Where were you when ???? Died?

[77dave]

Arton Senna  was my sisters b'day  may 1st  remember that one vividly as well

[KeithyB]

John Lennon

I was sixteen, still at school, and I remember this being the first death, celebrity or otherwise, that had a real impact on me.  I wasn't a particular John Lennon or even Beatles fan but just something about the nature of his death and the general reaction really hit home.

I always look back at this time as being the end of a certain innocence that I had up to that point in my life.  Things have always been a little bit darker since that day.

[tikay]

And the bombing of a building in America - was it Kansas City, when they destroyed an agency Building? The Americans arrested every Muslin in sight, & it turned out to be a some weirdo redneck local was responsible. Relegated to the inside pages then of course....

[TightEnd]

Tighty's reference to football reminds me of Hillsborough, I know the exact where & when I was for that, ditto the Bradford stadium fire.

April 1989, my last year at University...5 of us were celebrating the birthday of my housemate (Bolton fan) by watching Fulham v Bolton, Divsion 4, at Craven Cottage and then hitting the town

We couldn't understand why the FA Cup semi latest score didn't come over the tannoy. We didn't go out on the town when we found out, the car broke down on the way back to University.

My girlfirend at the time was a Forest fan and was at the far end of Hillsborugh as it unfolded. It scarred her for a long long time afterwards.

[tikay]

John Lennon

I was sixteen, still at school, and I remember this being the first death, celebrity or otherwise, that had a real impact on me.  I wasn't a particular John Lennon or even Beatles fan but just something about the nature of his death and the general reaction really hit home.

I always look back at this time as being the end of a certain innocence that I had up to that point in my life.  Things have always been a little bit darker since that day.

Absolutely it was life-changing for me. How could they shoot John, surely a mistake, I kept thinking.?

[totalise]

The one that shocked me the most was Jill Dando.. was driving back from the golf course and almost crashed my car... felt numb for hours, which is strange considering i never knew her
As for the WTC, I was working on the equity desk in a trading house in London and it was absolute bedlam, markets were like a straight line down, then closed, clients who were trading on 1% margins ended up owing £10k on positions that only required nominal balances , and then had to move into the backoffice temporarily to try and get settlement on all the accounts with deficit balances.. the craziest week of work I ever encountered. Glad thats over now.

Diana I had to wake up at 6:30am to play the final of my Club Championship matchplay, and heard it on the radio.. my opponent was a staunch royalist so i thank her royal highness everytime I look at the trophy and reminisce on the 7&5 thrashing I gave the poor soul.

Jill Dando, I never quite "got" that, though I don't really watch TV. Seemed a lovely girl, & it was vey sad, but the damn Press blew it up too much for me.

I think it shocked me because it was the first celebrity murder I had experienced, and I had a schoolboy crush on her.

[RED-DOG]

When I was a very small boy of about 5 or 6, we often used to stop near a railway embankment behind a pub called The Arrow. Near to where we stopped, there was a tumbledown wooden cottage occupied by an doddering white haired old gentleman called Mr Flyn.

I spent countless hours tormenting Mr Flyn, I rang his doorbell and ran away, I knocked his outside loo /bucket and chuckit over, I sat on and broke all the cabbages in his vegetable plot, I caught wasps and posted them through his letterbox, etc etc.

He would lay in wait and ambush me. He would growl and wave his stick and I would squeal as he chased me almost all the way home every day. He threatened me with indescribable violence,  but strangely, on the odd occasions when he caught me, I always managed to slip away unscathed. Sometimes I would see him talking to my father, but it never occurred to me to wondered why he didn't report my misdemeanors

One day I went to his cottage to cause some mischief, and I saw an ambulance crew stretchering a blanket covered figure down the path. I knew straight away that it was Mr Flyn, and I knew that he was dead.

I knew at that moment that I loved him, what's more, I realised that he loved me too.

[tikay]

When I was a very small boy of about 5 or 6, we often used to stop near a railway embankment behind a pub called The Arrow. Near to where we stopped, there was a tumbledown wooden cottage occupied by an doddering white haired old gentleman called Mr Flyn.

I spent countless hours tormenting Mr Flyn, I rang his doorbell and ran away, I knocked his outside loo /bucket and chuckit over, I sat on and broke all the cabbages in his vegetable plot, I caught wasps and posted them through his letterbox, etc etc.

He would lay in wait and ambush me. He would growl and wave his stick and I would squeal as he chased me almost all the way home every day. He threatened me with indescribable violence,  but strangely, on the odd occasions when he caught me, I always managed to slip away unscathed. Sometimes I would see him talking to my father, but it never occurred to me to wondered why he didn't report my misdemeanors

One day I went to his cottage to cause some mischief, and I saw an ambulance crew stretchering a blanket covered figure down the path. I knew straight away that it was Mr Flyn, and I knew that he was dead.

I knew at that moment that I loved him, what's more, I realised that he loved me too.

Tom, that is so moving.

[AndrewT]

The one that shocked me the most was Jill Dando.. was driving back from the golf course and almost crashed my car... felt numb for hours, which is strange considering i never knew her

Jill Dando, I never quite "got" that, though I don't really watch TV. Seemed a lovely girl, & it was vey sad, but the damn Press blew it up too much for me.

I think it shocked me because it was the first celebrity murder I had experienced, and I had a schoolboy crush on her.

A mate of mine was working in the BBC news library that day and it was absolute bedlam. They have obituary packages ready for old celebrities (or those who have recently been ill) along with those prone to assasinations (politicians). For Jill Dando they had nothing and it was a mad rush trying to cut together old clips from Crimewatch to show.

The flip side of this was the Queen Mother. Her death had been so widely expected that the BBC had made a programme interviewing people who talked about her in the past tense, to be shown on the day she died. Unfortunately for the BBC, by the time it was shown it was hopelessly out of date - it had clearly been made in the late 1970s and nearly all of the people reminiscing about the Queen Mum had long since died themselves.

[thetank]

Sad thread this, got me rembering some nasty stuff.

One of my earliest memories was being told to look out of the window across the North Sea, the flames burning from the Piper Alpha were visible from my bedroom. 167 men died that day. Everybody seemed to know a relative of one of those who perished.
It was the same year as the Lockerbie disaster, but I can't remember that.
Certainly not a good year for Scotland

[thetank]

Despite a bit of stick from my peers about being a tank engine, I can never remeber being ashamed of my name. Except one day in '96. Thomas Hamilton gunned down a class full of pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, at a Primary school ffs.

If you're looking for questions that will never get a satisfactory answer... Why would anyone do this?

[tikay]

Sad thread this, got me rembering some nasty stuff.

One of my earliest memories was being told to look out of the window across the North Sea, the flames burning from the Piper Alpha were visible from my bedroom. 167 men died that day. Everybody seemed to know a relative of one of those who perished.
It was the same year as the Lockerbie disaster, but I can't remember that.
Certainly not a good year for Scotland

Sad, yes, but no rain, no rainbow.

Locherbie - yes a dreadful memory, I as in Mombasa, Kenya, it was around Xmas as I recall. On my sadly infrequent trips to Scotland by car, I drive past Locjjrbie, but dare not go into the town.

[tikay]

Despite a bit of stick from my peers about being a tank engine, I can never remeber being ashamed of my name. Except one day in '96. Thomas Hamilton gunned down a class full of pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, at a Primary school ffs.

If you're looking for questions that will never get a satisfactory answer... Why would anyone do this?

I know, man unto Man & all that. Imagine how the parents must feel? Next door neighbour's kids, one dies, the other survives, how do the parents, with such mixed emotions, face each other?

This thread is so theraupautic. Poker bad beats? Don't even think about 'em.

[AndrewT]

Despite a bit of stick from my peers about being a tank engine, I can never remeber being ashamed of my name. Except one day in '96. Thomas Hamilton gunned down a class full of pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, at a Primary school ffs.

If you're looking for questions that will never get a satisfactory answer... Why would anyone do this?

I know, man unto Man & all that. Imagine how the parents must feel? Next door neighbour's kids, one dies, the other survives, how do the parents, with such mixed emotions, face each other?

This thread is so theraupautic. Poker bad beats? Don't even think about 'em.

Andy Murray, the tennis player, was an 8-year old pupil at the school on the day it happened. When he started his tennis career, his press info would only describe him as coming from Fife, as he and his parents knew that mentioning Dunblane would only lead to endless questions about it.

[bolt pp]

Despite a bit of stick from my peers about being a tank engine, I can never remeber being ashamed of my name. Except one day in '96. Thomas Hamilton gunned down a class full of pupils and their teacher in Dunblane, at a Primary school ffs.

If you're looking for questions that will never get a satisfactory answer... Why would anyone do this?

I know, man unto Man & all that. Imagine how the parents must feel? Next door neighbour's kids, one dies, the other survives, how do the parents, with such mixed emotions, face each other?

This thread is so theraupautic. Poker bad beats? Don't even think about 'em.

   bit of perspective