What big event impacted you the most?

[89Hen]

Not talking about the death of a loved one or loss of a job, etc... what national/regional thing impacted your life the most? And let's leave off Covid, because that has to be the #1 seed, especially for Gil.

For me it was the DC sniper. That was not long after 9/11 which hit home a little as I knew somebody on one of the planes and I had to pick up Mrs89 downtown and saw the Pentagon burning and was stuck in the middle of the National Mall as the plane in PA went down with false reports that the Capitol had been hit (I was staring right at it). The sniper spooked everyone in our area. If anyone said they didn't feel uncomfortable gassing their car, they're lying. My kids drop off at school completely changed and it had everyone on edge for weeks.

[AZGrizFan]

9/11 - Twin Towers - was in the reserves and CERTAIN we were all getting activated and sent to war (with someone)
5/18/80 - Mt St Helens - lived through the ash and ash cloud in Missoula; effed up that region for months and months

[Ivytalk]

The recession of 1990-91. The regional law firm I was with at the time closed its DE office, and I had a heckuva time finding a new job. Ended up with two offers, neither of which was A-list. I took one and made the best of it.

[kalm]

Good thread idea…

Tough to pick.

St Helens…got dark at around noon. Closed schools the rest of the year and I remember Cheney, ghost town like covered in 2-4 inches of ash and people walking around with mask on.

Great Recession…the developer who had just taken over course operations had huge remodeling/improvement plans that never came to fruition. Instead we made improvements on the cheap with duct tape and bailing wire. It was challenging but fun in a way as we continued to compete despite being under capitalized.

EWU transitioning to DI

[Gil Dobie]

9/11 - Changed our world more than any event since WWII.

[CID1990]

9-11 for sure. It completely changed my life trajectory. I would not be with DoS today if not for 9-11.


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[CAA Flagship]

Politically: Obama's failed economic policies after the Great Recession that slowed the recovery way more than necessary. It wasn't the Great Recession itself. The recession in the early 90's was bad for me also. But the slow recovery of the Great Recession was the difference maker.

Other: Old Dominion starting football in 2009. I thought I had filled a void in my life (from choosing a non-football school) by becoming a UVa football fan in the early/mid '80's and season ticket holder from '88 thru '01. But seeing YOUR school field a football team and all the things that go along with that (tailgates, travel to away games, CS.com, etc.), has been a big impact on my life. Almost like having a third child.

[AZGrizFan]

Good thread idea…

Tough to pick.

St Helens…got dark at around noon. Closed schools the rest of the year and I remember Cheney, ghost town like covered in 2-4 inches of ash and people walking around with mask on.

Yep. Was my senior year, two weeks before graduation. No ceremony, no finals, no walks across the stage…Missoula also had 2-4 inches of ash. I remember them literally plowing the stuff off the roads into piles with road graders, people wore masks (ironic) for months, air particulate counts in the tens of thousands. Shit floated everywhere and was IN everything for years after.

[kalm]

Good thread idea…

Tough to pick.

St Helens…got dark at around noon. Closed schools the rest of the year and I remember Cheney, ghost town like covered in 2-4 inches of ash and people walking around with mask on.

Yep. Was my senior year, two weeks before graduation. No ceremony, no finals, no walks across the stage…Missoula also had 2-4 inches of ash. I remember them literally plowing the stuff off the roads into piles with road graders, people wore masks (ironic) for months, air particulate counts in the tens of thousands. Shit floated everywhere and was IN everything for years after.

You’ll still sometimes kick some up playing from the rough on Basin courses.

Or so I’m told.

[SeattleGriz]

The banning of ephedrine.

Outside of that, 9-11, but not in any appreciable manner.

[AZGrizFan]

Yep. Was my senior year, two weeks before graduation. No ceremony, no finals, no walks across the stage…Missoula also had 2-4 inches of ash. I remember them literally plowing the stuff off the roads into piles with road graders, people wore masks (ironic) for months, air particulate counts in the tens of thousands. Shit floated everywhere and was IN everything for years after.

You’ll still sometimes kick some up playing from the rough on Basin courses.

Or so I’m told.

Yes, I’m sure that’s 2nd hand info for you.

[JohnStOnge]

That's a tough call. I was involved in responses to the 1986 Amazon Venture oil spill, the 2005 Louisiana/Mississippi Hurricane Katrina situation, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil discharge crisis. In all three cases my work life became all crisis all the time and I worked a bunch more hours than I usually do.

As far as my personal home life, it was either Hurricane Andrew or Hurricane Gustav. Andrew knocked out both power and water for me for an extended period. Can't remember exactly but it may have been for about a week. Back then I didn't have a generator so it was absolutely miserable. Gustav knocked out my power for 8 days. I had a gasoline powered generator and some window air conditioners plus we had water. But tending that generator and constantly worrying about somebody trying to steal it (that was going on) was a bitch.

I'm pretty lucky actually. Nothing has really impacted me THAT negatively. Nothing like having my house totaled by a hurricane (Laura) like one of my brothers did. I guess if I have to pick one it was Andrew. That was MISERABLE. I sent my wife and kids to go stay with her mother but being in South Louisiana by myself in a brick house designed for air conditioning with NO air conditioning as well as NO running water really sucked.

[AZGrizFan]

That's a tough call. I was involved in responses to the 1986 Amazon Venture oil spill, the 2005 Louisiana/Mississippi Hurricane Katrina situation, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil discharge crisis. In all three cases my work life became all crisis all the time and I worked a bunch more hours than I usually do.

As far as my personal home life, it was either Hurricane Andrew or Hurricane Gustav. Andrew knocked out both power and water for me for an extended period. Can't remember exactly but it may have been for about a week. Back then I didn't have a generator so it was absolutely miserable. Gustav knocked out my power for 8 days. I had a gasoline powered generator and some window air conditioners plus we had water. But tending that generator and constantly worrying about somebody trying to steal it (that was going on) was a bitch.

I'm pretty lucky actually. Nothing has really impacted me THAT negatively. Nothing like having my house totaled by a hurricane (Laura) like one of my brothers did. I guess if I have to pick one it was Andrew. That was MISERABLE. I sent my wife and kids to go stay with her mother but being in South Louisiana by myself in a brick house designed for air conditioning with NO air conditioning as well as NO running water really sucked.

Only time I’ve experienced anything like that in my life was last year during the big freeze in Texas. We were without power for 5 days (outside temps as low as -9) and no water for 3+ days…I was able to keep the house at 54 degrees by running the gas fireplace and the gas stovetop, filled the bathtubs and a number of other jugs/bottles for water, but not much else we could do. It SUCKED.

[Winterborn]

That's a tough call. I was involved in responses to the 1986 Amazon Venture oil spill, the 2005 Louisiana/Mississippi Hurricane Katrina situation, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil discharge crisis. In all three cases my work life became all crisis all the time and I worked a bunch more hours than I usually do.

As far as my personal home life, it was either Hurricane Andrew or Hurricane Gustav. Andrew knocked out both power and water for me for an extended period. Can't remember exactly but it may have been for about a week. Back then I didn't have a generator so it was absolutely miserable. Gustav knocked out my power for 8 days. I had a gasoline powered generator and some window air conditioners plus we had water. But tending that generator and constantly worrying about somebody trying to steal it (that was going on) was a bitch.

I'm pretty lucky actually. Nothing has really impacted me THAT negatively. Nothing like having my house totaled by a hurricane (Laura) like one of my brothers did. I guess if I have to pick one it was Andrew. That was MISERABLE. I sent my wife and kids to go stay with her mother but being in South Louisiana by myself in a brick house designed for air conditioning with NO air conditioning as well as NO running water really sucked.

Only time I’ve experienced anything like that in my life was last year during the big freeze in Texas. We were without power for 5 days (outside temps as low as -9) and no water for 3+ days…I was able to keep the house at 54 degrees by running the gas fireplace and the gas stovetop, filled the bathtubs and a number of other jugs/bottles for water, but not much else we could do. It SUCKED.

Did the no power thing for 14 days back as a teenager when we had back to back to back snowstorms in '97. We ran a propane stove for heating and cooking and used kerosene lamps for light (and had a kerosene heater for the basement to keep the pipes from freezing). Melted water for the toilets and cooking.

[Winterborn]

Biggest impact for me personally was going into Engineering based on the advice from a good friend who was a retired civil engineer ( I was the first on either side of my family to go to college for a 4 year degree).

Another big impact was when I took my current job 6 years ago. It was radically different than anything I had ever done and didn't know such a role existed. It very much changed me as an individual and I had to grow/adapt as a person. Looking back it is probably one of the defining moments of my life as almost everything afterwards changed.

9/11 also enters in, but more as a emotional point, as it did not have a very large impact on my life/career.

[Gil Dobie]

Biggest impact for me personally was going into Engineering based on the advice from a good friend who was a retired civil engineer ( I was the first on either side of my family to go to college for a 4 year degree).

Another big impact was when I took my current job 6 years ago. It was radically different than anything I had ever done and didn't know such a role existed. It very much changed me as an individual and I had to grow/adapt as a person. Looking back it is probably one of the defining moments of my life as almost everything afterwards changed.

9/11 also enters in, but more as a emotional point, as it did not have a very large impact on my life/career.

Every time you go to the airport, or cross a border, you are impacted by 9/11.

[AZGrizFan]

Biggest impact for me personally was going into Engineering based on the advice from a good friend who was a retired civil engineer ( I was the first on either side of my family to go to college for a 4 year degree).

Another big impact was when I took my current job 6 years ago. It was radically different than anything I had ever done and didn't know such a role existed. It very much changed me as an individual and I had to grow/adapt as a person. Looking back it is probably one of the defining moments of my life as almost everything afterwards changed.

9/11 also enters in, but more as a emotional point, as it did not have a very large impact on my life/career.

Every time you go to the airport, or cross a border, you are impacted by 9/11.

Exactly. And I’ve spent a shitload of time in airports the past couple years and am supremely annoyed each and every time.

[89Hen]

Biggest impact for me personally was going into Engineering based on the advice from a good friend who was a retired civil engineer ( I was the first on either side of my family to go to college for a 4 year degree).

Another big impact was when I took my current job 6 years ago. It was radically different than anything I had ever done and didn't know such a role existed. It very much changed me as an individual and I had to grow/adapt as a person. Looking back it is probably one of the defining moments of my life as almost everything afterwards changed.

9/11 also enters in, but more as a emotional point, as it did not have a very large impact on my life/career.

Maybe I wasn't clear when I tried to say this wasn't about a personal choice or event.

[Gil Dobie]

Not talking about the death of a loved one or loss of a job, etc... what national/regional thing impacted your life the most? And let's leave off Covid, because that has to be the #1 seed, especially for Gil.

For me it was the DC sniper. That was not long after 9/11 which hit home a little as I knew somebody on one of the planes and I had to pick up Mrs89 downtown and saw the Pentagon burning and was stuck in the middle of the National Mall as the plane in PA went down with false reports that the Capitol had been hit (I was staring right at it). The sniper spooked everyone in our area. If anyone said they didn't feel uncomfortable gassing their car, they're lying. My kids drop off at school completely changed and it had everyone on edge for weeks.

Covid is like a yoyo, you have cnn on one side throwing BS, and the Fox trotters on the other side throwing BS. Only a few people like Kalm and UNI88 that can see the BS.

[SDHornet]

9/11 - Happened when I was senior in HS. I tend to think my dad (Vietnam Vet) wouldn't have been as adamant about me going to college had it not happened. Was going to enlist as we didn't have money for college. He said we'd find a way to pay for it and to not enlist. I attribute him living through Vietnam and other foreign war clusterfucks as being the reason to lean heavily on the college route.

Recently the fires not far from Sac have been very impactful. Heavy smoked literally closed things down for days. These were pre-China Virus lockdowns so it was pretty big at the time.

[AZGrizFan]

9/11 - Happened when I was senior in HS. I tend to think my dad (Vietnam Vet) wouldn't have been as adamant about me going to college had it not happened. Was going to enlist as we didn't have money for college. He said we'd find a way to pay for it and to not enlist. I attribute him living through Vietnam and other foreign war clusterfucks as being the reason to lean heavily on the college route.

Recently the fires not far from Sac have been very impactful. Heavy smoked literally closed things down for days. These were pre-China Virus lockdowns so it was pretty big at the time.

Those fires fucked up the wine production/industry for an entire year’s production. super impactful to the Napa, Russian and Sonoma valley vintners…

[Winterborn]

Biggest impact for me personally was going into Engineering based on the advice from a good friend who was a retired civil engineer ( I was the first on either side of my family to go to college for a 4 year degree).

Another big impact was when I took my current job 6 years ago. It was radically different than anything I had ever done and didn't know such a role existed. It very much changed me as an individual and I had to grow/adapt as a person. Looking back it is probably one of the defining moments of my life as almost everything afterwards changed.

9/11 also enters in, but more as a emotional point, as it did not have a very large impact on my life/career.

Maybe I wasn't clear when I tried to say this wasn't about a personal choice or event.

Then it would be 9/11.

[Winterborn]

Every time you go to the airport, or cross a border, you are impacted by 9/11.

Exactly. And I’ve spent a shitload of time in airports the past couple years and am supremely annoyed each and every time.

I agree. But I didn't start flying till over 10 years after 9/11 and have no perspective of what it was like before. All I know is the current (sucky) system. Granted I have been told that it was much easier pre-9/11 but never had a chance to experience it.

[kalm]

Not talking about the death of a loved one or loss of a job, etc... what national/regional thing impacted your life the most? And let's leave off Covid, because that has to be the #1 seed, especially for Gil.

For me it was the DC sniper. That was not long after 9/11 which hit home a little as I knew somebody on one of the planes and I had to pick up Mrs89 downtown and saw the Pentagon burning and was stuck in the middle of the National Mall as the plane in PA went down with false reports that the Capitol had been hit (I was staring right at it). The sniper spooked everyone in our area. If anyone said they didn't feel uncomfortable gassing their car, they're lying. My kids drop off at school completely changed and it had everyone on edge for weeks.

Covid is like a yoyo, you have cnn on one side throwing BS, and the Fox trotters on the other side throwing BS. Only a few people like Kalm and UNI88 that can see the BS.

It will end up being #1 for all of us unless something worse hits.

The disease wasn’t the worst part psychologically. It was the human reaction to it. Probably a good thing in the long run as it highlighted how dumb and selfish people can be.

Turned me into 89hen practically overnight.

[AZGrizFan]

Covid is like a yoyo, you have cnn on one side throwing BS, and the Fox trotters on the other side throwing BS. Only a few people like Kalm and UNI88 that can see the BS.

It will end up being #1 for all of us unless something worse hits.

The disease wasn’t the worst part psychologically. It was the human reaction to it. Probably a good thing in the long run as it highlighted how dumb and selfish people can be.

Turned me into 89hen practically overnight.

You forgot “gullible”.