Witness To History

As often happens to us old folks, a song on the radio today made me flash back to a memory. In this case, it was the first night of the Rodney King riots, where I was out with a good portion of the crew of USS Topeka (SSN 754) at the old Horse and Cow in Vallejo; we were in the area for a port visit to Alameda for some reason. Much Nuke Waste was drunk, and the Dance of the Flaming Asshole was performed as we cavorted through the bar, skivvie-less, singing "How can we sleep while Los Angeles is burning?"

The next day, I had duty, and we monitored the spread of the riots to the San Francisco Bay area as guys came back to the boat with reports of almost being assaulted on the BART. We watched the news, half-expecting to see A-Div streaming out of some looted hardware store with lots of new tools. Luckily, no one associated with the crew was hurt, and we left the next morning.

Where were you when history was being made? (In general, not just this particular event. Remember we already covered 9/11 earlier this month.)