Friday, March 21, 2008

Where were you?

CanadaI came up with this idea after I read Mitchypoo's answers to today's Friday's Feast. One of the questions was not actually a question, but a fill in the blanks. It said: "I couldn’t believe it when I heard __", to which Mitchypoo added "that Princess Diana had died".

I immediately remembered where I was exactly when I found out that Princess Diana (Lady Di, as we called her in Argentina) had passed away: I was on my way back from the JFK airport in New York, driving back to the hotel on highway 80. I was on a business trip, my first ever, and my English was still very rough. When I heard the newscaster say "Princess Di died" I honestly thought he had a stutter or something like that. I realized what had happened once I got back to my hotel room and turned on the TV.

I do remember exactly what I was doing when Princess Di died. And there are other events for which I remember exactly what I was doing or at least where I was. So I decided it would be fun to list a series of events and then say what was I doing at the time. And I would love to hear from you, not only telling me what you were doing, but also adding entries to this list!!! Some of the news are obviously 'too Argentine' for most, so please indulge me here... Most of them are celebrities deaths, I know...


ArgentinaSe me ocurrió esta idea luego de leer las respuestas de Mitchypoo a la edición de hoy de Friday's Feast. Una de las preguntas no era una pregunta de verdad, sino un 'complete el espacio en blanco'. Decía: "No podía creer cuando escuché que...__", a lo que Mitchypoo added "la Princesa Diana había muerto".

Inmediatamente recordé dónde estaba exactamente cuando me enteré de que la Princesa Diana (Lady Di, como le decíamos en Argentina) había muerto: estaba volviendo del Aeropuerto JFK en New York, volviendo al hotel por la Autopista 80. Estaba en un viaje de trabajo, el primero de mi vida, y mi inglés no era muy bueno todavía. Cuando escuché al locutor decir "Princess Di died" ("La Princesa Diana murió"), yo pensé honestamente que el tipo tartamudeaba o algo así. No me dí cuenta de lo que había pasado hasta que llegué al hotel y prendí la TV.

Recuerdo exactamente lo que estaba haciendo cuando Lady Di murió. Y hay otros eventos en los que recuerdo exactamente que estaba haciendo o dónde estaba. Así que decidí que sería divertido hacer una lista de eventos y luego poner qué estaba haciendo en ese momento. Y me encantaría escucharlos a Uds., no sólo diciéndome qué hacían, pero también sugiriendo entradas a esta lista!!! Algunas de las noticias son obviamente 'muy argentinas' para la mayoría, así que por favor permítanme la licencia... La mayoría son muertes famosas, lo sé...

MY EVENT LIST - MI LISTA DE EVENTOS

1. Princess Di's death - Muerte de la Princesa Diana (31/Aug/1997)
Mentioned above / Mencionado arriba

2. Linda McCartney's death - Muerte de la Linda McCartney (17/Apr/1998)
It was on a Friday, but I found out on Sunday; I was in Manhattan, after having spent the weekend travelling around New England (well, mostly Maine and then Boston). I saw the news in one of those building news tickers.
Fue un viernes, pero yo me enteré el domingo; yo estaba en Manhattan, luego de haber pasado el fin de semana paseando por Nueva Inglaterra (bueno, más que nada por Maine y la ciudad de Boston). Vi la noticia en uno de esos paneles de noticias que tienen algunos edificios.


3. Maradona's "hand of God" against England (and the beautiful second goal!) - La 'mano de Dios' de Maradona contra Inglaterra (y el maravilloso segundo gol!) (22/Jul/1986)
I was watching the game at a friend's place (his name was Juan) with some some friends. We were watching the game live, but listening to the radio, so we got to hear Victor Hugo Morales' historic words ("Cosmic kite").
Estaba mirando el partido en la casa de un amigo (se llamaba Juan), junto con otros amigos. Mirábamos el partido en vivo, pero escuchando la radio, por lo que pudimos escuchar el histórico relato de Victor Hugo Morales ("Barrilete cósmico").


4. Man walks on the Moon for the first time - El hombre camina en la luna por primera vez (20/Jul/1969)
I was very little, just 2 and a half, so I only remember watching the TV transmission (Channel 10 from Mar del Plata) at my uncle Ernesto's house.
Era muy chiquito, sólo dos años y medio, así que sólo recuerdo ver las imágenes de TV (por canal 10 de Mar del Plata) en la casa de mi tío Ernesto.


5. Juan Perón dies - Muere Juan Perón (01/Jul/1974)
Once again, I was watching the funerals at my uncle Ernesto's house. I remember Ricardo Balbin's (his political nemesis) touching words: "This old adversary is bidding farewell to a friend").
Nuevamente, recuerdo haber mirado los funerales por TV en la casa de mi tío Ernesto. Me acuerdo de las sentidas palabras de Ricardo Balbín (su némesis político): "Este viejo adversario, despide a un amigo").

LISTEN: Audio from "El ortiba"

6. The attack of the World Trade Center - El ataque a las torres gemelas (11/Sep/2001)
I was at work, on the second day after having been laid off, already looking for a job. There were a few guys around, and I brought them all over to watch the events live on the Argentine TV station "TN - Todo Noticias". Remember being very worried for my brother (who works very close from the White House) and my sister-in-law (who works very close to the Pentagon). That same night I had to take Juan to the hospital, where he stayed for three days.
Estaba en el trabajo, dos días luego de haber sido suspendido, ya buscando trabajo. Había algunos más por allí, y los traje a todos alrededor de mi computadora para mirar las noticias en vivo por la cadena de TV argentina "TN - Todo Noticias". Recuerdo mi preocupación por mi hermano (que trabaja muy cerca de la Casa Blanca) y mi cuñada (que trabaja muy cerca del Pentágono). Esa misma noche tuve que llevar a Juan al hospital, donde se quedó por tres días.


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10 comments:

  1. I also remember exactly where I was... on my "viaje de egresadas!!" (don't know if canadians have that tradition as well)
    I remember we had just came from the mountain (we went skiing) and one of the girls sat at the TV lounge and called us all.
    20 of us were in front of the only TV the lodge had watching it whithout being able to believe our eyes.

    As for the rest...
    1) see above
    2) didn't care for it at all... I think I learned she had dying way after she passed
    3) I was only 6 years-old so I barely remember it... my family was gathered in front of the tv and suddenly they all started to scream and jump. My brother and I stared at each other like... "what?!" :)
    4) I hadn't yet been born
    5) I hadn't yet been born
    6) I was at work. It was a horrible day. I was working for Anheuser-Bush here in BA. The american executives from the company were just desperate... some of them had family in NY and on the towers at that time. They sent us all home because there was a rumor that the Talibans were going to attack american companies all over the world. Now I know it sounds silly, but back then was very scary.

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  2. Excelente post.
    YO tambien tengo recuerdos de lugares o situaciones en el momento que se producian ciertos hechos.
    Recuerdo por ejemplo, la voladura de la Embajada de Israel, la de la AMIA, como ya conte... la muerte de Olmedo, el ataque a las torres, el comienzo de la guerra del Golfo, la mano de dios, y varias otras... que ahora no me vienen a la mente.

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  3. Paola, we do have tradition here in North America, I just don't know the name...

    Re: numbers 4 or 5, you show off. It should be forbidden to be that young.

    Mike, gracias. Recuerdo perfectamente dónde estaba en todos los casos salvo la guerra del golfo. En el caso de lo de Olmedo, como conté en tu blog (creo) estaba en la carrera de TC de Necochea el día después de la muerte de Olmedo, y fue el día en que un auto (Edgardo Caparrós) salió volando y cayó en medio del público, matando 16 personas. Un fin de semana difícil de olvidar, por motivos más que trágicos...

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  4. I meant "we do have that tradition here". Sigh...

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  5. Yo recuerdo cuando el hombre pisó la luna, tenía nueve años y lo ví con mis padres y mi hermana en nuestro cuarto. También cuando murió Perón , venía del colegio y estaba almorzando, mi primer pensamiento (qué Dios me perdone) fue que al otro día no iba a tener clase. Recuerdo, mucho mas cercanos los atentados de la AMIA porque estaba limpiando la casa con la tele prendida y era el cumpleaños de mi mejor amiga y el de las torres gemelas que también fue en el momento que me disponía a limpiar, me quedé en ambos paralizada frente al televisor por un buen rato.
    Recuerdo por supuesto los mundiales en que Argentina ganó en 78 porque estaba de novia y vivía en el centro y el del 83, porque ese día estudiaba con una amiga porque al día siguiente teníamos un parcial y me quise volver a casa después del partido en mi ciclomotor y me costó un montón llega desde Dorrego y Corrientes a Villa Ballester.

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  6. Interesting meme you have here, Gabriel. I'm honored to play.

    1) I was surfing the Web when I started to see news stories about Princess Diana being in a car accident. I was also watching TV when the news started to flash across the screen. When the stories changed to her dying, we switched to CNN to watch the news coverage.

    2) I don't remember exactly where I was, but I probably saw it on TV or read about it. I didn't know she had been sick.

    3) I was a student at UCLA at this time. I remember seeing the World Cup being played on the big TV screen at the student union building, but only a handful of guys were watching. Soccer (futbol, excuse me) was not on my personal radar at that time.

    4) I vaguely remember watching it on our B&W TV. I was almost four years old at the time.

    5) I was only eight years old and didn't know who Juan Peron was at that time.

    6) 9/11 - I was at work at the time and was a mile away from the Pentagon when it was hit. It took me hours just to get around the area, and I saw the smoke coming out of the Pentagon. I blogged about it a few years later:

    http://manny88131.wordpress.com/2004/09/11/remembering-911/

    Your turn, Gabriel:

    7) Space Shuttle Challenger explosion - 01/28/1986

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  7. Great comment, Manny88131!

    The Challenger explosion is a great one! I will answer to that one now, but I will add it to my next "Where were you" post as well. Thanks for playing!

    * I was at the beach (January is a summer month in my hometown). We heard about it and went to the apartment of a friend who live right in front of the sea. We watched the news and then stayed over playing "Summer Games" on his Commodore 64.

    HA! That's memory! :-)

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  8. Ahh... tmb me acuerdo de la Embajada de Israel... estaba en Misiones en el auto con mi papá justo pasando por la terminal de colectivos cuando lo oimos en la radio.
    Y el 11M, estaba en el laburo y vino mi jefe (americano, o mejor dicho, texano) con los ojos llenos de lágrimas a decirme que los talibanes habían atacado de nuevo y que se iba a la casa. No tenía nada que ver con que haya sido en España, pero el 9/11 lo dejó tan mal que solo escuchar otra vez lo mismo le trajo horribles recuerdos.

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  9. . . . Dallas Meow . . . . >^^< . . .Apr 2, 2008, 7:42:00 PM

    1. never followed Diana
    2. who is Linda McCartney? wife of a Beatle?
    3. oops, don;t know # 3 either.
    4. MOON - watching TV with my family, I was a kid, though slightly older than 2.
    5. oops, don;t know Juan either.
    6. http://listentomeandlistengood.blogspot.com/2007/09/2001-odyssey.html

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  10. 1) I was in bed, remember sleeping very little overnight, watching constantly on TV for good news about her... que cholulo !
    2) don't remember and don't care (btw, have you heard the mp3 of her singing Hey Jude as back-up? hilarious!!!)
    3) Though I do clearly remember watching the game, I have no clue where I was...
    4) Sorry to bust your bubble... but we were home (casa de la 70), watching on the crappy old Admiral b/w TV. Not paying attention at all, and don't remember that our parents even guided us to watch (who cares about such humongous news bit, right?)
    5) yep, that we watched over at Ernesto's home. But I kinda remember hearing he had died on the car radio, going somewhere...
    6) boy, do I remember this one... at work, watching on CNN on the web, trying to get my wife on the phone, trying to get my kids out of school, trying to get the car out of the parking... horrible day... and the ones that followed...

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