What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

[Powdered toast man]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

9/11- I was working alone inside a laboratory test-chamber at work when my workmate Jimbo started banging like hell on the door and I went to see what was happening. he said that there's just been a massive plane crash in New York. I went out onto the factory floor to find about 35 technicians crowded in silence around a radio and listening to Chris Moyles telling the world that a passenger jet had hit the WTC in New York. We all thought it was a practical joke until the News cut in and we listened in horror at what was unfolding in the USA.

7/7 I was in Barnsley and driving a rented lorry back home after a friend's house move and all the signs on M1 turned on with the message 'LONDON CLOSED- AVOID AREA-TURN ON RADIO'. Being in a crappy old Ford Cargo, it had no radio so I got on the phone to a mate in London and the line was down. So I called home and was told that there had been an explosion on a tube train and a bus.

[Moondog]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

Michael Jackson's death, i never saw that one coming.

[ayrshireman]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

I remember my mum crying at the Ibrox disaster. My oldest brother had gone to the match and hadn't come home. He turned up the next day - he and his friends had left early and got p*shed at someone's house; they didn't know anything about it! He wasn't allowed (keep in mind he was 22!) to go to football again without me as chaperone until he married and left home.

I remember the wee woman who lived upstairs from my aunty being in bits about Elvis. It didn't help that we 9-11 year-olds all told her he was just an old singer who was rubbish and wasn't as good as Abba or David Soul.

Bob Marley and John Lennon; heard about both listening to Tiger Tim's show on Radio Clyde (different nights, obviously)!

Diana; I got up early for a Dynamic Forces comic memorabilia special on QVC and found it off-air with a message to tune to Sky News for something important.

9/11 ; I was sitting in the car eating lunch from the sandwich shop opposite work when the first newsflash came on. Most of the internet went down under weight of traffic, but the Guardian's talkboards stayed up and had people from all over the world online.

7/7; I was on holiday in Portugal and watched it on the hotel bar TV.

Heysel; listening to radio commentary.

Hillsborough; in the window of a TV rental shop in Poole. Dozens of people gathered around in silence.

Jacko - there was a cryptic half-story on 5Live about an hour before it was confirmed. I remember thinking, "that doesn't sound good".

Challenger, Valley Parade and Whitney, strangely, I have no memory of.

The one that really sticks in my mind is the day Thatcher resigned. I was sitting on a bus outside (appropriately) the job centre - radio 4 on the headphones - listening to her telling the House how much she was "enjoying" the debate - thinking, "good riddance"

I lost a cousin that day.

[amethyst]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

9/11
princess Diana
Aberfan disaster in 1966 where children lost their lives when the moving mountain came down when they were in school it was dreadful.
London bombings 2005

[darren]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

it would have to be the troubles as they where known over here through the seventies,eighties and even the nineties.
it gave my wee country a bad image but its not bad.

so many terrible things happened things that wouild make you shudder.
you have to have lived here to really understand it.

for those who dont know where i live its northern ireland.

[Tortie]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

Not so much a single event, but growing up in Yorkshire in the 70's, the Yorkshire Ripper murders left a huge impression; to a lesser extent, the Black Panther murders too.

[Tortie]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

I'm with many others who say 9/11.
I was at work at the time when it came on the radio that a plane had hit one of the towers of the World Trade Centre. Initially, there was no suspicion that it was a terrorist attack, but I remember thinking to myself that it hadn't been that many years before that it had been targeted by terrorists. Then the news came through that there had been a second attack, and it seemed as though the world stopped because nobody quite knew what to do.
There was panic that similar attacks could happen here, and everyone was sort-of waiting in fear for further news updates.
On the face of it, I was trying to keep calm and reassure everyone at work, but inside, I was terrified. I usually went to the gym straight after work, but I went straight home that night, as I just wanted to be with my husband-to-be and the cats in case it was the beginning of all-out war.

Sly, I remember 7/7 too, and the thing I remember about that is how bl**dy angry I felt that this had happened. It must've been worrying not being able to get in touch with your loved ones with the networks being down; just shows how we take things like mobile coverage etc. for granted these days.

I also remember the Manchester Arndale bombing; we weren't used to such things happening "up North," they always seemed to happen in London. Two of my friends were shopping in Manchester that day, but thankfully, they were safe on the bus on the way home when the bomb went off, and they were totally unaware that anything had happened till they got home - this was way before mobile phones & anything. Their families had been going frantic with worry, as you can imagine. They later realised that none of their payments had gone through, as the bomb had destroyed all the connections for the card machines, but they felt so guilty about ot that all the clothes they'd bought went to charity shops.

[xmark1234]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

9/11 got be mine just thinking bout them planes makes me shiver

[themilkman]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

4 for me..........

Elvis Presley death
John Lennon death
Princess Diana death
9/11
7/7.........................................make that 5 then.

[Roz]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

The ones that had the biggest impact on me were:


John Lennon being murdered (was only very young but remember my parents being very upset).

Hillsborough (I knew two people who had gone and was watching it unfold on tv feeling more and more upset and anxious).

Princess Diana dying (not a fan of royalty but this was shocking - was on the way home from a nightclub and heard it on the news in the taxi).

Jill Dando being murdered (just seemed so random, a real shock).

9/11 (heard about it coming home from work and then arrived home to see the second plane hit the other tower, felt like I was watching a horror movie, just awful).


I do agree with Sly though, actors/singers/other public figures dying (unless you were a big fan) doesn't really register with me too much. If they die in a tragic way such as the ones named above maybe, but otherwise I wouldn't bother commenting on it.

[havasack]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

Bradford fire as I'd been to the ground to watch my team not long beforehand

Hillsborough...as above.

Twin towers....on holiday in Warkworth (Northumberland) but having a day out at Alnmouth, walking by some bloke saying on his mobile "but if the americans retaliate without thinking this could be big ****", Quickly went into the Schooner pub to watch the second tower being hit with people saying "No it's a replay of the first one" and having to pint out the difference in so they'd realise it was two seperate strikes.

[darren]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

just did a check mate regarding kenny everett ( born 25 December 1944 – died 4 April 1995)..

one sad one for me was my uncle passing away in curch. i think in the early nineties he was quite an age.

also diana remember it so clearly all over the news and radio for weeks.


michael kackson would be another one.

Not that old. 40 odd I think. It was in 1986. I'd been aware of celebrity deaths before that but they'd not had an impact on me. Perhaps it was just my age and coming around to realise exactly what death meant. A few months before a great aunt of mine passed away which was my first experience of somebody I knew very well dying, and although it still didn't affect me as it would as an adult I remember how it affected everyone else in the family and that made me sad. After that I was more aware of mortality.

[Sly]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

I was in the centre of Leeds the day the day the 7/7 bombing happened. It caused absolute chaos. I tried ringing home to say I was safe but the mobile networks had collapsed. The police was out in force and there were sirens blaring coming from all directions. The emergency vehicles started blocking roads up and not letting buses into the city centre. The military showed up in their transports too, they were driving on the pathways as the roads were totally gridlocked. I walked down Briggate to see if I could watch the tv's in the Curry's there, but it was a cluster of people who had the same idea.

The bus stops leading out of the city were crammed full of people wanting to get home. There were few buses managing to get through the jams. I ended up walking right out onto the city limits before I could get a bus home.

The other stuff I remember were all the big ones mentioned. Diana. 9/11. Jacko. Jill Dando. The tsunami. Saddam getting caught. It's just news man. Has no real direct effect on me. I'm bemused as to why people get upset with events like that. Nasty things happen all the time, if we were to get upset at all of them then we'd never have any good times.

[shilton dipper]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

Princess Diana's death 31.8.1997.......also my daughter's 5th birthday......we had a really nice day but you knew there was something else on everyone's mind that day at her party.

[Trickyvee]

Re: What Events Stopped You in Your Tracks!

DO not remember dustin gee.
what age was he when died mate.
i remember when kenny everett died how sad i felt i think he died in 95 which made me 20 yrs old.

Not that old. 40 odd I think. It was in 1986. I'd been aware of celebrity deaths before that but they'd not had an impact on me. Perhaps it was just my age and coming around to realise exactly what death meant. A few months before a great aunt of mine passed away which was my first experience of somebody I knew very well dying, and although it still didn't affect me as it would as an adult I remember how it affected everyone else in the family and that made me sad. After that I was more aware of mortality.