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Thread: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

  1. #1

    Default Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in Ms. Mayer's 6th grade English class at Cooper Middle School. We didn't know what happened till principal made the announcement at lunch.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in a class in a portable building at Edmond Memorial when we heard the "thunder" - an office aid came in and handed a note to a girl awhile later that just said "your dad is okay" - she turned around and said "what does this mean?" and that is when we heard.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in Mrs. Moore's 2nd grade class at Christian Heritage Academy in Del City and felt the building shake. Passed DT on the way home every day. Never will forget driving by that day

  4. #4

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was on the phone arguing with an obnoxious attorney over by the health sciences center. I didn't hear a thing (nor did my co-workers) but my family across town thought the walls were going to come down the blast was so loud. One co-worker's husband worked at the federal court (which is where they said the bomb was, at first). My boss took her down there right after the blast and they came back with horrible stories (fortunately, her husband wasn't badly hurt - just some minor injuries from debris, probably from helping afterwards). My husband's secretary lost her husband. It was so beautiful, that morning. When the rains came in later and it got cold, I think all of our hearts were breaking for fear that people caught in the rubble would die as a result. There was just so much we didn't know, at the time. I went straight down to give blood - left work within five minutes. I was second in line and two hours later when I got out, all you could see were ambulances with no one to carry. It was like a war zone in the blood bank. My cousin was the first doctor on the scene. He could hardly speak of what he saw in the basement. What a horrific time. So many funerals in the days following.

  5. #5

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was a grad student at OU at the time, and was teaching ESL at the English Language Institute to foreign students. As the blastwave went north, we didn't hear or feel anything. It wasn't until someone got a phone call that we started to hear rumors about what was going on. At first, it was rumored to be a gas explosion, then the news started reporting it was a likely attack from a Middle East terrorist group. Several of our students were from Muslim countries, so we had interesting discussions about what was going on.

    I will never forget the endless hours of coverage on CNN, NBC, ABC.

    I will never forget the klieg stadium lights at night. They served at once as a beacon of hope, yet also a constant reminder of what was happening "there." Even days later, after rescue efforts had turned to recovery only, you "knew" what was happening at that place.

    I will never forget our driving around for days with our headlights turned on - a silent and constant tribute to those we lost.

    I will never forget that KJ103 played, in very frequent rotation, the song "Lightning Crashes" by Live, interspersed with actual news soundbites from the site.

    I will never forget Connie Chung being ousted by CBS news after her demeaning behavior towards our city and citizens.

    I will never forget my turn as a Red Cross volunteer, stationed in the Post Office on 5th and Harvey, serving overnights in the resting place for rescue teams as they came in from the site. I could hear snippets of what was found from their radios. Things I only heard about they were witnessing first hand. It was an honor to bring them what little comfort and kindness we could.

    I remember stories of how people rushed in from across the country to help, and how rescue workers from different states were amazed and humbled by the kindness we bestowed. They had never been treated so well, and our efforts, from the large equipment provided, to the mints on their pillows in the cots lined up on the Myriad floor where they bunked, to even the services and food provided their animals, became known as the "Oklahoma Standard."

    These and countless other memories are what I hold from that one day, and the many days that followed.

  6. #6

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    Here's some answers some of us posters gave 5 years ago if anyone's curious.

    http://www.okctalk.com/okc-metro-are...w-caution.html

  7. #7

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in my 8th grade home ec class at Summit Middle School. There was a rumble, but it wasn't taken too seriously till someone said they saw smoke from downtown and we all ran outside and saw the big, dark cloud rising over the middle of the city. Then we watched on TV the rest of the day. And the day after and the day after. My family helped out downtown.

  8. #8

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was living in England at the time, and I remember getting a phone call from the child of a friend of mine there locally, and she began by telling me that someone blew up my hometown. As the little girl was around 8 years old I asked her to repeat what she said, and she began to repeat and broke off in tears, and so I asked to speak with her father, and he let me know what had happened as the news was just emerging and was not very clear on details at that point.

    It was a very helpless feeling to be so far away and to want nothing more than to be in Oklahoma City helping...somehow.

    Upon my return from England back to OKC, I remember spending time at the site and the fence with all of the improvised memorials. And the feeling that as you walked around the site that although what transpired within the fence was evil and horrific, that we were walking on holy ground. There was a spirit of healing and peace that surrounded the site, as pointed and as heartbreaking the site of the images and realization of lives and families who were devastated in an instant; yet somehow there was still a sense of peace and comfort in knowing that all of us from the city and state felt and carried these feelings together, and were somehow connected. That connection and feeling remains today and will so long as we never forget and remember.

  9. #9

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in my office near 10th and Classen. The thick, heavy walls shook back and forth, not up and down, but back and forth.

    For some odd reason, my first thoughts were about the subway terrorist acts that had recently occurred in Japan. We went outside into the street and then saw the smoke billowing in the sky.

    I had not a clue about the horror that had just unfolded.

  10. #10

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    Ground zero.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was teaching science in a portable building at Monroney Jr. High. Felt the entire building shake and rumble. Sounded like it came from Tinker.

    My wife's cousin lost her husband Steve Williams in the day care.

    My father, a MWCFD Asst. Chief worked the rescue/recovery efforts.

  12. Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in the principal's office at Edmond Memorial high School during my sophomore year getting written up for skipping class. And, no, that is not a joke. He was printing my attendance report and scheduling Saturday school when the bomb went off. But in his office, it sounded like someone dropped something super-heavy on the roof of the high school.
    Continue the Renaissance!!!

  13. Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in class early along with a few others at Townsend Elementary in Del City. The Teacher's Assistant that was in the class at the time dropped a load of papers as the windows shook. Over the next couple of minutes, the others started to come in and we waited for our teacher. I guess 30 minutes? She finally came in with a tv, there we all watched it. I was in the 3rd or 4th grade (too tired to figure it out).

    Mom's sister and her hubby planned to be in that building on that day when something came up. They were saved from such potential tragedy.

    Mom's friend and her hubby was in the area when they drove passed the truck in motion.

  14. #14

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    On I-35 south, late for work at my job at the OU Law School. Walked in and saw students milling around the TV. Thought it was a gasline explosion. When the smoke cleared and I saw the front of the building, my heart dropped because my girlfriend worked on the third floor. Raced up to my office and instinctively called her at home, and sure enough, she had called in sick that day.

    I lived in Mesta Park at 18th and Shartel. When I got home around 5 p.m., my patio door facing the south balcony had blown in, had a crack in my window, and all the ceiling tiles in my kitchen had blown off from the aftershock.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in a Staff Meeting at City Hall, we ran outside and could see and feel the dust and small debris floating in the air, there was an eerie silence, then what sounded like 1000's of sirens from emergency vehicles. A day etched in my memory for ever.

  16. #16

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was at work in Sumter, SC. We heard the news on the radio. Then we all huddled in the break room to watch the live news reports. It really didn't hit home for me until I saw the picture of the Fireman holding little Baylee in his arms.

  17. Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    In Northwest OKC, and I FELT the earth shake.

    I'm learning how old everyone is in this thread. I had no idea so many of you are so young! What an impact that must have had on many of you still in grade school. Confusing for us all, but as a child it must have really taken the innocence away (at least for awhile) to see this happen in your hometown.

    Just a horrible, horrible day.

  18. #18

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was stationed at Eglin AFB in Florida and was working on top of an F-15 when our line supervisor came speeding up and jumped out and told me to come in and watch the TV because OKC had just been nuked. Since most of my family lived here that came as quite a shock and I nearly passed out. I got inside and saw the footage of the bombing and realized it wasn't actually a nuclear explosion, but still knew it was something horrible.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    Called in for disaster at 0905. At Presby by 0930. I was an ER Nurse at Presby receiving first wave of patients (Brandon and Felisha were 2 of my patients), around 1015-1100. After first wave, subsided, many of us ended up at Ground Zero. I ultimately ended up in the basement on the team that was present when Dr. Sullivan amputated Dahna Bradley's leg to rescue her. Saw several more that I wished I could have rescued.

  20. #20

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    We lived in Tampa, FL but I was in southern Arkansas doing field research. We had just moved to a new apartment the weekend before so the calendar on my desk at work read as follows: Saturday - get Ryder truck. Sunday - leave for Arkansas.

  21. #21

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was in day care. When it when off, the teachers told my mom that the ground shook and there was a loud bang but we kids just kept on playing like nothing happened. I dont remember anything.

  22. #22

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    I was far away in Houston, in the 2nd or 3rd grade and I remember being in the school nurse's office trying to get out of school as usual and got to see the whole unfolding of events on the TV in her office. TVs were kind of a rare thing in schools back then so I just lucked out.

    The loudspeaker called me to the office and the secretary had a message from my mom that all of our relatives were okay--which as a little kid hadn't even crossed my mind. I remember lunch that day there was this little Iranian girl in my class crying because she thought she would be blamed for it. In hindsight it's interesting how much more she knew about the world at that time than I did.

  23. #23

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    Quote Originally Posted by Kerry View Post
    We lived in Tampa, FL but I was in southern Arkansas doing field research. We had just moved to a new apartment the weekend before so the calendar on my desk at work read as follows: Saturday - get Ryder truck. Sunday - leave for Arkansas.
    I wouldn't tell anyone else that story. Lol

  24. #24

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    Quote Originally Posted by Spartan View Post
    I wouldn't tell anyone else that story. Lol
    I actually worked for a Defense Contractor. When I got back to the office my calendar was gone. It didn't help that I was 6'2'', medium build, with a blonde crew-cut -and everyone knew I was from Oklahoma.

  25. #25

    Default Re: Where were you on 4/19/1995?

    There.

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