Cedarcreek said:
Big Muddy rancher said:
This morning on the radio they were talking about what we were doing 40 years ago when the moon walk happened. :?
I think I was probably doing the same thing as this morning.
Raking Hay. :shock:
Nice cake Sunflower, you've got some creative talents
I was probably raking hay too, I was in high school and remember watching it.
Other events when I sure recall what I was doing include:
John Kennedy's assination
In the school yard playing outside after lunch. The teacher came back across from the other building bawling her eyes out. Later in the day, knowing my dad was not a John Kennedy fan, it surprised me to realize that he was just as shocked and saddened as the rest of the nation. We didn't have television at the time, so got to watch the funeral on our neighbor's TV, in the very house where we now live. Having access to all the Pepsi and Hydrox cookies one little boy could handle, it was a memorable day.
Bobby Kennedy's assination
Camped out down in the hills on a cattle drive. My uncle showed up in his pickup and said, "Bobby Kennedy sure got his." I thought that was an odd way to say it, and the words have stuck in my mind ever since.
Marilyn Monroe dying from a drug overdose
My dad and I were coming home from checking our summer pasture thirty miles from home. It was big new on the radio.
Ronald Reagan getting bullet wounds
We were calving pretty hard and there were four cows calving at once. I was in the pickup driving back and forth between the cows, trying to listen to the radio. One calf needed a sack pulled off his head, and I was hoping no crucial news would be missed while attending to saving the calf's life.
Space shuttle Challenger blowing up
In the pickup caking cows when the news came over the radio.
Oklahoma City bombing
Pulling through a gate just east of the house with a tractor while feeding hay.
Nine One One
Laura, a young lady who was a shirttail cousin from England stayed with us for over a month during the summer of 2001. After she left our ranch she traveled by bus for two weeks visiting Yellowstone Park, the Grand Canyon, and other points of interest. She called one night to report that she had enjoyed seeing the sights of the western United Statest and was back in Washington D.C., where she planned to visit for three days before flying back to England. After she reported in, I called my dad to update him on her travels.
The next morning, September 11, 2001, I listened to the news at 6 a.m., shut off the radio, then Peach and I headed out horseback to gather cattle in a distant pasture. A young couple from Wyoming were working for us at the time, and they met us at the pasture on their horses. I was up on a high hill when my pocket phone rang. It was my dad, and he said, "I am sure worried about Laura." I said, "Don't worry about Laura, she is back from her bus trip and is in Washington, D.C." He said, "That is why I am worried. Aren't you watching the news." Even though my saddle was equipped with a horn, it had neither radio or television, so I had to truthfully answer, "No." He filled me in on the details, and the wind plumb went out of my sails. Then a friend called and asked if I was watching the news. Again I said no. As we talked, the second tower got hit, so he gave me the play-by-play.
We had the cattle gathered, and Peach had moved some bulls in the next pasture out of the way. I really didn't feel like working cattle that day, but figured we'd just as well at least get them closer to home. We put them into the first empty pasture, and I announced to the cowboy crew, "Let's go home, unsaddle, and watch the news." We had just put the horses out of the barn and were walking towards the house when my doggoned pocket phone rang again. It was the driver of a feed truck who was delivering creep feed, with the delightful news that he was bogged down in low ground where he shouldn't have been driving to start with. It took the next two hours and two front-wheel-assist tractors to get him pulled up out of the mud.
We never did get a chance to watch the news that day. Our oldest boy was in a football game at Bassett, Nebraska, that afternoon, so we drove a hundred and twenty miles one way to attend the game. Deciding to top off our fuel tank in the pickup on the way home, we had to wait in line behind several vehicles and pay a jacked-up price for the fuel. Yes, it was a day to remember.