 | 20 Aug 07 |
I know where I was when I heard the news. I was home alone in a crappy little apartment when the news broke that Elvis Presley had died. Doing the math, I must have just turned 15. It was just about a year after my dad had died. I remember being shocked, really shocked. I had already lost my dad, and the reality of death was all too real.
Like so many fans, I felt I had a personal connection to Elvis. I really didn’t have one, but it seemed real enough at the time. I was actually young to be an Elvis fan, but my older sister was a huge fan, and my older brother had trained in karate (my brother was a black belt) under the same instructor as Elvis. At some point, my brother was supposed to meet Elvis but it didn’t happen, although I can’t remember why. Those factors really brought Elvis into my life.
When the news broke that Elvis had died, the moment froze in time for me. I was just now watching part of a Larry King special on Elvis, and I’m still amazed at the impact Elvis had. Yes, Elvis was incredibly talented, but he was also incredibly flawed. Maybe that’s what made him so interesting. Does that much talent, that big of a gift come with that bigger flaws? Bigger weaknesses? What is it about these people that thirty years later we can’t let them go? As flawed as Elvis was, he stood for something to a generation of people. It wasn’t just rebellion; it was that he cared and gave generously to people in need. He understood poverty, he rose to fame out of poverty and he spoke of the cost of poverty in songs like IN THE GHETTO.
Elvis wasn’t the only person whose death froze time for a moment. Think of John Lennon, do you know where you were when he died? I was at a friend’s house when the news broke that he’d been shot. It was unthinkable. John Lennon stood for peace, but he was killed by violence.
What about Princess Diana? I was home in the evening watching TV with my husband. At that time, it looked like she had been killed in a car accident caused by the press chasing her—huge irony. Even worse though is that the facts now suggest that a drunk driver and bad decisions killed her. Diana wasn’t wearing her seat belt. The most sought after woman in the world, with arguably the best security in the world, and she was killed by a drunk driver and no seat belt.
What killed Elvis? Drugs and poor choices. All that fame, all that money, all that power, all those fans, and none of it could ultimately ease the pain in Elvis. We tend to want to believe that money and privilege make everything okay, but the truth is that it doesn’t. Elvis and many others are examples of that.
My personal irony? In the end, drugs did in my very talented brother.
But back to the point: Where were you? If you don’t remember Elvis dying, who else froze time for you by their unexpected death? Why do you think some people are bigger than life that way?
Award winning author, Jennifer Lyon, always wanted to be a witch. Since her witch-powers never materialized, she went onto Plan B and now she creates magic in her books. In her new series, the author of the acclaimed Samantha Shaw Mystery Series (written as Jennifer Apodaca) introduces the Witch Hunters, legendary men who must overcome a curse to team up with witches and fight evil.
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The one celebrity I can think of who I know had an impact on me – if only a squeeze of my heart and a soft ‘oh, damn’ – was Payne Stewart. (For those of you who don’t follow golf, he was on his way to the ranks of Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicholson.)
Back in the summer of 1991, I worked security for The Buick Open golf tournament. Standing in my uniform, telling people to ‘step back of the white line’, I got the opportunity to meet a few of the golfers and their caddies. Of all the golfers there, the nicest and the classiest was Payne Stewart. When a little boy ran out onto the tee for an autograph while he was setting up for his shot, he didn’t blink an eye. He signed it and gently coaxed the little guy back toward his mom. Always a gentleman, ever the good sport, and incredibly good at what he did without being a pompous ass about it. (Ahem, I could name one golfer in particular who made the opposite impression that year, but I won’t.)
What a tragic and senseless loss. *sigh* I still miss him in the world.
by B.E. Sanderson August 20th, 2007 at 5:27 amI really don’t remember! Wow. Let’s see, whose death DID impact me?
I remember being stunned when Princess Diana died. I think I related to her, you know? We had some similar UPBRINGINGS and all…. Kidding.
It was purely an age thingie, but we all watched her fairytale wedding, and who didn’t want the fairytale?
Now, off to the slice-and-dice mobile to get rid of the dysfunctional gall bladder….
by Natalie August 20th, 2007 at 6:00 amBE, didn’t Payne Steward die in a plane crash? I don’t follow golf but I remember something about that. Such a loss–we desperately need more class in our sports.
Natalie, good luck! I know you’ll be fine, and feeling much better once you get this done. As to Diana, yeah, I related to her to because of the age, having boys and wishing I looked like her
by Jen August 20th, 2007 at 7:18 amThis probably won’t make me any new friends – but I was “too young” to remember Elvis’ or John Lennon’s death. My older sister vividly recalls the day Lennon died though. She said the next day at school all the teachers were walking around in a daze.
Three that stand out for me – Princess Diana’s death. I was living on the East Coast at the time, so news coverage was late and I was lying in bed with the TV on because I had insomnia. Ditto on the bombing during the Atlanta summer Olympics. Insomnia strikes again!
World Trade Center – it was my day to work the evening shift at the library, so I was still home when the news broke. I even remember what book I was reading at the time – Devil In A Kilt by Sue-Ellen Welfonder.
by Wendy August 20th, 2007 at 7:18 amWendy, LOL! We love you even if you are young! I don’t think Elvis would have been on my radar if not for my brother and sister (they are significantly older, and if my sister reads this, I’M SO DEAD)
I don’t remember where I was durning the bombing of the Atlanta Olympics, which is weird. I know exactly where I was for the World Trade Center–I was coming downstairs and my husband told me two planes flew into the buildings. I couldn’t grasp it–he did. He knew exactly what happened. My youngest son saw it too, with his dad.
Sympathies on the insomnia, I have to it.
by Jen August 20th, 2007 at 7:32 amDamn you guys are all making me feel older.
John F. Kennedy, I was on the playground in second grade, and annoyed we didn’t get to go home early. I remember even my mother, who use to curse him, was upset.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I was in Junior High. I was just becoming socially and politically aware. He was my hero and this was killing my father (figuratively of course.)
Anwar Sedat, his death had a major impact on me, because I was so aware of the fact he was bucking a system of ridgid beliefs and hatreds of middle east politics and religion to work for peace in a strife torn region. He had held his hand out in peace and was assasinated for it. I was devastated. How could religion / politics / peace equate to hate and death? I was learning.
John Lennon’s death was like a frozen moment in time for me. I was sitting at my small kitchenette, frozen like a deer in the headlights.
Princess Di. I cried for weeks. Stupid now that I look back, but she touched the world, and determined to use her celebrity status for good. I was so impressed by her poise and classiness that I used her as an example to my daughter that you can be anything you want to be. That you can have what it seems everyone in the world wants and not be happy. That you can take control of your life and change the world for the better. I was then so saddened that a new emerging voice was silent.
by Cele August 20th, 2007 at 7:44 amKind of, Jen. Payne died when his private jet lost cabin pressure at 30K feet or so. Everybody on board was considered dead long before it crashed, but since it was on autopilot, it took a while for the plane to come down. It was a horrible day. The only positive (if it can be called that) is that it’s believed no one suffered. They just all passed out from lack of oxygen and died while unconscious.
by B.E. Sanderson August 20th, 2007 at 7:58 amCele I was a baby when Kennedy was shot and that irritates my husband to no end because he remembers it. I regularaly point out that I was only a baby to annoy him. Bad Jen
You are very right about Diana. I think we all liked her more because she was flawed, and therefore real. My youngest son was really struck by her death too. He related to her sons, and the fact that she was nearly the same age as me, weirded him out.
Martin Luther King changed the world. I don’t remember his death, but I know what he stood for, and that he gave many people courage to either change their own beliefs, or stand up for other people’s rights.
by Jen August 20th, 2007 at 8:03 amBE I so remember that day, now that you laid it out.
by Cele August 20th, 2007 at 8:06 amBE, that’s right! It was terrible. I’m sure they didn’t suffer, but those who loved and admired him did.
by Jen August 20th, 2007 at 8:09 amI love this one, because I was beginning to fall in love, but I didn’t know it yet.
Backing up: my boyfriend broke up with me. I wanted him back desperately and mourned him for a long time. I was depressed and crazy. He moved to Colorado. I saved up money to go see him. I was going to show up on his doorstep and he’d take me back and we’d live happily ever after.
So I’m at a friend’s party and I talk to this guy I’d known through friends, more of an aquaintance, but he was a sweet guy. Kinda scruffy, but he had potential. He was going to California for a couple of weeks with a friend of his, and after some discussion, I decided to go along with them. Platonically, of course.
This marked the day I came back to full mental health. (Whether or not it’s advisable for a twenty-three-year-old girl to go on a long camping trip with two guys she didn’t know that well, that’s another story.) But as a Capricorn, it came to me that I shouldn’t throw my money away to visit a guy who probably would shut the door in my face; instead, I could go to the beach!
So we went, and we had fun, and it was platonic, and I got to know this guy and I began to realize he was a really special person. At one point we stayed in Venice Beach at a friend’s apartment. There were these life-size cloth-covered nun sculptures hanging from the ceiling and sticking out of the walls, but other than that it was pretty decent.
One morning I woke up to the TV on in the living room. (I slept on a couch.) The object of my future affection was sleeping on the carpet, and I remember feeling a definite tingle of sexual attraction.
The TV announcer said that Elvis was dead. Bad for him, but the beginning of a thirty-year relationship with my husband of 27 years.
No more lonely street for me.
by J. Carson Black August 20th, 2007 at 8:17 amI don’t remember Elvis’ death. I do remember John Lennon’s and most recently feeling stunned when Diana was killed. I sat in my bed glued to the tele for days. I felt so terrible for her boys. And are those boys not great? She did a fabulous job with them the short time she was on this earth. To this day I still want to puke when I see Prince Charles.
by Karin August 20th, 2007 at 8:52 amJake, what a story! It’s amazing how we tie our memories of a famous event to a personal event in our lives.
Karin, yeah, those young men seem to have some of their mom in them. Both the best parts and enough of the imperfect parts to make them very human. Charles never seemed all that human to me.
by Jen August 20th, 2007 at 9:14 amI remember when Reagan got shot. I was in junior high sitting in the nurse’s room when the office staff went into hysterics.
When Diana died I’d gone to bed hearing that she’d been in a car accident and broke her leg. When I woke up the newspaper headlines were blaring her death. Karin, I feel she same way about Prince Charles. Her boys seem like they have their heads on straight. In my mind they are always “her boys”, not “his boys.”
When the Challenger exploded, I sat in the high school media room and watched the TV. No one went to classes for the rest of the day.
I don’t remember much about the death of Elvis or John Lennon. Neither of my parents listened to them so they were pretty unknown to me.
Natalie–good luck on the gall bladder thing. Been there, done that. I have two half inch scars on my abdomen and one hidden in my belly button. Absolutely amazing how they can do surgery these days. I worked with a girl who had hers out 15 years ago. She has an ugly 6 inch scar below her ribs. I heard on TV that they’ve done it down the esphogus and through the stomach so there are no scars at all. Frankly I’d rather have a few scars then have my stomach sliced open.
by Kendra August 20th, 2007 at 9:23 amI was really sad when I heard John Ritter died. Shocked too. I had just seen an episode of his new show at the time and it had a parody of Three’s Company in it. I thought it was so funny and was looking foward to his new show. Then the next day, I heard he died. So incredibly sad and tragic.
I am sure noone will mention this person because she isn’t an incredible actor and hasn’t really done that much for the world. But I was very sad and shocked to hear she died because she was very young and it was so sudden. Anna Nicole Smith. I hate how her life and death became a running joke. I heard a talk show on the radio even joking about the autoposy results of her body. She was a human being, a kind hearted person, and she should be missed. Plus she had just given birth to a baby..how sad for the baby to never know her mother.
by RachaelfromNJ August 20th, 2007 at 10:18 amKendra, I remember Reagan and the Challenger as well. I was at work when I heard Reagan had been shot. I was home with my son when I heard about Challanger, it was so awful. I kept wanting to believe they could have escaped…but there was no real hope.
Rachael, actually I was thinking of John Ritter when I wrote the blog. I didn’t put him in because I didn’t think others would be as shocked as I was. My husband told me when I came downstairs in the morning and he had to repeat it twice. I couldn’t believe it was John Ritter. He seemed so full of life–how does that just end?
by Jen August 20th, 2007 at 10:29 amJohn Ritter’s death shocked me like no other. I loved him in Three’s Company and followed him from movies, to guest starring on Ally McBeal, to being the voice of Clifford the Big Red Dog (my son loved that show) to 8 Simple Rules. There was just something about his on screen persona that just clicked with me. I was pulling into the parking lot at work when they announced on the radio that John Ritter and Johnny Cash had both passed away. I was horrified. He was so young, he was a new dad, his career had seemed to find it’s right path again. What a shame and a devastating loss the acting community.
As far as Elvis, I think I was 3 years old, it didn’t really impact me.
by ktzmom August 21st, 2007 at 8:12 am