Things you'll remember the rest of your life

[MountaineerTom]

I was thinking the other day about some things/events that have affected my life; things I'll never forget.  List some if you care to share.  

 

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- Being a small kid (8 to 10 years old) and seeing a house close to ours on fire.

 

- Moving to a new town when I was 11.  Leaving all my old friends behind, not having any new ones for a while in our new town, and starting school without knowing anyone.

 

- Seeing the Space Shuttle Challenger explode.  We were off school that day, so I was watching it while it happened.

 

- Not being able to get my license because I failed the eye test.  Found out then I needed glasses, so it took a little longer than expected.  

 

- The day a left home for Basic Training.  A kind of scared, lonely feeling.

 

- The day I got married, 08/27/88.

 

- Leaving on a very short notice (less than 1 day) for Desert Shield/Storm.  The mix of fear and adrenaline once the actual war started, especially when, at times, I could hear and feel the ground shaking from SCUD missiles exploding near-by.

 

- The pure excitement of going home after the air/ground war of Desert Shield/Storm, after being deployed there for almost 8 months.

 

- The birth of my son, in '93.      

 

- Being a pallbearer at my papaw's burial.      

 

- September 11th, 2001.        

 

- Lots of things mom and dad "taught" me, and realizing what a lot of it means, now that I'm I parent. :thumb:

 

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[bowtie_pasta]

-The day my beautiful daughter was born!  

[HiG4s]

This will date me but.

 

JFK's assination

 

The moon walk.

 

Cruising off the coast of Australia and seeing perfectly smooth like glass ocean, until the sea erupted with thousands of scared flying fish.

 

The day I met my wife.

I must expound. My first words to her were, "Do you like rock music?" She said, "Yes." I turned to my buddy, nicknamed Spud, and said, "See, I told you". At that point we walk away leaving her dazed and confused. It was at Sub-base Pearl Harbor. She was the electrician's shop replacment. Spud and I had bet whether she would like rock music or not. We left and walked over to the base bowling ally, just across the parking lot so I could collect the Susie-Q I had just won. (for those that don't know, Susie-Qs are like chocolate twinkies.)

 

The day I got married, Sept 11 1981

 

The births of both my childern

 

Challenger

[Elwood]

- Tom telling me not to tell our parents I didn't believe in Santa Claus because as long as I believed in him they had to give both of us presents.  (BTW he claims he doesn't remember this.)  

 

- Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.  

 

- Having a close family friend come and pull me out of choir practice at church to go home and be with my parents when they found out Desert Storm had begun after Tom being there 5 or 6 months.  

 

- Being a pallbearer at my papaw's burial.      

 

- 08/27/00   Getting an email that said Allen Woody, one of my musical heros had died the night before.  I was upset for days.  

 

- 09/11/01   Sitting in Geography class overhearing a girl telling a friend about planes flying into the WTC and thinking to myself, "I wonder what moving she was watching before class, sounds like I would like to see it.".......Then leaving class an hour and 15 minutes later and seeing on TV that what she was talking about wasn't a movie.      

 

- 06/01/02   I got married.  

[MountaineerTom]

- Tom telling me not to tell our parents I didn't believe in Santa Claus because as long as I believed in him they had to give both of us presents.  (BTW he claims he doesn't remember this.)  

 

Honestly, I don't remember that.  

[The SPEEDY]

Getting my braces put on on September 11, 2001, I was sitting there in the chair when I found out.

 

My brother leaving for USMC boot camp.  We are going to California on Thursday to attend his graduation.

[MountaineerTom]

- 06/01/02   I got married.  

I should have put that too, because I was like    What the frick!  Who would want to marry him?!"        

[miclri]

JFK, moonwalk, my first car (a '65 Biscayne), my girlfriend tells me she's pregnant, I tell her father (a police captain), wedding day, the birth of my son, then another, then a daughter, first house, I sell my '69 396SS Camaro so I can buy a hard drive, Challenger (I was at the Space Center), seperation, divorce, child support, alimony, my girlfriend (with 2 kids) tells me she's pregnant, another house, another wedding, a daughter, a son, 7 kids altogether, college tuition, college tuition, 9/11, college tuition, etc, my first truck, I joined this forum. Life is a highway...

[Jpshostr]

Not many of the usual ones here, seeing as I'm not married, have never had a girlfriend, and I'm not all that old.  No order of importance, just as they come to me.

 

Helplessly watching my great uncle get killed by an angry 1300lb steer when I was in kindergarten.  He went up in the air, landed on his head, and never woke up.  Neither Dad, nor my other uncle there could have stopped this.

 

The day I turned 21, and telling myself what I'm "never going to do ever again."  Then going out the next weekend and doing exactly that.  

 

That one day in that one September in that one year.

 

Going to college in a city of 110K, when all I'd ever known was a town of 70 three miles away.

 

In kindergarten when the big, awesome, old barn burned down.  Smoke was so bad they shut down the interstate, and a good chunk of history from our farm was lost forever.

 

Don't know how old I was, but the first time I was given the 7120 Magnum and I worked up a field all by myself.  I was so proud of those 40 chisel plowed acres.

 

Five years ago when I became the main planter operator instead of Dad.  You have to grow up on a farm and experience it to realize the trust that has been placed in you when this happens.  In effect, no longer a boy, but now a man.

[k1500chevy97]

--First bus ride to school

--Time we blew up the neighbors mailbox with fireworks when i was 8

--Telling the teacher to stick the text book up her a$$ when i was in 4th grade

--My first score in basketball in 8th grade

--first time running a moldboard plow

--Putting the 7800 into a 15ft deep drainage ditch (wasnt paying attention)

--My first touchdown in H.S. football

--Driving one of our heavy trucks the first time ahh heavy4

--"scoring" after homecoming under the bleachers   although i didnt score in the game

--powerbombing my best friend in the hall at school we were just messing around but he was hurting for a few days after it

--Getting ejected from our final basketball game

--graduation

--firefighter recruit classes ... trying to hook up the 2 1/2" line with the nozzle on it to the intake valve and wondering why both ends were female adapters lot more mistakes but cant remember them all that well

--putting my scba on backwards

--first fire run so nervous but so excited

--first time in a burning building 11-99 dark hot and scared to death

--moving out of my parents house and into town

--watching my grandfather die right in front of me and not being able to do a thing

 

and finally 9-11-01    

[99silveradoz71]

Hmm...Tom & Elwood, I didn't know the connection.

[99silveradoz71]

-The sound of my mom crying in her room after the a$$---- teenager I was punched a hole in the recently wallpapered wall after my brother flung dishwater onto the spaghetti I just made.

 

-My grandfather(who was in a wheelchair and didn't get out much) going out in the car for what would be his last ride, to drop me off with Grandma at my golf lesson(and yes, I suck still).

 

-Getting my 92 Jimmy in March of 97...71K on the clock at that time, and a sales job only racked them up that much faster...oh well, was the first vehicle I put some $ into getting.

 

-July 31, 1999 the day I got Blue from Halleen Chevy here in town and sold myself into slavery for 5 years.

 

-My first dead body call, on my last day with my field training officer.  He had told me he wanted to get a body call before we were done with training.  Ended up being a guy who shot himself while laying in bed.  Ended up with a Polaroid of it.

 

-Getting 2 stolen cars in the fall of 2001 with arrests.

[MadFish]

Well, let me see if I can remember anything.

 

--Going to my Grandparents house in Cape Cod for the summer when I was around 4 or 5.

 

--Spending almost every Christmas and Thanksgiving at my dads parents house since I was born

 

--My grandmother dying in the late 80's

 

--All the foreign exchange students that have lived at my house since '89. One a year, except for last year(2 then)

 

--The death of my great grandmother in '94

 

--Buying my '81 RS Camaro for $50 off a friend of mine

 

--watching my '80 Camaro drive off after I sold it

 

--Buying my '71 Cuda in '99

 

--spending hours in the garage helping my dad with his(now mine) '67 Chevelle Malibu

 

--Road trip covering the west coast in '98

 

--Spending time in the drama dept. of my high school making a fool of myself

 

--My 21 birthday

 

--Sept. 11

 

--My time in Wyoming at WyoTech. Wish I could forget that one

 

--Meeting my ex-girlfriend and the day we broke up(I would say one of the worst days of my life so far)

 

--The day I heard a friend of mine O.D. on heroin last year

 

--Watching a guy I knew from high school, get killed when he was shoot in the back 3 blocks from my high school about 10 min. after school let out.

 

Thats about all I can remember. Well, care to remember I guess.

[BlueRado]

Good thread, Tom!!

 

- Fishing w/ my Dad on the Finger Lakes, NY

 

- My Dad's funeral; died doing what he loved best, deer hunting - had a heart attack

 

- My first kiss, etc, etc

 

- First time I drove a car/truck

 

- First day in the dorm @ WVU (Towers, for those of you who know)

 

-all weekend dorm floor water fight

 

- Moving to Flagstaff AZ to start grad school

 

-US olympic hockey team beating the Soviets in Lake Placid

 

- Learning my Brother died in an auto accident on a foggy night in Blacksburg, VA

 

- Finally finishing the thesis!!!!

 

- Finding that right person and knowing it beyond a shadow of a doubt; married in 1987, and of course my wedding day

 

- Challenger

 

- Seeing the birth of my daughter

 

- Of course 9/11  (we must NEVER forget, or let up)

[Elwood]

- 06/01/02   I got married.  

I should have put that too, because I was like    What the frick!  Who would want to marry him?!"        

The funny thing is I thought the same thing on 08/27/88