everyone knows where they were when…

We often hear the line – even from Australians – everyone knows where they were the day Kennedy was shot.

Fail. I’ve no idea. The assassination of JFK was an American thing, but the footage certainly got some airplay here. I remember seeing it a hundred times, but this was after the fact.

MLK Jr? Fail.

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand? Fail.

We never had a TV at all for a very long time. Naturally when we did get one, it was something that had to be watched at every available opportunity. One day I saw footage of the coronation of QE II – never having heard of a “replay” – and couldn’t wait to tell my mother there was a new queen. Fail.

In 1967 I tuned into a big “first” when Normie Rowe was performing at expo 67 in Montreal and it was to be broadcast live from halfway cross the world. We normally couldn’t get a decent signal anyway as our house was surrounded by prolestackers, and even catching the ABC news occasionally was a miracle.

But the expo from Canada was worse – most of the time the screen was black because the international signal had crapped out altogether.

I only mention this because Andrew wrote about watching the moon landing live on TV in 1969. I remember where I was when that happened, and believing [after Montreal] that such a clear signal could only be a hoax.

911? Yep. Remember arriving at the Mitcham factory where some young buck – whose only talent was for finding excuses to do nothing – started going on and on about a plane flying into a building.

If I hadn’t seen TV footage later I would still be wondering why was supposed to justify him doing nothing all morning.

How many times do we watch some historical drama now and hear a repeat of that infamous radio broadcast on 3 September in 1939:

I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10, Downing Street. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.

We know it was a Sunday, but what time of day was it first broadcast? How come every man, woman, child and dog in Britain was listening to the radio at the right time? If the people in these dramas are only listening to replays, why do they always look like it’s fresh news?

They all knew where they were when the announcement was made.