw it' (even if only on TV).
by Anonymous | reply 79 | July 4, 2025 1:36 AM |
A friend’s grandmother, Italian-American and never too greata witha da English, 90-something and not too steady mentally by then had the TV on all day and kept watching them re-run the footage of the planes crashing into the Towers but didn’t quite grasp that they were the same towers.
She thought they were bringing down every skyscraper in New York with airplanes, one by one, all day long on September 11th.
by Anonymous | reply 80 | July 4, 2025 9:40 AM |
Obama’s speech the night before he got elected. It was electric.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | July 4, 2025 9:51 AM |
Fall of Saigon. Never again!
by Anonymous | reply 82 | July 4, 2025 10:42 AM |
I saw Zac Efron prolapse his anus off the Cote d'Azur.
by Anonymous | reply 83 | July 4, 2025 2:52 PM |
Oh who hasn't?
by Anonymous | reply 84 | July 4, 2025 3:39 PM |
I got to see Fat Elvis in concert not long before he croaked.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | July 4, 2025 3:43 PM |
I was in Centennial Park when the bomb went off.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | July 4, 2025 3:53 PM |
I’ve always been moved by this video, particularly the audience’s reaction when they learn his secret.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | July 4, 2025 3:54 PM |
R76, how were they different?
by Anonymous | reply 88 | July 4, 2025 8:01 PM |
I brought room service to Stormy Daniels's and Donny Dump-Pants's hotel suite and overheard her tell him his dick looked like a TOADSTOOL. It was alm I could do to leave the room without busting out laughing. The place smelled like ass. Probably his.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | July 4, 2025 8:10 PM |
I was originally the pilot for JFK Jr’s private jet but in a last minute frenzy he decided to fly it himself.
by Anonymous | reply 90 | July 4, 2025 8:22 PM |
I attended the gymnastics Olympics tryouts in Los Angeles in 1976. My cousin was trying out, but she came in 8th and they took 7.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | July 13, 2025 2:16 AM |
My husband was 2 blocks away delivering newspapers when that dickhead I won't name bomb went off at the Atlanta Olympics. He was stunned by all of the cars around him suddenly sprouting blue lights. That was amazing technology. And fuck that guy. He made my abortion an even worse experience, the bomber, not my husband.
by Anonymous | reply 92 | July 13, 2025 2:32 AM |
Funny how people are circling the olympic bombing in Atlanta. Not that I was anywhere close, but my Aunt worked for the Atlanta police department for many years and eventually SWAT, but she was first on the scene after the bomb went off.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | July 13, 2025 3:46 PM |
I handed Masha the first brick.
by Anonymous | reply 94 | July 13, 2025 4:05 PM |
I haven't gotten to that season of Nine Perfect Strangers yet R94. Sounds intense.
by Anonymous | reply 95 | July 13, 2025 4:14 PM |
Mariah Carey bombing on New Year's Eve
by Anonymous | reply 96 | July 13, 2025 4:18 PM |
I saw Germany beat Brazil 7:1 on live TV.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | July 13, 2025 4:48 PM |
I was in the air on an (clearly) unaffected flight on 9-11
We landed quickly and safely at the nearest airport
by Anonymous | reply 98 | July 13, 2025 4:58 PM |
Dawson’s 50 Load Weekend
by Anonymous | reply 99 | July 13, 2025 5:15 PM |
The No Nukes- The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future at Madison Square Garden in 1979. It was 4 evenings of shows, I went to two shows. I was a college freshman at the time and it was a bog deal for me to experience many of my favorite musical acts together .
by Anonymous | reply 100 | July 13, 2025 8:57 PM |
I attended the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and saw Greg Louganis dive.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | July 13, 2025 8:59 PM |
I attended Barbra Streisand's return to the concert stage at Anaheim Pond Arena on April 27, 1994. And I bought a T-shirt, cap and mug.
It was triumphant!
by Anonymous | reply 102 | July 13, 2025 9:01 PM |
I've seen Barbra Streisand, and Frank Sinatra and Liza in concert...not all at once, but individually and I think those were notable events.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | July 14, 2025 4:10 AM |
I participated in Handjobs Across America. I got kicked out of line for giving the boss too much lip.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | July 14, 2025 5:51 AM |
As a kid in Brooklyn I saw LBJ in his Presidential limo. He was either sitting with the window open or you could see his face clearly through it. He had a big, not quite as ugly in person presence. Anytime they have an actor playing him who isn’t huge, they miss his essence.
by Anonymous | reply 105 | July 14, 2025 6:04 AM |
Back in the 90s I attended Georgetown University. MTV was doing a town hall with then President Bill Clinton with college students. I got to shake his hand. I remember thinking he had long skinny thumbs with deep nail beds and wondering if that was like some southern inbreeding thing.
by Anonymous | reply 106 | July 14, 2025 6:20 AM |
Jimmy Carter's inauguration with my parents. It was cold as hell. all us fools out there in the freezing freezing cold. Never forget it. And I couldn't ese anything really. Seriously if you want to watch a parade watch it on TV. Period.
by Anonymous | reply 107 | July 14, 2025 10:12 PM |
I was on the Golden Gate Bridge too that day r19. Nobody expected the immense crowds. The bridge was closed to traffic (obviously) and mobs of people hiked on from both directions—from Marin County to the north, and from San Francisco to the south. When the mobs met in the middle, there was gridlock—no way to get off, it was insane.
This photo looks like it was taken in the afternoon. We got there around 6:30 am, and by 7:00 you couldn’t budge. Slightly terrifying.
by Anonymous | reply 108 | July 15, 2025 12:10 AM |
Does New Year's Eve in Times Square Dec 31, 1999 qualify? I mean there were like three million people there.
by Anonymous | reply 109 | July 15, 2025 12:12 AM |
R109 Hell yeah bitch. We was lit.
by Anonymous | reply 110 | July 15, 2025 12:14 AM |
The Beatles in concert in 1964.
by Anonymous | reply 111 | July 15, 2025 12:16 AM |
I watched Lee Harvey Oswald get shot on live TV.
by Anonymous | reply 112 | July 15, 2025 12:18 AM |
I saw Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip in a carriage coming down the Mall in a carriage, after having had the annual address to Parliament. It was a foul day, over cast and rainy. We thought to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace but our taxi couldn't get close because the streets were closed off. So we got out and saw people standing along the roadway waiting, and the soldiers with the big black fur hats standing ramrod straight, and all of a sudden the household cavalry came into view. Magnificent horses. Really impressive. Then eventually The Queen and Phil. She seemed to look over our heads, out into space and gave this minimal, stiff wave. Not much of a smile really. Phil waved too but he looked vague. Like he wasn't sure where he was. LOL! This was in 2012 I think. Not sure.
by Anonymous | reply 113 | July 15, 2025 1:34 AM |
My family happened to be on Martha's Vineyard when Teddy drove Mary Jo off the bridge. We rented bikes and pedaled over to the bridge after they removed the car and Mary Jo. I took pictures with my Instamatic.
When I look back on it, it seems weird that my folks thought this would be a fun family activity - we were little kids, and a woman was dead and we were supposed to be on vacation!
by Anonymous | reply 114 | July 15, 2025 4:40 AM |
These folks are not my family, just some additional gawkers at the scene. . Sorry for the quality, it was an Instamatic. You can see how easy it would have been to go over the side of that bridge. It has since been replaced, I presume with something safer.
by Anonymous | reply 115 | July 15, 2025 4:58 AM |
"You can see how easy it would have been to go over the side of that bridge."
Especially when you're blind drunk.
by Anonymous | reply 116 | July 15, 2025 10:59 AM |
I saw the first plane hit on 9/11 from the EV (plumes of smoke coming from the towe) but didn’t realize it was going to be so bad and got on the subway to go to work anyway.
At a party with Beyoncé on Obama’s election night.
At Stonewall when marriage equality passed. Big celebration.
The opening of a new Food City downtown (Sounds lame but signified a revitalization of our city - not NYC)
by Anonymous | reply 117 | July 15, 2025 11:29 AM |
Thanks fort he Chappaquiddick photo. I am frankly shocked at how narrow that "bridge" is. And made of wood. Cars falling off the bridge must have been a common occurrence. No one should have attempted that in t he dark of night. And Drunk? That was asking for trouble.
by Anonymous | reply 118 | July 15, 2025 12:45 PM |
The Moratorium to end the war in Vietnam 1969 Boston.
by Anonymous | reply 119 | July 15, 2025 1:35 PM |
The Play—usually ranked as the #1 greatest moment in the history of college football.
by Anonymous | reply 120 | July 15, 2025 1:43 PM |
I figured someone on this list would post what R46 posted (Hands Across America)!
by Anonymous | reply 121 | July 15, 2025 1:49 PM |
I saw Moose Murders on B’way
by Anonymous | reply 122 | July 15, 2025 4:10 PM |
R115 - I remember seeing pics of the bridge when I was younger, but WTF? It's barely wide enough for those big-ass 1970s cars. No rails at ALL?
by Anonymous | reply 123 | July 15, 2025 4:13 PM |
The first Boston to NYC charity AIDS ride.
by Anonymous | reply 124 | July 15, 2025 6:06 PM |
I worked in t he arts department in local government. Luciano Pavarotti was appearing at a fundraiser for our opera house and as a promotional they wanted to give him the keys to the city. Our Mayor was not available and so it fell to me in the arts department, to present t hem. He was fat, sweaty and very formal. They then had a brief press Q & A and the press was told t o address him as Maestro. He didn't say anything to me when I handed him t he Key. He just nodded and smiled . It was sort of "Meh." Maybe he was pissed because he got an underling.
by Anonymous | reply 125 | July 15, 2025 6:28 PM |
I saw Frank Sinatra perform at the Boston Garden in the mid-'70s.
by Anonymous | reply 126 | July 15, 2025 6:52 PM |
I saw Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli and Sammy Davis Jr., perform in San Diego during Super Bowl weekend in the late-'80s. Dean Martin was supposed to be there, but after his son died, he declined to perform, and Liza Minnelli took his place.
by Anonymous | reply 127 | July 15, 2025 6:54 PM |
I have seen Liza Minnelli, Cher and Bette Midler perform at least a half a dozen times each.
by Anonymous | reply 128 | July 15, 2025 6:55 PM |
I saw Queen Elizabeth when she visited Boston for the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration. She walked with the Mayor Kevin White in the parade right down Congress Street. Security was much looser in those days.
by Anonymous | reply 129 | July 15, 2025 6:57 PM |
[quote] Naomi Watts went into the ladies room when my friend was in there. She spoke to my friend and was lovely and funny.
What kind of noises and grunts did she make in the stall?
by Anonymous | reply 130 | July 15, 2025 6:57 PM |
The release of the McRib.
by Anonymous | reply 131 | July 17, 2025 6:36 PM |
I got up and watched around 10:30 AM or so the last episode of The Edge of Night on the New Hampshire affiliate.
It aired a day later, which is why it was on so early in the morning. Most people who saw it saw it the day before at 4 p.m.
The writer may not have been the best, but he sure stuck the landing. Mostly happy endings. The gang was left wondering what the new mystery on Wonderland Lane was.
There were other soaps, but EDGE was special.
I know this isn't a notable or famous event, but as someone who always saw these shows as a lifeline, it was always said to see it go.
by Anonymous | reply 132 | July 17, 2025 8:20 PM |
When I was 12 years old (1965) my mother and I attended this event (Martin Luther King Jr's Nobel Prize dinner) at the old Dinkler Plaza Hotel in downtown Atlanta. There were lots of upper white inviitees in attendance. My father had refused to go. He thought we would be the only whites there and would stick out like sore thumbs and probably not be treated well, and was shocked when my mother told him who all attended that our family knew. I met MLK that night and he sat and talked with me for at least 10 minutes. Then I met Coretta and she the sweetest lady ever (she and my mother knew each other). She wanted to know all about what I was learning in school & what my favorite subject was. I told her it was my physical science class. About 3 years later my mother and I were in Rich's Dept. Store downtown and ran into Mrs. King again (she had 3 big burly security guards protecting her) and she actually remembered what I had told her and wanted to know how I was doing in my science classes. She was such a class act.
by Anonymous | reply 133 | July 17, 2025 8:53 PM |
Iran-Contra hearings.
by Anonymous | reply 134 | July 17, 2025 9:55 PM |
R133 You're 102 years old? Wow, and still sexually active I suppose?
by Anonymous | reply 135 | July 17, 2025 11:16 PM |
R133 nope that's 72.
by Anonymous | reply 136 | July 18, 2025 4:06 AM |
r109, Darling Harbor, Sydney, Australia, Dec. 31, 1999 (Summer). Not as epic as Times Square in NYC, buy it was the first major city in the world to experience the impending Y2K hysteria. My employer shut down for a full month, giving us full pay, so that the IT folks could upgrade every single electronic device. The hotel gave out emergency kits with booze, confetti, and flashlights as swag. There were no IT-related catastrophes, but one amazing little thing: We were stoned, watching the "last 100 years of Australia" program on TV. The final vignette to cap off Australia's century of accomplishments was the scene from "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" in which one of the drag queens was riding on top of the bus on a dirt road in the Outback wearing a long, flowing silver lame gown, lip syncing to a graceful aria (or something like that). 26 years later, still can't imagine seeing anything like that in the US.
by Anonymous | reply 137 | July 18, 2025 6:19 AM |
George H.W. Bush's inauguration in January 1989.
Bill Clinton's inauguration in January 1993.
by Anonymous | reply 138 | July 18, 2025 7:53 AM |
[quote] You're 102 years old? Wow, and still sexually active I suppose?
Clearly math was not your best course in school.
by Anonymous | reply 139 | July 18, 2025 1:12 PM |
Obama’s 2008 inauguration. A bitterly cold day but nothing was stopping us from celebrating. That was my junior year of high school, my mom and I flew in from Indiana. She never goes to political events but wasn’t gonna let me miss Obama. First campaign I ever worked on, though I was too young to vote. So lucky to have two parents that are both Democrats.
I smile every time I see shots of the crowd.
I’ll never forget how loud folks booed when Bush took the stage.
by Anonymous | reply 140 | July 18, 2025 2:32 PM |
I was at Obama’s first inauguration too! Thrilling but, yes, crazy cold!!
by Anonymous | reply 141 | July 18, 2025 3:05 PM |
R120, Hail Mary pass?
by Anonymous | reply 142 | July 18, 2025 3:48 PM |
Huh? No.
Laterals. 5 of them. Plus one destroyed trombone player.
by Anonymous | reply 143 | July 18, 2025 8:20 PM |
I was in the stands for that game as well.
by Anonymous | reply 144 | July 18, 2025 11:43 PM |