With 5G melting our brain, it's hard to imagine someone can still stay oblivious to what's going on around them. But they do. Whether they choose to disconnect themselves or not, there are people who live off the grid and seriously fall behind the world. To us strangers, the most interesting part of their detachment is probably its end. The sudden mind blow that sweeps across their entire perception of reality.
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They had to bring his former commanding officer over to convince him the war was over. He did not believe people when they told him. He thought it was American tricks.
HAHAHAH OOPS! the things that happen when you go on vacation ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You'd probably always wonder if you somehow stumbled into an alternate dimension.
Someone posted asking if he was assassinated but got downvoted and removed their comment. Not everyone is familiar with US politics from the 1970’s, so others may have a similar question. Richard Nixon was not assassinated but resigned due to withholding information about individuals who were stealing political information from the other party. He knew he would likely be impeached, so he resigned instead. His name has come up frequently in the last four years as many drew a parallel between him and the 45th US President and the difference in how they handled similar charges. If this is interesting, check out information on Nixon and the Watergate scandal, but hopefully I saved some people from having to do a Google search.
Me too. Went camping in Europe and completely missed the collapse of the USSR!
I remember I was at a meeting when 9/11 happened. I'm an English teacher in Europe, and this happened in literally my first month of teaching at a school with primarily Muslim kids. Let's just say that the first two weeks were mostly talking. The kids were incredibly scared that they'd be blamed ...
Unfortunately a reasonable fear, due to so many people being both hellishly ignorant and hateful douchebags.
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I was also arriving on my campus as it was happening. We had a big Finance test that day, and the professor still made everyone take it, and the average results ended up being several standard deviations lower than our other results that semester. They didn't get thrown out, either. :(
It was one of those events where everyone knows where they were when they heard the news. I was cat sitting for a friend in a safe little street in the uk and still felt frightened and paranoid.
I was on the road at the time of 911. But I always have the radio on. The 1st report just said a 2 engine plane had hit the tower. So in my mind it was just someones personal plane. Then tbe 2nd one hit and I finally understood they were passenger planes. Approaching a turnoff for a rest area I could see a line of planes waiting to land. Get to the rest area and am walking to the ladies room. 2 women just happily chatting in front of me. I ask them if they knew what was going on today. They were on their way to a religious singing and had been happily chatting with each other the whole time. I told them. All these years later I still feel bad for probably ruining their day. But I had to speak to someone. The word surreal has been used over and over to describe that day. But it is really the only word that works. It felt so good to get close enough to home that I was able to pick up my regular radio station and finally hear familiar voices.
I worked at Sydney International Airport at the time. I had woken up, gone to work, and the terminal was PACKED solid. The giant arrivals board had been turned into a big screen TV, and you should have seen the looks I got when I said "man, Harrison Ford is looking bloody TERRIBLE. And those effects? did they hire a 12 year old?" at the action on the screen. Turns out George Bush is NOT Harrison Ford, and those weren't effects...
I don't like to listen to, watch or read the news first thing in the morning (usually starts the day off badly), so when I walked my son to school (in the Mountain Time Zone in the US) on 9/11, I smiled brightly at the crossing guard and said, "Good morning!" And he looked at me funny and said, "If you can call it that." I asked him what he meant, and he said, "You didn't hear about the plane that flew into the World Trade Center?" I said no, but didn't have time to stop and chat about it as I had to go into the school office to check on something (don't remember what). Once I got in there everyone was talking about it and I discovered it was a passenger jet (later discovered there were two), not a private plane like I had thought, and it was terrorism. I wanted to take my son out of school, but hubby drove by on his way to work and said no one was going to bomb an elementary school in the middle of Arizona, but wow, it was scary to let him stay there. Went home and stayed glued to TV
I was teaching kindergarten at the time and of course had no clue of what had happened. The principal came in and filled me in. I had a little girl whose Dad was a firefighter in the city and I remember praying he was off that day, he wasn't. They never found his remains.
I was a senior in high school with a free first period, so I usually came in later and I was playing CDs in my car at the time, not the radio. I had no idea what had happened until I got to school and all the monitors were tuned to the news.
I was doing basic military training in the weeks around 9/11 and we were on the final part, waiting to go out into a mock battle. We were told there would be a scenario... Then the instructors came and told us about the aeroplane hitting the tower and we thought it was the scenario. They took us to the recreation room and put the tv on - and the second plane hit.
i was in phoenix at the time this happened. my roomies ride knocked and asked - please tell me your tv is on! and i saw the 2nd plane. it was like watching a movie. i still get goosebumps thinking about it. my godfather was in NY at the time, his lover had never been to the top, and he said...no i've been up there already. THAT is what saved their lives.
I awoke the morning of was still sleepy so I went back to bed, woke up a couple hours later walked out into the living room everybody was emotional I was looking at the TV thinking why are you guys watching this movie again, took my sister and her boyfriend to sit me down and watch the twin towers fall, joined the army a year later
Must admit it did hit us badly in the UK, even though it was not our country and we did not know anyone involved, we felt for you
When 9/11 happened I was at work, my final task of the day was picking up two brothers with learning difficulties after school and taking them out together because they lived in separate care settings. The youngest boy had watched it on the news at lunchtime and explained it to me as a naughty boy stole a plane and it crashed into a building. I was under the impression that it was local (we’re in the U.K.) and involved a teenager accidentally crashing a small plane, like a Cessna into a hangar or something. I was stunned when I saw the news later and realised what had really happened
I was at the bus stop when they planes actually hit the towers. Myself, everyone at the bus stop and on the bus, including the driver had no clue what had happened. I had an internet class first period and that was when I found out.
I was in class and didn't know about 911 until I picked my children up from school.
OP after realizing what happened looks for crush, "Can you believe this! It just hurts so bad. I just need a hug (little side eye)".
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There was a reality TV show being filmed on a Scottish island, with the expectation that they'd live there for a year and they'd show updates on TV over the year. The show went a bit to pot because they didn't have a great balance of skills and characters, so the show was already being pared back, but some of the people remained on the island till the end of the year. At the end they had to explain to them that Britain was leaving the EU and trump had been voted in as president in the US. (although after the last few years that feels less shocking than it did at the time!)
Are you sure about this? Seems to have the years mixed up, the people on the island were there years before the voting for Brexit
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Not away from social media, but I did go in for emergency surgery on a Tuesday morning after suffering a severe gall stone attack. When I woke up, San Francisco was in chaos after suffering a 6.9 Earthquake that collapsed bridges and killed 63 people. I sat in my hospital bed watching the horror unfold on the news.
my husband was in a coma due to covid for about 2 months, and despite what they show on tv, coming out of it is very gradual. He was out from April 5 to early June, 2020. I had so much to tell him when he woke up, not just in our personal lives (which were hell) but the world in general
This reminds me of reverse culture shock a bit. I lived in China for four years. When I came back to the US, I had no idea what cell lots were at the airport and it took me a while to figure out what "struggle bus" meant.
Oh goodness.... in my mom's family they still oten only listen to/pay attention to news from back home, so they had no idea for *weeks* that any number of things happened in North America. Took them a while to even figure out Justin Trudeau was the new guy in charge, LOL, and they live in Quebec now!
My ex when on a 3 week camping trip in 1992. The first question he asked me was "What's up with OJ?" He missed the bronco chase and everything. Meanwhile I couldn't get away from it.
Someone with a deep knowledge of TV soap operas can, I hope, provide the details, but the basics are these: In the '70s I was an editor at TV Guide magazine. A writer in our NY office sent in a profile of a woman starring on one of the soaps. She was as the French say "of a certain age"--in her 40s at least. And, critically important, she was German, only arrived in the US years after World War II. So inevitably and hesitantly our writer had raised the question of her experiences in Germany during the war. (Younger BPs should be aware that in those years (1939-1945) Germany was under the sway of Hitler; that Jews, gays, gypsies, the mentally ill and physically disabled were being systematically murdered in a vast network of concentration camps; and thatBerlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and other cities were razed to the ground by ceaseless bombing raids.) So--what WAS her experience of the war? Well, she said, "our family was on vacation." And TV Guide printed it.
Nowhere near as big as any of these, but I went to Woodstock '99 with 3 friends (and none of us had phones back then). The 3rd day started with riots, so we packed it up and left early. But we got stuck in traffic, and we lived several hours away, so we didn't get home until close to 9 at night. When I walked in the door (I was 21 but living at home before my Sr year of college), my parents and sister jumped up and started hugging me. They had been watching the riots and problems on tv all day and since we weren't supposed to come home until the next day, they thought we were still there and caught in it all. Meanwhile, we knew nothing about what was going on, and all I wanted after a weekend of drinking, camping, and overflowing latrines with no access to showers, was to take a hot bath and go to sleep.
Also remember being a kid while your country is currently having a civil war and everyone is trying to keep you peppy and whatnot so you don't realize everything's going to s**t? ._.
I went into boot camp in August of 2001, so I was there on September 11. They told us about it, but I didn't see footage until we finished in October. When I went in, no one really cared about people in the military unless they were a veteran themselves. When I came out, the whole country was plastered in red, white and blue.
I was working nights and came home from a terrible job which I planned on quitting later that day after 2 weeks. My mom was watching the news, so I sat down to watch with her. When I finally had to go to bed, I had a seizure on the stairway. On 9/11, my seizures that had been controlled for 13 years returned and became resistant to medications.
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These are very interesting, but soo sad! I got chills at the first one. So glad they are okay. :)
There was a reality TV show being filmed on a Scottish island, with the expectation that they'd live there for a year and they'd show updates on TV over the year. The show went a bit to pot because they didn't have a great balance of skills and characters, so the show was already being pared back, but some of the people remained on the island till the end of the year. At the end they had to explain to them that Britain was leaving the EU and trump had been voted in as president in the US. (although after the last few years that feels less shocking than it did at the time!)
Are you sure about this? Seems to have the years mixed up, the people on the island were there years before the voting for Brexit
Load More Replies... Not away from social media, but I did go in for emergency surgery on a Tuesday morning after suffering a severe gall stone attack. When I woke up, San Francisco was in chaos after suffering a 6.9 Earthquake that collapsed bridges and killed 63 people. I sat in my hospital bed watching the horror unfold on the news.
my husband was in a coma due to covid for about 2 months, and despite what they show on tv, coming out of it is very gradual. He was out from April 5 to early June, 2020. I had so much to tell him when he woke up, not just in our personal lives (which were hell) but the world in general
This reminds me of reverse culture shock a bit. I lived in China for four years. When I came back to the US, I had no idea what cell lots were at the airport and it took me a while to figure out what "struggle bus" meant.
Oh goodness.... in my mom's family they still oten only listen to/pay attention to news from back home, so they had no idea for *weeks* that any number of things happened in North America. Took them a while to even figure out Justin Trudeau was the new guy in charge, LOL, and they live in Quebec now!
My ex when on a 3 week camping trip in 1992. The first question he asked me was "What's up with OJ?" He missed the bronco chase and everything. Meanwhile I couldn't get away from it.
Someone with a deep knowledge of TV soap operas can, I hope, provide the details, but the basics are these: In the '70s I was an editor at TV Guide magazine. A writer in our NY office sent in a profile of a woman starring on one of the soaps. She was as the French say "of a certain age"--in her 40s at least. And, critically important, she was German, only arrived in the US years after World War II. So inevitably and hesitantly our writer had raised the question of her experiences in Germany during the war. (Younger BPs should be aware that in those years (1939-1945) Germany was under the sway of Hitler; that Jews, gays, gypsies, the mentally ill and physically disabled were being systematically murdered in a vast network of concentration camps; and thatBerlin, Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg and other cities were razed to the ground by ceaseless bombing raids.) So--what WAS her experience of the war? Well, she said, "our family was on vacation." And TV Guide printed it.
Nowhere near as big as any of these, but I went to Woodstock '99 with 3 friends (and none of us had phones back then). The 3rd day started with riots, so we packed it up and left early. But we got stuck in traffic, and we lived several hours away, so we didn't get home until close to 9 at night. When I walked in the door (I was 21 but living at home before my Sr year of college), my parents and sister jumped up and started hugging me. They had been watching the riots and problems on tv all day and since we weren't supposed to come home until the next day, they thought we were still there and caught in it all. Meanwhile, we knew nothing about what was going on, and all I wanted after a weekend of drinking, camping, and overflowing latrines with no access to showers, was to take a hot bath and go to sleep.
Also remember being a kid while your country is currently having a civil war and everyone is trying to keep you peppy and whatnot so you don't realize everything's going to s**t? ._.
I went into boot camp in August of 2001, so I was there on September 11. They told us about it, but I didn't see footage until we finished in October. When I went in, no one really cared about people in the military unless they were a veteran themselves. When I came out, the whole country was plastered in red, white and blue.
I was working nights and came home from a terrible job which I planned on quitting later that day after 2 weeks. My mom was watching the news, so I sat down to watch with her. When I finally had to go to bed, I had a seizure on the stairway. On 9/11, my seizures that had been controlled for 13 years returned and became resistant to medications.
Load More Replies... These are very interesting, but soo sad! I got chills at the first one. So glad they are okay. :)
