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fpbWhere were you...
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot? (11/22/1963)
I was one-year-old, with my parents in Sesto S.Giovanni, Italy, and my mother chose that day to have my sister. Afterwards my mother was very ill and my baby sister and I were sent off to two pairs of grandparents (one each).
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew? (5/18/1980)
In King's School, Canterbury. I remember reading about it in their wonderful ancient library, which is like something out of a JKR story.
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded? (1/28/1986)
In Italy, during a holiday between university terms in Oxford.
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco? (10/7/1989)
In Brixton, London, studying for my degree and observing the flourishing local Black culture.
5. When the Berlin Wall fell? (11/7/1989)
In Australia on holiday, I think. I remember thinking that I wanted to talk this over with my friends at college.
6. When the Gulf War began? (1/16/1991)
In Leyton, East London. I had just graduated - an awful experience in some ways, and I was sort of surviving and in a foetal position. I remember arguing about it with some Muslim shopkeeper and explaining to her that since Americans were not fond of casualties, they would simply do what they always did, bomb the hell out of anything that moved and then steamroller the remains with tanks.
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco? (6/17/1994)
Still in Leyton. Jack Kirby died at the same time, which mattered a lot more to me.
8. When the building in Oklahoma City was bombed? (4/19/1995)
Still in Leyton.
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997)
Still in Leyton. I remember that I had a very bad night that night, I just could not sleep, and as soon as I turned my radio on, well...
10. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000)
IN Leytonstone, East London, struggling to survive the worst house-share I have ever been in - a criminal and a beat-up junkie.
11. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001)
News of that never reached England. Looking at the date, I know that I had moved into a high-rise building in Shoreditch.
12. When terrorists knocked over the World Trade Center (9/11/2001)
I rmember that one very well. I was at a loose end, watching TV at about two in the afternoon, and the first news came in. I just sat there. A guy who lived there at the time - white South African racist whom I did not like and who did not like me - came in, and I told him about it, and then the second plane hit, and it began to dawn on us that this could not be just an accident. And we just sat there transfixed as the hours passed and the news came in and we watched the towers burn and fall.
1. When John F. Kennedy was shot? (11/22/1963)
I was one-year-old, with my parents in Sesto S.Giovanni, Italy, and my mother chose that day to have my sister. Afterwards my mother was very ill and my baby sister and I were sent off to two pairs of grandparents (one each).
2. When Mt. St. Helens blew? (5/18/1980)
In King's School, Canterbury. I remember reading about it in their wonderful ancient library, which is like something out of a JKR story.
3. When the space shuttle Challenger exploded? (1/28/1986)
In Italy, during a holiday between university terms in Oxford.
4. When the 7.1 earthquake hit San Francisco? (10/7/1989)
In Brixton, London, studying for my degree and observing the flourishing local Black culture.
5. When the Berlin Wall fell? (11/7/1989)
In Australia on holiday, I think. I remember thinking that I wanted to talk this over with my friends at college.
6. When the Gulf War began? (1/16/1991)
In Leyton, East London. I had just graduated - an awful experience in some ways, and I was sort of surviving and in a foetal position. I remember arguing about it with some Muslim shopkeeper and explaining to her that since Americans were not fond of casualties, they would simply do what they always did, bomb the hell out of anything that moved and then steamroller the remains with tanks.
7. When OJ Simpson was chased in his White Bronco? (6/17/1994)
Still in Leyton. Jack Kirby died at the same time, which mattered a lot more to me.
8. When the building in Oklahoma City was bombed? (4/19/1995)
Still in Leyton.
9. When Princess Di was killed (8/31/1997)
Still in Leyton. I remember that I had a very bad night that night, I just could not sleep, and as soon as I turned my radio on, well...
10. When Bush was first announced President (11/7/2000)
IN Leytonstone, East London, struggling to survive the worst house-share I have ever been in - a criminal and a beat-up junkie.
11. When the 6.8 earthquake hit Nisqually, WA (2/28/2001)
News of that never reached England. Looking at the date, I know that I had moved into a high-rise building in Shoreditch.
12. When terrorists knocked over the World Trade Center (9/11/2001)
I rmember that one very well. I was at a loose end, watching TV at about two in the afternoon, and the first news came in. I just sat there. A guy who lived there at the time - white South African racist whom I did not like and who did not like me - came in, and I told him about it, and then the second plane hit, and it began to dawn on us that this could not be just an accident. And we just sat there transfixed as the hours passed and the news came in and we watched the towers burn and fall.
