i made a post like this before but I can't find it now. so. I'll just redo it.
What's the first "big news story" you remember from when you were a kid?
It's something I love to ask mixed-aged groups sometimes because I think it's really interesting to see the responses. I've gotten answers from the Olympics of [whatever year] to Watergate to more recent stuff from my niblings.
My first news thing I remember is the OJ Simpson trial. I vaguely remember watching the news with my grandparents before that, but that's the first story I remember, in part because my second grade teacher had us go play so she could watch the verdict 😂
I remember walking down the street and seeing a sign protesting George W. Bush’s war on Iraq, so I think that.
1992 Los Angeles riots. My family was living in LA, we were actually just preparing to move so it's this weird mess of boxes and burning and my parents being outraged (not surprised) at the outcome of the trial. I feel like that being the first news story I can remember is very on brand since it was my parents who taught me how to protest.
Iran hostage crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis
Mostly because it was part of the news, every night, for 14 months (444 days). And I remember when it ended, and they got to go home.
I remember Diana & Charles getting married, bc I remember how big the train on her wedding dress was. I would have been... 3 or 4.
I vaguely remember the Iran-Contra scandal being on TV a lot when I was about 7-8, and it was like, I'm pretty sure I don't have to know about this yet. But somehow I kinda knew about it anyway.
The Port Arthur Massacre in 1996. I was 9 years old.
Three months earlier, my family and I had done a trip around Tasmania and visited the Port Arthur site. I remember it was such a creepy but deeply fascinating site. We had a lovely meal at the Broad Arrow Cafe and then did a ghost tour. The memories of our trip had been wonderful. I had not really thought about it after that.
But then my dad was driving my brother and I back to our house and ABC radio was playing in the car. The news came on and they announced there had been a fire and a shooting that had happened. The most vivid memory I have of that day is my dad crying in sorrow as the news broke. I'd never seen him so devastated before. I was just in shock, hoping the lovely people we had met that day were safe.
Then we came home and it was all over the news. Aerial footage of the fire damage. People crying. We were all just like, how on earth could this have happened? The shock and pain of it all stays with me even to this day.
