What Were You Doing Ten Years Ago Today...

[CO Liberal]

...when you first learned about the Oklahoma City bombing?

The Princess and I were packing up our apartment in Henderson, Nevada in preparation for our move the next day to Pueblo, CO. She turned on the TV and we saw the shell of the building.


Source: http://www.sandia.gov/


The next day, we had all our belongings packed into a Hertz/Penske truck and we left Nevada for good. And since McVeigh and Nichols were still at large, I couldn't help but think that we were sharing the road with terrorists all the way to Colorado....

[Beware the Beast Man]

1. Coming back from a morning class.

My roomies were already stoned for the day. Then I took a nap.

[mark414]

2. i think it was a saturday?

either way, i know i didn't have school that day...i remember coming downstairs and the TV was on (in the old TV room at my parent's house which is now the computer room) and there it was on the television...i want to say it was around 10:00 am so it had just happened relatively recently...i remember them announcing when they caught mcveigh too

damn has it been 10 years already?

[Terran]

7. No, it was a weekday

I was at work, temping as a clerk in a state office, Dept. of Natural Resources. I remember very well how horrified everyone was, and *everyone* in that office assumed at first that it was Arab terrorists who must have done it.

[CO Liberal]

11. It Was a Wednesday

I know that because we moved from Nevada the following day, and that was a Thursday.

[Huckebein the Raven]

3. I was a freshman in high school

learned about what happened when my Dad picked me up from school.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

4. I was at home and I think I had the Oprah show on, when

it was interrupted. God forgive me, but the first thing I thought of when I saw what was left of the Murrah Building was Muslim terrorists.

I never thought that Americans terrorists would do this to their own people. How wrong and naive I was in 1995.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

31. Actually, they said that it probably did have ties to Muslim terrorists...

Also, considering that people saw several middle eastern looking people with McVeigh in the days BEFORE the bombing in the area...
The whole story doesn't end with McVeigh, and I'm sorry if you believe that. I had family in the building that day...And I've talked to people who remember them removing charges from the building. It wasn't just a truck bomb. Google Terry Yeakley and Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy. You'll be surprised what you find. And I know some of it is ridiculous. But you have to consider I taped the aftermath of the bombing, and some of the crap they say never happened, I have on tape.
On edit, I just found this link. Jayna Davis is not a nut case. She's an investigative reporter who used to work for KFOR TV in OKlahoma city.
http://www.jaynadavis.com/story.html
Duckie

[LynzM]

5. Home sick from school....

I think? I remember watching it on TV, while lying on the couch. So either I was home sick or it was a weekend, don't remember which...

[CBGLuthier]

6. Looking out a window

We heard a noise, sounded like the compressor on the roof had locked up. A minute later I looked east out of the 4th floor where I worked and saw the smoke.

Went home for lunch. Talked to my friend who had been on jury duty about 2 blocks from the building. He worked a mile from downtown and had walked home. He saw it all. The truck axle. People looking for their children. His van was in the lot across from the building and had been totaled by the blast.

I worked at a call center that dealt with a specfici client list and they all knew we were there and the calls came all day.

Went home that night and got drunk.

Will be so glad when today is over. Especially in about 12 minutes.

[Magrittes Pipe]

8. Sitting in the Breeze Cafe at Beloit College.

Smoking and playing euchre.

[tjwmason]

9. I would have been at school (aged 15)

I can't remember the exact details - but can certainly remember loads of news coverage, and the mad dash to blame the Arabs first of all.

[purr]

10. I was in high school.. I was 15

[bertha katzenengel]

12. Broke my ankle that day. I have a friend who was nearly killed there.

eom

[catmandu57]

13. Sitting in my living room watching

Joe montana retire from football when they broke in with the news. It was real windy that day, just like today, the wind is blowing hard from the south.

[HeeBGBz]

14. Glued to the tv

Wondering what in the hell is going on and worrying about family in OKC.

[Atlas Mugged]

15. I was having my truck serviced at the dealership

I walked into the customer lounge, got some coffee, something to read and sat down. The tv had been on the entire time but I hadn't focused on it. The moment I did I got tunnel vision. Strangely enough, when 9/11 happened, I didn't think of Muslim terrorists; I thought of right wing, American nutjobs that we now call freepers. Mainly because of Ann Coulter's suggestions for a more suitable target. Well, that and other right wing extremists actually praising McVeigh's work as a "masterpiece". I've been shell shocked by those goons ever since. Tim McVeigh and Ann Coulter are soul mates.

[flamingyouth]

16. Getting ready to fly to Long Beach for a conference

My parents begged me not to go but I went anyway. The airports had National Guard troops all over the place. I'll never forget the image of the firefighter holding the body of that little girl... :cry:

[Richardo]

17. I had the radio (KPFT) on at work (before streaming media)

My first thought: "Limbaugh's people did this."

I just knew it was RW American terrorists.

[MissMillie]

18. Home in bed--sick

oddly enough, w/ a sore throat and a temperature.

I didn't even hear about it until around noon, because I was sleeping.

[Left Is Write]

19. I remember it very clearly. I was getting ready to go to work.

I worked for a radio station. My show started at 1:00, but I was planning to go in at 10:00, do some prep, and then take calls from music promoters from 11:00 to 12:45.

I had the television on in the living room while I got ready, and I heard them break into programming. I went in and stood there for several minutes of coverage, then I called our news director and asked her if she wanted me to come over right away and help out in the newsroom.

[supernova]

20. Spending time with my mom, thinking about getting divorced

She spent some time with us over the spring and I told her how deeply unhappy I was.

Wow! I can't believe it was all so long ago.

[johnnie]

21. I was in the middle of a short stint in County lockup

Don't ask..lol. But at least I knew I wouldn't get blamed for what happened. I couldn't see much of it because it seemed most of the guys there wanted to watch Springer and shit.

[DS1]

22. I had just made it to work in the Marines, some people were in

a mild state of panic over some bombing in Oklahoma. I didn't really care, to be honest.

[Mizmoon]

23. College student

it barely pierced my consiousness. I was busy.

[LiberallyInclined]

24. we were enroute to Hawaii- first heard about it during plane change in HOU

we then had a 6-hour layover in LAX(what can i say- continental had a good deal at the time), and we were able to get a little more info.

[eyesroll]

25. In the lobby of the World Affairs Center at Beloit College,

waiting for class to start, and word spread.

[Aristus]

26. I was watching TV in my apartment, having a nice cup of coffee,

and marvelling over the fact that I had a new, really HOT girlfriend, and wondering how long it was going to last. (Still going. I met her on Tax Day 1995, we married April 23, 1999, and we're still going strong after six years.)

I couldn't believe the bombing when it happened. I couldn't believe that the right-wing anti-government militia cowards could be so callous and indifferent to human life that the deaths of 168 people, including 19 children, would make them happy and feel like they were accomplishing their mission. I found out a couple of days later that a cousin of mine had been one of the victims. I'm so glad we went after the guys who did it, caught and punished them, instead of, you know, invading Mexico or something. How can anybody think B*sh is better at hunting terrorists than Clinton was???? :shrug:

Anyway, as passionately anti-death penalty as I am, I'm not sorry they slipped McVeigh the needle.

[Squatch]

27. I was in college and I had just returned from OKC that day

visiting my brother in Tulsa. It was surreal.

[ProfessorGAC]

28. Waiting At Home For My Neuro To Call

That was the day that i got my diagnosis of MS. I took a sick day to wait for the doctor to call with the results of the CAT and MRI and spinal tap.

He called about 1 hour after the world fell apart in OKC! I was watching CSPAN and they mentioned it, so i jumped to CNN (which at the time was acceptable.)

I remember a lot about that day.
The Professor

[CO Liberal]

33. Wow ... A Doubly Bad Day For You, Prof

Hope all is going OK for you.

[fishwax]

29. I was in Accounting class at the University of Oklahoma

Heard it from a friend at the beginning of class, but nobody had any idea of the context, really. Some thought it might have been some sort of pipe bomb. I didn't see the full truth until I made it back to the dorm after class was over and turned on the TV.

[liberalitch]

30. out of school with the pink eye...

that i contracted from a student.... staring at the TV in shock

[YellowRubberDuckie]

32. We were putting away our band instruments.

I guess someone called our band Assistant, and she went home to get a tv. We sat in the office during second hour jazz band watching the coverage. I was 15.
We live an hour from downtown Oklahoma City in a town called Kingfisher. My mom and dad were sitting in the kitchen, and they felt the shockwave. Our front door rattled--TWICE. I'll never forget my dad so sad when he saw that those kids were hurt.
And my grandmother lost her grandson, Steve Williams. He worked on the second floor in the Social Security Administration. He was one of the last ones found. SHe was never the same after that.
Duckie

[madinmaryland]

34. I was getting ready to fly from

Newark, NJ to Salt Lake City on company business. As can be expected, we were all paranoid about the "terrorists" that blew up the building there, and if they would be attacking anywhere else. In a couple of days when the terrorists were apprehended, I never heard them referred to as terrorists again, until just within the last few days. I have even heard that some so-called journalists in the US refer to them as heroes and that the should have blown up the NY Times building (who might that be? MANN COUTLER).

:argh:

[Modem Butterfly]

35. I was sick as a dog with the chicken pox

I had never had them before, and I was covered. I felt like I was going to die. I was in the living room, half-sleeping on the couch when the news broke in the OKC. I remember wondering if I had been asleep when this crappy action movie came on. I was too sick to turn the channel, or even register that it wasn't a movie.

[Orsino]

36. Ft. Gordon (Augusta), GA

Just about to graduate from ten weeks of BNCOC (Army Signal Corps non-com E-6 course). I think we were just back from a few days in the field. The entire post, along with most others, I presume, went to Threatcon Charlie--extra gate security, no one in or out without a carefully-scrutinized military ID, etc.

I can't remember how long that lasted.

[Butterflies]

37. I walked out of my college class and saw it on a TV in a lounge

I asked a janitor who was watching it what had happened. He looked depressed and shocked as he told me. Everyone else was just walking by - no other students seemed to be interested. It was weird.

[eyepaddle]

38. I was going into an environmental geology class. nt

[northzax]

39. somehwat disturbingly

I was receiving fellation a co-worker at my work-study job, which happened to be in A/V, so there were plenty of TVs to go around.

I know, disrespectful, but true. (yes, we stopped.)

[Fifth of Five]

40. Sitting in the computer room at work trying to figure out

how to change jobs.

Bunch of folks came in to talk (one place where the boss couldn't eavesdrop). Almost to a man they were convinced OKC bombing was a "Middle East" thing.

Always seemed to me that OKC was an unlikely target for foreigners. Boy were my co-workers surprised when the bomber turned out to be "one of us."

[Floogeldy]

41. Getting ready to go to my office, in downtown OKC.

I was sitting on the edge of my bed, shaving with an electric razor when I heard and felt two consecutive rumbling sounds. I thought, "Wow, a gas line or something must have blown at the mall."

I turned on a news talk radio station to see if anything was going to be reported. When I heard the report that there had been an explosion downtown, I went and turned on the TV. Like a lot of Oklahomans, I first saw the devastation (and realized that many people had been killed) when a local TV station helicopter rounded around the side of the building that had been hit, broadcasting the first images.

I was unable to even get to my office for three days, so I just stayed home and watched the TV coverage.

[samilib]

42. I was being a stupid kid.

I did not consider how serious the bombing was until it was dwelled upon by my teacher the next day. That's a kid for you.

[solinvictus]

43. Working at Hertz/Penske..

I heard about the attack on my way into work.

[CO Liberal]

50. I Had Just Quit My Part-Time Job At Hertz

I worked the graveyard shift, cleaning cars between rentals at McLarren Airport in Las Vegas. I quit as soon as I was offerred a job in Colorado, which was why The Princess and I were packing our things.

[underpants]

44. Going to an Econ test from the Student lounge, looked up at the TV....

Saw the building and had no idea the size and magnitude of the blast (no sound was on the big TV) until I got home.

McVeigh is a bastard

[bunkerbuster1]

45. Learned about it from my admin. assistant

...who'd heard about a bombing on the radio.

This was before we had internet access on our PCs, so I didn't really get the full story until listening to All Things Considered on the drive home.

They hadn't a clue of who'd done it, yet, that afternoon, although one commentator mentioned that it was the 2nd anniversary of the Waco flameout.

As soon as I heard that, I figured it was probably some home-grown wingnut.

[ScreamingMeemie]

46. I was vacuuming the living room...I can remember utter horror...

and then tears, and then listening to the accusations fly. :hi:

[ulysses]

47. going to lunch from jury duty

in the most idiotic civil trial in history.

[Borgnine]

48. I was in fifth grade.

We had the day off for some reason or another. I was at a friend's house eating lunch when it came on the television. It was horrible, and to avoid the horrific images we went and played Super Nintendo.

[xmas74]

49. I was at work.

I freaked out when I heard about it. My friend Jenny had gone back home to OKC the night before (I was supposed to go w/ her but could not get the time off of work). She was supposed to meet up w/ her brother at the Murrah Building at 9 am. Thank goodness she was running late that day-she was about a half a block away when it happened. But it was still a day of scurrying on my end and trying to contact her.