2 June 1953 – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II
I was 6 weeks old, so clearly have vivid memories of it.
Father was working as a locum in Warminster but mother and I were invited to watch it on TV in the nurses room at Warminster Hospital. I’m sure we wouldn’t have had a TV of our own, especially since we were only there for a few months, staying in rented accommodation.
So off we went, me in the pram and mother pushing. I assume Kim, the black Spaniel, had to stay at home.
Friday, 22 November 1963, 12:30 CST
– The Assassination of JF Kennedy.
I would have been 10 years old, and at St Hugh’s School, where we had no TVs, just the occasional film show (e.g. Oh Mr Porter, The Dambusters).
I have no recollection of when I came to know about the event, although, of course, I have seen film and documentaries of it since.
Sunday, 20 July 1969,
– The Moon Landing
I would have been 16 years old, and probably at home for the school holidays, since the annual family trips to France normally occurred the last week of August, first week of September.
Neil Armstrong’s “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” occurred at 2:56am UK time (the following day). The actual landing was 9:18pm, some 5 hours previously.
It seems likely I would have watched at least some of it live, but I cannot say how much of it,
Tuesday, 11 September 2001
– The Twin Towers
This I remember well as I was in Cornwall on a National Trust working holiday.
There were probably 10 – 15 of us, staying at an isolated farm near The Lizard and sleeping in a couple of dormitories.
Each day we would be taken by mini-bus to the North Coast to work on cutting back scrub (mostly gorse) on National Trust land near Godrevy Point.
Sometime in the morning I received a text from Livi saying a plane had crashed into a skyscaper in New York. In my mind I pictured a small Cesna type plane, making a slight dent in the building. I think later on she texted to say another plane had done the same that seemed a bit weird.
I’m sure I would have mentioned it to the others, but no one else had heard anything, we had no radio and the group were living a somewhat isolated existence. The whole episode was therefore put to the back of our minds.
Normally we would eat at the farm in the evenings. However, that evening, as it was getting close to the end of the working week, we decided to walk across the fields to the nearest pub, and have our meal there.
The big shock was when we arrived. The pub was quiet but they had a large TV screen set up in one of the rooms showing the whole event. Rather than the fun, boozy night out we had all expected, we just sat there eating, quietly watching a continuing replay and analysis of the events as they had unfurled.