Things that kept me glued to the TV

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Gaybutton
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Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by Gaybutton »

While many of us have been riveted to the TV during the cave rescue saga, for me it brought to mind other things that kept me glued to TV:

1. The JFK Assassination
2. The Martin Luther King assassination
3. The Bobby Kennedy Assassination
4. The Valujet crash in the Florida Everglades (I lived there)
5. Air Florida Flight 90 that crashed on takeoff into Washington DC's 14th Street Bridge
6. 9/11
7. The killing of Bin Laden
8. Hurricane Andrew (I lived through that. Luckily I had a hand-held battery operated TV)
9. The Phuket tsunami
10. Many of the Watergate hearings and the Nixon resignation
11. The 2016 presidential election debates and election returns

I'm sure there were many others, but these are the ones standing out for me at the moment. The cave rescue is one of the very few that had a happy ending.

What about YOU? In your life, what kept YOU unable to tear yourself away from the TV?
fountainhall

Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by fountainhall »

Ever since the Soviets first put a dog into space, I have been fascinated by space. Not the Star Trek or Star Wars variety. Just the act of getting out of earth's atmosphere and seeing our planet from above. So two events had me glued to the TV -

1. The flight of Apollo 8 around the moon and safely back. So many supposedly knowledgeable experts, including Britain's Astronomer Royal, Sir Bernard Lovell, claimed it was too dangerous for any spacecraft to venture to the dark side of the moon. I found this flight even more extraordinary than the actual moon landing.
2. Apollo 13. Another event that hooked the world for days with all the ingredients of a major suspense movie! And Ron Howard's eventual film was pretty good.

Others have included many on GB's list as well as the following -

3. The slow revelation of the horrific Cambodian genocide. Vietnam seemed too far away when I lived in the UK. From Hong Kong, the Cambodian Killing Fields were virtually on my doorstep.
4. The hearings prior to the appointment of the liar Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court.
5. The 1986 Chernobyl Disaster
6. The 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by Gaybutton »

Fountainhall's post reminds me. I can't believe left out the Apollo 11 moon landing.
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by Captain Swing »

The JFK assassination was the biggest for me, and probably most people who were alive then. I remember I'd gone out to the kitchen for something to drink and missed seeing Oswald get shot.

Second would be Watergate, not just the hearings but the whole event. I couldn't wait to get home from work every afternoon and watch the evening news to see what revelations had come out that day. Remember that for many of us that one had a happy ending too.

I slept through 9/11 (I worked nights) and didn't wake up until late afternoon, when the towers had already fallen.

A couple others that could be on the list are the death and funeral of Princess Diana and the "Miracle on the Hudson" safe ditching of the USAir flight. Also, for those of us on the East Coast of the US, "Superstorm" Sandy a few years ago, and the great blackout, sometime in the 60's, when the power failed for a great chunk of the Eastern US. For both of these I was at home in NJ and happened to be in a pocket where the power didn't fail.
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by Gaybutton »

Captain Swing wrote:I remember I'd gone out to the kitchen for something to drink and missed seeing Oswald get shot.
I'll never forget it. My father and I were watching on TV when it happened. He cried out, "Oh my God! Somebody just shot Oswald!"

From the kitchen came my mother's voice: "Good!"
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by aussie »

Trump and Putin meet kept me riveted to the toilet seat.
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by Gaybutton »

aussie wrote:Trump and Putin meet kept me riveted to the toilet seat.
Sitting, vomiting, or both?
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by aussie »

Gaybutton wrote:
aussie wrote:Trump and Putin meet kept me riveted to the toilet seat.
Sitting, vomiting, or both?
Both.

When I was a kid we were glued to our seats at school watching the first manned moon landing. No classes most of the day.
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Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by Gaybutton »

aussie wrote:When I was a kid we were glued to our seats at school watching the first manned moon landing. No classes most of the day.
As an aside, everybody knows Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon. Many remember Buzz Aldrin was the second.

Can anyone remember, without looking it up or otherwise cheating, the name of the astronaut who remained on the spacecraft in orbit and did not get to walk on the moon?
fountainhall

Re: Things that kept me glued to the TV

Post by fountainhall »

Yes, but I won't say it to keep this going - other than to say that one last letter in one name was was L.

But I had to think, whereas with the three who went around the moon for the first time in December 1968, I have always remembered all three names - Borman, Lovell and Anders.
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