Eldergays, where were you when Reagan was shot?

Not a fan of Reagan's in any way, shape or form, so I don't care enough to remember. I'm just sorry Hinkley was a bad shot.

I was month away from starting a new job at a company I stayed with for 23 years.

In my eighth grade social studies class.

We were excited that we were being sent home a little early. Our SS teacher wheeled out the TV so we could watch live coverage before we got on the buses.

I was a freshman in college and was eating lunch in the cafeteria. Some girl came in and announced that he had been shot. Since this was before the internet, all we had was TV news, and it took a while for us to get any information on whether he was alive or dead.

In Portland, Oregon, about to go out for breakfast on a weekday. I was planning to move back to New York.

McGill U

I was in fourth grade coming home from school. My folks had the TV on and there was another guy in the house who was a complete stranger. They were all watching the TV and the stranger said, “I sure wouldn’t want to be in Washington right now!” I had no idea what was happening, what that guy meant, or who he was.

Turned out he was the washing machine repairman which is why my dad was home too.

I was at the office at my first full time job. Initially I felt sorry for him and was relieved he pulled through. But after all the horrible things he did during his 2 terms, I regret that he lived.

Was the washing machine repairman hot, r7?

I was 17, in my senior year in high school. We were just heading out of school when the news broke. My mother had picked me up from school to drive me to my PT after school job (3 pm - 6pm) at a local Dunkin' Donuts (when the donuts were made fresh, coffee was piping hot, place was clean, and customers wouldn't accept anything but the highest service - none of which they offer today). I remember telling my mom when I got into the car, so she switched on the radio - couldn't believe what was being reported (we were a family of Democrats, no Reagan supporters). When I got to work, I was telling my boss and a few customers 'at the counter' - no one had heard about it. It became all 'the chatter' in that place for the rest of the afternoon. I remember one old guy who came in every day at 4 to sit at the counter and talk with 'the regulars' brought in his transistor radio so we could hear the 'updates'.

Weirdly, my dad was on a work trip to Toronto and it was Spring Break so we went with him. My brother and I were coming out of a record store on Yonge Street and some woman yelled the President has been shot.

We thought, the Canadian President? I was 10. Then we listened to the radio in the car about it.

My parents weren't big Reagan fans. But I recall it was a weird time - with Lennon killed a few months prior and then the Pope was shot a few weeks later.

I still think the Bush family and CIA were behind it because GWB thought he should have been president before. Bush was the former head of CIA. Hinckley was a close friend of the Bushes - his relatives were with some Bush people on the day of the shooting. Was he mentally deranged? Probably - but I think he was also goaded.

Oh and THEN poor Jodie Foster was HOUNDED for 2 years over it. People forget about that - it makes her wanting a secret, private life even more understandable - outside of the fact that she's a lesbian. She was like 18 or 19 years old.

R9 How come the repairmen who always come to my house for appliances, furnace, etc. never look like this or even the hot muscled guys on their local TV commercials ?

I get the 5'3" 300 pound guy at my door with the filthy uniform he hadn't washed in months.

I was giving Sinatra a blowjob.

Somewhere in Hollywood getting high because my acting career wasn't taking off, despite me being a nepo baby.

I was 2 and don’t remember it at all.

I was 16 and a junior in HS.

Didn’t believe the first reports…then they were confirmed.

The news spread pretty quickly in the pre-internet days.

University.

I was shopping for 'funeral clothes' in Nordstrom, on the advice of my astrologer Joan Quigley who gave me a phone reading earlier that morning. I recall her saying, 'You can't wear red - you need something in black'.

R9, he most definitely was not hot. Not at all. If I remember correctly, he had limp longish hair and glasses. Very 1981.

I was four years old and I remember my parents talking about it at dinner that night.

Same here r12. I've never had a hot repairman or UPS guy.

Finger banging behind a 7-Eleven in Oxnard.

I was at my job on West 38th St, heard it over am radio. Happy until I heard he was still alive. On the street, it was nothing like when JFK was shot. In 1963, strangers came up to my mother on the street all shocked and worried, it was before we even knew he was dead.

I just remember watching it on TV with my sisters after school (or during spring break).

On repairmen: my parents have an appliance guy who's my type. I always hope for a dishwasher problem when I'm visiting them.

I was in high school, home sick, and gloriously watching soaps with my mom. They interrupted, and then canceled, for news coverage. I would have rather watched the soaps.

[quote]I was in high school, home sick, and gloriously watching soaps with my mom.

Datalounge in a nutshell

At the US Embassy in Jeddah (although we had to call it "Jidda") Saudi Arabia.

In fifth grade. Even then I hated Reagan.

At a university job, working in an historical archeology lab, identifying 18th and early 19thC ceramics.

R22 - hardly - Jodie was at Yale.

But it's worth repeating the hell that Jodie went through over this. She doesn't talk about it, but it had to have been so traumatizing.

Hinckley called her at her dorm room in Sept 1980 multiple times and tried to meet her. This is just 2 weeks into her freshman year. He tried to meet her walking around campus.

Then she had to deal with all the investigations and interviews until Hinckley went on trial. Just disgusting. Who knows what other copycat creeps were calling her or other shit she had to deal with.

I thought about that film "Panic Room" she did years ago with Kristen Stewart - and I bet there were times when she was younger she would have wanted one.

I was in a history class in high school in Sweden when the classroom TVs came on and an anchor reported that Reagan had been shot and was in the hospital. Most of the students erupted in cheers.

I was at the office. Had the exact same reaction that I had when Trump was "shot."

I was out in the yard

Taking down the bed sheets

When my neighbor yelled across

"The President's been shot."

I remember where I was

Just exactly where I was

In the yard out back

"The President's been shot."

4th grade. Already knew I was a democrat. I was completely indifferent to the news of the shooting. I was mildly intrigued by Hinkley and his infatuation with Jody Foster, as I was a big fan of the OG Freaky Friday.

I was home sick from work with a bad head cold and the soap I was watching was interrupted.

I was a sophmore in high school. We were having our lunch break, when it was announced that we were to report to our homerooms, and heard the news.

I was 12 and I honestly don't remember. I think I was home sick because I don't remember being in class when it happened.

I remember a few years later in 1986 when the Challenger exploded, I was home from school. It was a snow day and my friend and I were hanging out at my house - my mom had just made some soup and grilled cheese sandwiches when it all happened.

Not sure why but I really can't remember a thing about the Reagan shooting. And I remember where I was a few months earlier when I heard about John Lennon.

Of course. I was filming an episode of Murder She Wrote. I played the son of a stuntman who killed his twin brother. Stephanie Powers burst into the makeup trailer and said, "They shot my Ronald." Pippy Fleurey, a well-known makeup artist, said, "McDonald?" "No, Reagan," Stephanie said and left in tears. She dated him in the sixties. I remember it so well because after I blew the guy playing my dad, who was only ten years older than me. Nice guy.

The 80s had a lot of plaid. I had forgotten.

I really don’t remember, nor do I care to. But I vividly remember when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were shot, even though I was a kiddo.

I was on a flight from NYC back to Atlanta. The pilot came on the speaker and informed everyone what had happened. I admit I felt no sympathy for Reagan whatsoever, and from some of the comments I overheard on the plane there were lots of others who felt the same way I did.

I have no idea, was never that interested.

I was molested.

Dancing in the streets as I recall. I felt bad about James Brady however, I still do. Seemed to ve a nice, decent man.

In high school, hoping he'd die. But it's hardly a JFK moment, Miss OP.

R43 - Enough. We've had sufficient of those posts. Please try something new. Nobody finds it amusing.

I have sero recollection of where I was. I *do* remember where I was when JFK was shot.

Taking a shit. It seemed much more important at the time.

^zero

An "incredible" documentary on this subject, OP? Shouldn't this be a post on a "I want to be underwhelmed" thread?

I was eight and in third grade. My mom and her entire family hated Reagan. As I got a little older into the 1980s, realized I was gay and saw the cruel indifference Reagan had to AIDS, I grew to hate him in my own right.

My father and stepmom were big Reagan fans. Guess who they worship now. (I no longer speak to them. No time for pendejos.)

I was in junior high school and was in gym class. A classmate theorized that if he died, we might get a day off school, so we were all hoping for that outcome.

I was in my 10th grade English class when the news broke. I don't remember having much of a reaction to it. I do remember being in my Algebra class the next period and the teacher had the classroom TV turned on so we could watch the live reports on the news.

It was after lunch and I was at the advertising agency where I worked, first job after college. 26-years-old. We had a television in the conference room.

I was a Federal employee at work in my office a few blocks from the White House. As much as I loathed Reagan, I wasn't happy he was shot. Go figure.

I was in 4th grade and made some flippant comment about this being good news. I felt guilty for years even though my loathing for the man had only grown. Ironically, my first professional job as an actor (which I declined) was John Hinckley in Assassins. That song feels super creepy to inhabit.

In the office. We had a TV in the waiting room.

In the library with a candlestick

OP - which documentary are you watching? I think Showtime's The Reagans docuseries is excellent -- partly because it featured so many (at times, shockingly) candid interviews with people who worked in the White House at the time. With both Nancy and Ron long dead, they did not... mince their words.

If it had been on Netflix on HBO, I think it would have gotten more attention at the time.

Setting up a huge banquet at a restaurant and someone said that he had been shot so the Oscars were postponed for one night. Frankly, I was relieved because I wanted to watch the Oscars.

I felt pity for Jodie Foster who was attending college at the time. It couldn't have been easy through no fault of her own.

Hinckley really fucked up with trying to get Jodie's attention.

The only way his gaydar could have been even MORE dead is if he was chasing after Kristy McNichol.

SNL was spot on parodying the relentless coverage.

In my parents living room, cheering.

At home, not caring much.

I was sitting in my 3rd grade class room. The principal came on the intercom and said, "The president has been shot! I repeat, the president has been shot!". (What a drama queen, lol) My teacher looked stunned and walked out the room to talk to the other 3rd grade teacher next door.

No idea. I was working and going to school. I knew where I was when I heard that John Lennon had been shot a few months before, but Reagan was an emerging menace and I was busy and exhausted. I'd probably remember if he had been killed. Yet, I've used that entrance to the "Hinkley Hilton" numerous times.

I was busy cleaning my oven...

I remember my father was pissed that he survived. My father was and is a Democrat and a big Union supporter and he despised Reagan. To this day if you mention Reagan or Nixon he'll go on a rant.

R69 Your dad sounds like good people. ❤️

[quote] The 80s had a lot of plaid. I had forgotten.

And now, so do the 2020s!

My parents were okay with him until he went after air traffic controllers.

college in the midwest. No TV or access to much news. Reagan was a vile person.

R73 = Ron Jr

It was the day of Oscar night. I'd rented a motel room to fuck someone I'd had a crush on, and he cancelled bc the awards were cancelled.

Thank you r70, he's a lovely guy.

In tenth grade returning from an after school volunteer program. I remember hearing the story on the car radio and wondering if he’d survive. I remember Alexander Haig stating famously “I am in Charge”.

I was in 8th grade and six weeks later, about 50 kids in our class took a trip to DC where a a bunch of us tastelessly and hilariously re-enacted the shooting while at the Hilton. For some reason, the “secret service” all rode in on piggy-back.

Later, I ended up living very close and working out at Washington Sports on Connecticut so I walked past the exact spot very often; instead of thinking about Reagan, though, I thought about my uproarious 8th grade trip.

Where were you for JFK? My mom was ironing.

I think mine was too r79. I was 4. I remember it because it was the same day my father came home with a brand new Chevrolet Impala. But that happened hours later.

We were in "the sunroom" off the kitchen watching tv with my Mom's Mum and my Dad's father. They despised each other but both lived with us and had the same taste in TV. My mother was either ironing or folding laundry. Yes, we were clichéd enough to be watching As The World Turns.

When Dad arrived home he was all "Aw shit! Let's all go for a ride in the new car anyway."

Like R1, I was not a fan of Reagan but I’ll take it a step further—I couldn’t stand Reagan. So I couldn’t have cared less honestly. I’m guessing that I was probably in school when it happened, though, and I would have been in grade five for the 1980-1981 school year.

[quote] I remember Alexander Haig stating famously “I am in Charge”.

For which declaration The New Republic memorably compared him to Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, in their words "trying to wrest sinister control of the household."

In a Hallmark store! It came on over the radio station the store had on, and the New Age-y cashier garbed all in purple started wringing her hands, praying for him and Nancy.

I was blowing Alexander Haig in the basement of the White House.

I was at my last semester at FSU in Tallahassee Florida. I was sitting out by the apartment complex pool after taking an exam.

I was on the witness stand in Springfield, IL

For some bizarre reason, we were at my grandmother’s house. I remember watching coverage on her TV. She lived 2-3 hours away and we didn’t visit her often. I think she might have been having surgery. But I can’t imagine why the whole family went to visit. I would think my dad would have gone alone. A weird chapter all around.

r86 I love you!

I was in the 8th grade catholic school, Sister Fat Cunt Lucy came over the PA with an emergency announcement then told us & made us all pray with her over the PA........

I remember being upset that the Oscars were postponed (just a day though.)

R88, love you too

They had to edit it in as a flashback over the next day or so.

What timing!

Marland did that story on GH, GL and ATWT; his best was ATWT, but I have great fondness for his GH version.

I'll never forget it, I was at my retirement party, saying good bye to my colleagues. 50 years with the same company. Where are my pills? Nurse!

I couldn't figure out why Jennifer would rather go to jail than let Amanda know she was illegitimate, but apparently, that was a BIG DEAL back then.

I think Doug may have rushed that storyline a bit. He had more success with it with Lesley Webber and Kim Hughes. But Jennifer was very sympathetic and loving. I loved them all.

Ok, I admit it.

I was a little impressed.

One important fact that a lot of people don't remember or know is that Reagan did not get directly shot by Hinckley. A bullet ricocheted off the Presidential limousine and went into Reagan's side/ribs. The limousine was going back to the WH when the Secret Service agent who checked Reagan out found a wound with bright red oxygenated blood and diverted to a hospital immediately. He probably saved Reagan's life. I wonder if this was the impetus for the SOP for an ambulance and EMT staff to follow presidential motorcades.

Sorry if this was brought up upthread. I didn't wantcto read the entire thread and did some searches.

Sproul Plaza—

People cheered.. even Polka-dot Man.

I had a premonition about the shooting so I was in church praying for its success.

I wasn't born yet and that is 100% proof that I am not secretly Jodie Foster.