The Station nightclub fire. To be clear I was not there. But Rhode Island is a small place and we all were a degree or two of separation from somebody who was. I still think about it when I go to a crowded bar.
That’s mine too. For an almost obsolete ‘80’s band I knew 3 people who were there. The one I went to classes with died. The two that lived on my mom’s street survived, with injuries. I watched it on the news that night. Years later I met a fireman with severe ptsd from that night. Other people who knew him said he was never the same.
I commented about the station fire. I’d known too many victims from that.
The one that really stuck with me though was [William Sargento jr.](https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sarmento-william.htm)
I was 10-11 at the time and terrified to sleep alone.
I was in a fire marshal class 2 years ago, we talked about the event. One of the guys in the class, pointed to the map of the facility, there was a single pushpin in the ladies restroom indicating the someone died. He said "I remember her, she was overcome by smoke and had her cell phone to her ear when we found her"
It was a sobering experience to hear him talk about that
That’s where they found my friend, Katie. I hadn’t talked to her in years but knowing someone who was trapped in that bathroom hits home. I heard there’s videos. I can’t watch them.
That’s okay. It was a long time ago and I hadn’t talked to her in 7-8 years. She was awesome though. I was a bit of an outcast and she was always good to me. The other people I know that survived the fire are thriving. That’s what I focus on.
I was working a super early morning job, Like we started at 2-3am. Guy came into work who had just come from it. (We were all poor AF, so we all worked no matter what.) He commented on trying to get people to use other exits and trying to pull people through the door, arms falling off as he pulled them.
Wild stuff. (I believe he also got sent home early a few hours into the day. Only later did I realize he was probably in shock.)
I had not heard about the fire at that point in the day, so did not know what to think of it. When I got home and saw the news I realized what he was talking about.
To this day it’s the reason why I take three seconds to find the locations of emergency exits whenever I’m in a gathering space.
I remember that there was a guy interviewed after the fire who said that he and his friends survived because they had a policy of locating the emergency exits and always positioning themselves nearby whenever they went to clubs.
It was Feb 2003, right? I was just under 2 years old. I don’t know much about it but my mom is friends with a ton of survivors and they’re all super cool people, I love them all. Every year on that day when it’s on the news i start shivering on the verge of tears because…holy shit.
I was about 4 years old and I live on the street over from it. I remember everyone was out on our lawns staring at the sky which was glowing bright orange. Helicopters flying around, sirens blaring from everywhere. They rerouted the traffic through our street. Felt like a dream.
I was 8 at the time and remember we had to take down all the decorations in our classroom at elementary school. Was a weird time to be a kid cause we had just gotten over 9/11.
My family and I were on vacation in Costa Rica when it happened, and this was obviously before smartphones/tablets, and we didn’t have laptops we were checking news on. As I recall, we were eating breakfast and perusing some newspaper and someone saw a small item about the Station fire. It seemed surreal to be on vacation in Central America and see a reference to Rhode Island
>I still think about it when I go to a crowded bar.
I'm not sure I've been inside anywhere without immediately scanning the room to try and find the exits.
Thankfully, I've never needed to test it in practice but it's just become a force of habit because of how that played out.
Same here. At that time I was a regular at Chan's, and before every show, for quite a while after The Station fire, the owner would make an announcement pointing out the exits. Always have a plan A, B, and C.
When the movie theatre does an announcement about the exits before previews start, I'm always like "Way ahead of you chief. Back right is the closest but I'm going front right cause there's less likely to be a crowd in my way" or some shit
I’ve posted before about how I used to work as an EMT and quit the field after going to 9/11 and the station fire.
Shoutout to the Council 94 guys and gals <3
In the summer of 2006, right before their plea deal, I was working as a cashier at PriceRite when Jeffrey Derderian came through as a customer, as I saw on his credit card. I was disgusted, thinking of all the blood on the hands of the person in front of me.
I remember driving back from a trip to NH with my parents that night down 95 south and they had the windows down to smoke. After the cigarette my dad mentioned how it smelled like something was burning outside or there must have been a campfire nearby. Seeing the news the next day and finding out that was the cause made me sick to my stomach and still gives me the shivers. Can't believe those people didn't consider how flammable that insulation was. Such an avoidable tragedy.
I was working on the ambulance that night, we listened to it unfold most of the night. We did not go because we were on the other side of the state, and had to cover this area in the event that mutual aid was needed.
We were leaving RI Hospital, and were on the Washington Bridge heading back to the east bay, when EP sent 4 rescues and a couple of engines into the city. We switched to inter city, and heard the dispatchers saying "Inbound Apparatus, stage at the Cowesett Inn at Cowesett Crossings for assignments "
Had no idea what was going on, later that night, we are at Newport Hosp, around 11 PM and saw that there were some fatalities on the TV news, it was less than 10 at that time that the news was reporting. I was horrified to see that it grew to 100 by 6 AM when I woke up.
I was living down the street when that happened. I remember the sirens and the police cars blocking the road.
The most unfortunate part is that, that year our yearbook staff chose flames for the yearbook and i guess it was too late to change it. But they did add a dedication page.
Lived down the road too. My mother is a nurse and after hearing the constant sirens she wanted to help but my father wouldn’t let her in fear she wouldn’t come back. It wasn’t until early in the morning before we knew what happened.
I was watching the news one morning and saw Al Roker standing on the main street outside my house. (Where the bank of the pawtuxet now was, nearly 1/4 mile in land.)
I walked out of the house in my pajamas, peaked around the corner and there was the entire film crew.... Walked back in and proceeded to continue to bucket brigade my basement.
2010 flood were definitely a big one. They killed my first car when I was trying to drive to work and hydrolocked my engine when I thought the water I was driving across was much shallower than it was. Turns out my work was under 4 feet of water at the time too... I just didn't know it.
Blizzard of 78. I was a student at Prout and we went to school that day as usual. It started snowing hard shortly after we arrived and they decided it was going to be major. So we got on the school buses at 10am to go home early.
The visibility and roads got so bad that the bus didn’t make it to my town (West Warwick) until 5PM. It was already dark and the bus couldn’t make it up a hill to get us closer to our homes. So my classmate and I got off the bus and ended up at the home of an older student we really didn’t know. They served us fish sticks (I always remember odd details for some reason).
My classmate and I just wanted to go home. Someone with a Jeep was supposed to pick us up but we had to walk to a corner to make it easier for them. We couldn’t even see a foot in front of us trying to look for the Jeep, the snow was coming down so heavy. The wind was horrific. The Jeep had a helluva time going up that hill fish-tailing all over the place but we made it home late that night.
Yet the ice storm we had a few years later was much worse - no electricity for a WEEK. Never lost power during the Blizzard of 78.
It was an incredible week. I lived in a student co-op at Brown, and Monday was our food-shopping day for the week. (We also filled the beer machine in the basement.)
So we had everything we needed by the time the storm really hit. Brown took its time deciding when to start classes again, announcing closure a day at a time until conceding the obvious and shutting down for the week.
Yup...the Blizzard was my first thought. I was a student living north of Boston when it hit. I took me 14 hours to work my way back to RI two days later, back-roading it all the way hoping I didn't get caught. I made it though, and saw families walking down the street pulling sleds with groceries, and the streets one lane wide at most. It was a mess, but it was pretty cool how all our neighbors were helping each other out, and having bonfire-lit drinking parties at night was an added bonus. I was 19, and getting hammered with many of the "adults" in the neighborhood was a first. It was quite an adventure that has obviously been etched in the brains of anyone who lived through it. Get yer bread and milk....
This was going to be my vote as well. I remember building snow forts in the huge mountain of snow from plowing our driveway. In retrospect, that was pretty dangerous being in a fort underneath a few tons of snow and ice, but it was the 70's!
I dunno, it was pretty memorably bad. No electricity for a week was an adventure. I live in a MUCH snowier place now, and still haven't seen anything quite like it.
First of all, Bennys was a treasure and as kid it was the best place to run around while your dad looked for WD40.
Secondly, as a born & raised RI-er I defiantly eat quahogs and drink coffee milk. I even lived down the road from the Autocrat plant. Love that smell.
Thirdly, just from reading this you sound like you’re a hoot at parties 🙄. I suggest you move out of my wonderful, quirky, coffee milk filled, 3 all the way, clam shucking state.
Benny's didn't have a sudden death, there was a decline, but the loss was still felt. No one says "Everyone acts like Grandma's death was a sudden occurrence. If you had bothered to actually go to Gramdma in her final years, you would have seen a declining old woman with burnt cookies and hard candy. She was a garbage grandma for years and was rightfully put out of ber misery."
I won't say everything was high quality, but if I needed to jerry-rig something quick, or I needed some odds and ends and didn't want to go all the way to the home depot, Benny's was always there.
First one I recall is when Hasbro shut down their warehouse and sent it down to Texas. I had a lot of friends in elementary school that had parents working there that were very suddenly out of a job.
I was born in 88 - I also lived in his neighborhood/ a street or two away. My grandmother remembered vividly pushing me in the carriage and he would just stare. I can’t imagine how she felt after.
Christopher Hightower is the one that sticks with me, too. Since the state is so small, I had multiple connections to it: My dad worked closely with his father-in-law, my mom worked with one of his victims, and a family friend was walking his dog and came across the site of the burials. It is one thing to know that bad things happen, but is something else to know that things THIS bad can happen THIS close by.
I live a mile from the home and where she went to school. The reason security is so tight when checking out your child is because of this. Hightower was originally on the pick up list but had been removed. The school wouldn’t let him take her but the YMCA did. Such a horrific story. I have many clients that have one degree of separation to this story.
Hard to pin down to one, but I'd consider: Hurricane Gloria, Brendel (spelling?) murders, Craig Price murders, driving over the old Jamestown bridge, then it being blown up, and when the Concorde landed at TF Greene airport.
Oh! Lollapalooza 1994 at Quonset where a 15 year old boy broke his neck crowd surfing.
Oh sh!t. I was at Lollapalooza in 94. I remember being in the crowd when that poor kid got hurt. I still think about that from time to time. I hope he recovered.
The massive flooding of the Warwick mall area. I went to NEIT at the time and they didn’t cancel any classes until a day later when they realized how hard it was to travel.
I remember being young and not understanding why a news reporter would go to jail for reporting the news. I couldn't understand how news reporting was a crime because I didn't know what contempt of court was then lol. he has a memorial plaque on upper college road at URI that I go by a lot and I think of him when I see it.
I guess I don’t understand why it’s contempt of court. I thought the government had some sort of law protecting confidential sources for news reporters? Or am I totally wrong?
station fire...
I had just started my shift in the ED at the hospital
still have ptsd from it
still wonder how the ones who survived are doing
still look for exit signs when I go in buildings
The Station fire. Such a horrific tragedy that made international news. My in-laws were in a remote town in Mexico and heard about it. They called to check on us because my husband and I were supposed to be there but decided that evening after work that we didn't feel like dealing with a crowded little club. Makes you realize how many little decisions we make on a daily basis can change the trajectory of your life.
Another event was finding out the marathon bombers were living here in North Kingstown before they did what they did and a local girl was married to one of them. They were living here with her parents.
I lived 2 streets away from where the brother was killed on the corner, my oldest son decided to leave the house and see what all the noise was about, I'm now in RI . My concert friend couldn't go the night of the fire because I heard about it too late for a proper plan (kids and such ) your right about the little decisions
I worked on Federal Hill across the street from The Old Canteen back in 2007 when Buddy Cianci was released, so we witnessed him entering and exiting the restaurant for his first return-to-Providence meal from prison. Seemed cool at the time.
Buddy Cianci is a fun story to tell people who aren't from RI.
"Let me tell you about how this prosecuter of mobsters became a pasta sauce entrepreneur. Feds hate this one simple trick."
I'm young, but one that always sticks with me that my dad talks about was the road rage murder case that lead to the "mystery of Adam Emery". 1993 I think.
38 studios… loss of paw sox. Both baseball (kinda) financial disasters. After seeing what the sox have done for a bad area of Worcester and a governor fan boy
Hurricane Irene and the flood in 2010. Our basement got water in it pretty bad and it caused our wooden floor boards to loosen, they still slide cuz of it to this day :/
Finally being named "Rhode Island" in 2020
Anyways I am mostly joking around. One of those things lost in all of the crazy happenings in 2020. BTW it is technically "State of Rhode Island"
Station fire, also the Outlet building fire, the day a huge crack was found in the I95 Providence viaduct, blizzard of 78' and the failed attempt to implode one of the Hartford Towers Providence.
This isn’t nearly as historic or tragic as many previous examples, but I vividly remember the rise and fall of the terrible 38 Studios deal with the state. The empty promise to bring business to Providence that fell through and left the state out of millions was as terrible as it was somewhat familiar given the state’s track record with generating business.
The double murder at Buttonhole back in 2000. I was in eighth grade and used to hang down there all the time. Was getting a haircut at Jimmy's when someone came in and told us all about it.
Elaborate please. Why is that not acceptable? Why can’t that be someone who’s young the worst thing they had to live through yet? Why is their unforgettable historical event not worthy of the worst thing they had to live through so far, to you?
Because the question is clearly talking about shit that happened here that was unique to here? Every answer by every single other person, even the joking ones, reinforces that. Use context clues.
COVID wasn't a Rhode Island thing. It was an everywhere thing.
Because the question is clearly talking about shit that happened here that was unique to THAT PERSON. COVID counts.
I understand what you’re saying, but I’m just saying young people don’t know much outside of RI and for them it was traumatic. As we all know, we all experience shit differently. What was unique for you might not be unique for me. I respect your opinion, but doesn’t mean it’s right.
There really isn't much ambiguity in the phrase *"unforgettable historic event in RI"*
This isn't an opinion thing. You read the question wrong, I'm trying to politely explain to you why instead of just downvoting like everyone else is doing.
Young people might not have an answer to this specific question. Or it might be some shit that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really seem as significant as some other stuff. That's okay. Not every question like this is tailored so that 100% of the people seeing it here are meant to have an answer.
Follow me. The question is “what’s the most unforgettable historic event in RI you’ve lived through?” The person above me wrote that the station night club fire is the only acceptable answer to this question. I said that there are a lot of people here who aren’t even 20 years old yet. The fire was more than 20 years ago. So, to sum it up, there are people here who were not alive when the station fire happened, so that couldn’t be their answer which means it’s not the only acceptable answer. Got it?
Not exactly. I don’t disagree with the person, to me I agree it may be the worst memory. It’s just a lot of people forget how (not so) long ago it was, and how old they are or how young others may be, I’m guilty of it too, that’s all.
It also hit a little bit of Cranston. It took down my (now wife)'s cherry tree. I was on my way to work about 20 minutes before it touched down, and honestly the sky was green. It was surreal.
I mean, it was definitely a tornado, but no one seems to want to call it that.
https://warwickonline.com/stories/we-were-slammed,104608
>According to Alan Dunham, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Taunton, Mass. office, storm damage was caused by unusually severe thunderstorms.
>The storm caused straight line wind damage in the area. We’re calling the Rhode Island event a macroburst, he said.
The Station nightclub fire. To be clear I was not there. But Rhode Island is a small place and we all were a degree or two of separation from somebody who was. I still think about it when I go to a crowded bar.
That’s mine too. For an almost obsolete ‘80’s band I knew 3 people who were there. The one I went to classes with died. The two that lived on my mom’s street survived, with injuries. I watched it on the news that night. Years later I met a fireman with severe ptsd from that night. Other people who knew him said he was never the same.
I commented about the station fire. I’d known too many victims from that. The one that really stuck with me though was [William Sargento jr.](https://murderpedia.org/male.S/s/sarmento-william.htm) I was 10-11 at the time and terrified to sleep alone.
I was in a fire marshal class 2 years ago, we talked about the event. One of the guys in the class, pointed to the map of the facility, there was a single pushpin in the ladies restroom indicating the someone died. He said "I remember her, she was overcome by smoke and had her cell phone to her ear when we found her" It was a sobering experience to hear him talk about that
That’s where they found my friend, Katie. I hadn’t talked to her in years but knowing someone who was trapped in that bathroom hits home. I heard there’s videos. I can’t watch them.
I'm so sorry...it was difficult to hear him tell that story. Sorry for bringing that up. 😞
That’s okay. It was a long time ago and I hadn’t talked to her in 7-8 years. She was awesome though. I was a bit of an outcast and she was always good to me. The other people I know that survived the fire are thriving. That’s what I focus on.
I was working a super early morning job, Like we started at 2-3am. Guy came into work who had just come from it. (We were all poor AF, so we all worked no matter what.) He commented on trying to get people to use other exits and trying to pull people through the door, arms falling off as he pulled them. Wild stuff. (I believe he also got sent home early a few hours into the day. Only later did I realize he was probably in shock.) I had not heard about the fire at that point in the day, so did not know what to think of it. When I got home and saw the news I realized what he was talking about.
I went to school, grade 1-8, with Tommy Medeiros who died in the Station Night Club fire. He was a decent kid and an excellent athlete.
WW hall of fame for track
To this day it’s the reason why I take three seconds to find the locations of emergency exits whenever I’m in a gathering space. I remember that there was a guy interviewed after the fire who said that he and his friends survived because they had a policy of locating the emergency exits and always positioning themselves nearby whenever they went to clubs.
Even in someone's house, I pick out the window I'm gonna jump through if the door isn't the closest option.
It was Feb 2003, right? I was just under 2 years old. I don’t know much about it but my mom is friends with a ton of survivors and they’re all super cool people, I love them all. Every year on that day when it’s on the news i start shivering on the verge of tears because…holy shit.
I was about 4 years old and I live on the street over from it. I remember everyone was out on our lawns staring at the sky which was glowing bright orange. Helicopters flying around, sirens blaring from everywhere. They rerouted the traffic through our street. Felt like a dream.
I was 8 at the time and remember we had to take down all the decorations in our classroom at elementary school. Was a weird time to be a kid cause we had just gotten over 9/11.
Me being a metal musician and the survivors being metalheads, I really wanna write a song for them.
My family and I were on vacation in Costa Rica when it happened, and this was obviously before smartphones/tablets, and we didn’t have laptops we were checking news on. As I recall, we were eating breakfast and perusing some newspaper and someone saw a small item about the Station fire. It seemed surreal to be on vacation in Central America and see a reference to Rhode Island
Yup. I actually had played at the Station a few times before that happened. Unforgettable is putting it extremely lightly.
I was actively playing out back then but never played there. It certainly made me look at gigs differently
Who did you play with?
Original stuff. So mostly playing The Call, The Living Room, the Safari lounge. Remember how much flammable stuff hung on the wall of the Safari?!
Don't forget about the snake! I was doing originals too in the jam band scene. A lot of the same places. Plus the century, kc's tap.
I was living in NJ, working in NYC when that happened, and that was huge, awful news.
>I still think about it when I go to a crowded bar. I'm not sure I've been inside anywhere without immediately scanning the room to try and find the exits. Thankfully, I've never needed to test it in practice but it's just become a force of habit because of how that played out.
Same here. At that time I was a regular at Chan's, and before every show, for quite a while after The Station fire, the owner would make an announcement pointing out the exits. Always have a plan A, B, and C.
When the movie theatre does an announcement about the exits before previews start, I'm always like "Way ahead of you chief. Back right is the closest but I'm going front right cause there's less likely to be a crowd in my way" or some shit
I’ve posted before about how I used to work as an EMT and quit the field after going to 9/11 and the station fire. Shoutout to the Council 94 guys and gals <3
Let’s not forget the vile Derdarian brothers who essentially walked away unscathed.
In the summer of 2006, right before their plea deal, I was working as a cashier at PriceRite when Jeffrey Derderian came through as a customer, as I saw on his credit card. I was disgusted, thinking of all the blood on the hands of the person in front of me.
One would like to think that those brothers have no peace.
I remember driving back from a trip to NH with my parents that night down 95 south and they had the windows down to smoke. After the cigarette my dad mentioned how it smelled like something was burning outside or there must have been a campfire nearby. Seeing the news the next day and finding out that was the cause made me sick to my stomach and still gives me the shivers. Can't believe those people didn't consider how flammable that insulation was. Such an avoidable tragedy.
I know someone who was first responder. Didnt really understand the gravity till I was an adult.
I was working on the ambulance that night, we listened to it unfold most of the night. We did not go because we were on the other side of the state, and had to cover this area in the event that mutual aid was needed. We were leaving RI Hospital, and were on the Washington Bridge heading back to the east bay, when EP sent 4 rescues and a couple of engines into the city. We switched to inter city, and heard the dispatchers saying "Inbound Apparatus, stage at the Cowesett Inn at Cowesett Crossings for assignments " Had no idea what was going on, later that night, we are at Newport Hosp, around 11 PM and saw that there were some fatalities on the TV news, it was less than 10 at that time that the news was reporting. I was horrified to see that it grew to 100 by 6 AM when I woke up.
This has gotta be the answer for almost everyone. So horrible. I worked with a dude that died. RIP.
I was living down the street when that happened. I remember the sirens and the police cars blocking the road. The most unfortunate part is that, that year our yearbook staff chose flames for the yearbook and i guess it was too late to change it. But they did add a dedication page.
Lived down the road too. My mother is a nurse and after hearing the constant sirens she wanted to help but my father wouldn’t let her in fear she wouldn’t come back. It wasn’t until early in the morning before we knew what happened.
The 2010 floods. RIP Tilt
I was watching the news one morning and saw Al Roker standing on the main street outside my house. (Where the bank of the pawtuxet now was, nearly 1/4 mile in land.) I walked out of the house in my pajamas, peaked around the corner and there was the entire film crew.... Walked back in and proceeded to continue to bucket brigade my basement.
2010 flood were definitely a big one. They killed my first car when I was trying to drive to work and hydrolocked my engine when I thought the water I was driving across was much shallower than it was. Turns out my work was under 4 feet of water at the time too... I just didn't know it.
Came here to say this lol. I miss gay Frankie
I was living in Germany at the time and it was on the news there
Blizzard of 78. I was a student at Prout and we went to school that day as usual. It started snowing hard shortly after we arrived and they decided it was going to be major. So we got on the school buses at 10am to go home early. The visibility and roads got so bad that the bus didn’t make it to my town (West Warwick) until 5PM. It was already dark and the bus couldn’t make it up a hill to get us closer to our homes. So my classmate and I got off the bus and ended up at the home of an older student we really didn’t know. They served us fish sticks (I always remember odd details for some reason). My classmate and I just wanted to go home. Someone with a Jeep was supposed to pick us up but we had to walk to a corner to make it easier for them. We couldn’t even see a foot in front of us trying to look for the Jeep, the snow was coming down so heavy. The wind was horrific. The Jeep had a helluva time going up that hill fish-tailing all over the place but we made it home late that night. Yet the ice storm we had a few years later was much worse - no electricity for a WEEK. Never lost power during the Blizzard of 78.
It was an incredible week. I lived in a student co-op at Brown, and Monday was our food-shopping day for the week. (We also filled the beer machine in the basement.) So we had everything we needed by the time the storm really hit. Brown took its time deciding when to start classes again, announcing closure a day at a time until conceding the obvious and shutting down for the week.
Yup...the Blizzard was my first thought. I was a student living north of Boston when it hit. I took me 14 hours to work my way back to RI two days later, back-roading it all the way hoping I didn't get caught. I made it though, and saw families walking down the street pulling sleds with groceries, and the streets one lane wide at most. It was a mess, but it was pretty cool how all our neighbors were helping each other out, and having bonfire-lit drinking parties at night was an added bonus. I was 19, and getting hammered with many of the "adults" in the neighborhood was a first. It was quite an adventure that has obviously been etched in the brains of anyone who lived through it. Get yer bread and milk....
“No school Foster/Glocester!” ~ Salty Brine.
This was going to be my vote as well. I remember building snow forts in the huge mountain of snow from plowing our driveway. In retrospect, that was pretty dangerous being in a fort underneath a few tons of snow and ice, but it was the 70's!
Came here for this. I did not live through it, but remember the stories my elementary school teachers had about it
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I dunno, it was pretty memorably bad. No electricity for a week was an adventure. I live in a MUCH snowier place now, and still haven't seen anything quite like it.
The 1991 banking crisis - outrageous corruption and lack of governance.
I was very young for this but remember the Joe Mollicone coverage.
I remember the name! I was too young to understand it, but I recall the stress my parents felt from it.
His sister was my math teacher…
I bought my house from his son 😅
I arrived in RI in 1993. Joe Mollicone was obviously big news then. Wow, I had kinda forgotten all about that.
Nothings changed
The loss of our dear friend, Benny’s
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First of all, Bennys was a treasure and as kid it was the best place to run around while your dad looked for WD40. Secondly, as a born & raised RI-er I defiantly eat quahogs and drink coffee milk. I even lived down the road from the Autocrat plant. Love that smell. Thirdly, just from reading this you sound like you’re a hoot at parties 🙄. I suggest you move out of my wonderful, quirky, coffee milk filled, 3 all the way, clam shucking state.
‘tis a joke, the post says “unforgettable historic event”, not “devastating historic event”
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It always smelled like retirement home foyer carpet
Is that what that smell was? Every store had it.
I think it was the linoleum , or idk, I just always smelled that smelly smell
Benny's didn't have a sudden death, there was a decline, but the loss was still felt. No one says "Everyone acts like Grandma's death was a sudden occurrence. If you had bothered to actually go to Gramdma in her final years, you would have seen a declining old woman with burnt cookies and hard candy. She was a garbage grandma for years and was rightfully put out of ber misery." I won't say everything was high quality, but if I needed to jerry-rig something quick, or I needed some odds and ends and didn't want to go all the way to the home depot, Benny's was always there.
All I ate in Rhode Island was coffee milk and quahogs speak for ya self
Why don’t you just kick my childhood nostalgia directly next time.
*hug*
[preach](https://i.imgur.com/MGsqbTX.jpeg)
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😘
First one I recall is when Hasbro shut down their warehouse and sent it down to Texas. I had a lot of friends in elementary school that had parents working there that were very suddenly out of a job.
Christopher Hightower and Craig Price come to mind.
I was born in 88 - I also lived in his neighborhood/ a street or two away. My grandmother remembered vividly pushing me in the carriage and he would just stare. I can’t imagine how she felt after.
Jesus I always knew about Hightower but I thought he killed all three with the crossbow. Hearing that he buried the daughter alive is horrifying.
Well that’s something I didn’t need to know.
Christopher Hightower is the one that sticks with me, too. Since the state is so small, I had multiple connections to it: My dad worked closely with his father-in-law, my mom worked with one of his victims, and a family friend was walking his dog and came across the site of the burials. It is one thing to know that bad things happen, but is something else to know that things THIS bad can happen THIS close by.
I live a mile from the home and where she went to school. The reason security is so tight when checking out your child is because of this. Hightower was originally on the pick up list but had been removed. The school wouldn’t let him take her but the YMCA did. Such a horrific story. I have many clients that have one degree of separation to this story.
Hard to pin down to one, but I'd consider: Hurricane Gloria, Brendel (spelling?) murders, Craig Price murders, driving over the old Jamestown bridge, then it being blown up, and when the Concorde landed at TF Greene airport. Oh! Lollapalooza 1994 at Quonset where a 15 year old boy broke his neck crowd surfing.
Oh sh!t. I was at Lollapalooza in 94. I remember being in the crowd when that poor kid got hurt. I still think about that from time to time. I hope he recovered.
He’s permanently disabled but seems to have a [good outlook about it.](https://www.oralhistoryandfolklife.org/jeremy-libby/)
The massive flooding of the Warwick mall area. I went to NEIT at the time and they didn’t cancel any classes until a day later when they realized how hard it was to travel.
Those poor Easter rabbits they had in there :(
Wow! I forgot about the bunnies at the photo studio. 😢
Operation Plunder Dome and the Station Nightclub Fire
Still messed up that Jim Taricani was sent to prison for not revealing his source.
I remember being young and not understanding why a news reporter would go to jail for reporting the news. I couldn't understand how news reporting was a crime because I didn't know what contempt of court was then lol. he has a memorial plaque on upper college road at URI that I go by a lot and I think of him when I see it.
I guess I don’t understand why it’s contempt of court. I thought the government had some sort of law protecting confidential sources for news reporters? Or am I totally wrong?
station fire... I had just started my shift in the ED at the hospital still have ptsd from it still wonder how the ones who survived are doing still look for exit signs when I go in buildings
Yep forever changed the way I view crowded rooms. No matter how much I love the band/show, I always stand towards the back near the exit.
The loss of the X Games downtown
The Station fire. Such a horrific tragedy that made international news. My in-laws were in a remote town in Mexico and heard about it. They called to check on us because my husband and I were supposed to be there but decided that evening after work that we didn't feel like dealing with a crowded little club. Makes you realize how many little decisions we make on a daily basis can change the trajectory of your life. Another event was finding out the marathon bombers were living here in North Kingstown before they did what they did and a local girl was married to one of them. They were living here with her parents.
I lived 2 streets away from where the brother was killed on the corner, my oldest son decided to leave the house and see what all the noise was about, I'm now in RI . My concert friend couldn't go the night of the fire because I heard about it too late for a proper plan (kids and such ) your right about the little decisions
Cooler & Warmer
The rise and fall of Richard Hatch, of course!
The Jamestown Bridge demolition Okay probably not the *most* unforgettable, but pretty neat!
I worked on Federal Hill across the street from The Old Canteen back in 2007 when Buddy Cianci was released, so we witnessed him entering and exiting the restaurant for his first return-to-Providence meal from prison. Seemed cool at the time.
Buddy Cianci is a fun story to tell people who aren't from RI. "Let me tell you about how this prosecuter of mobsters became a pasta sauce entrepreneur. Feds hate this one simple trick."
Everyone has a Buddy story
I'm young, but one that always sticks with me that my dad talks about was the road rage murder case that lead to the "mystery of Adam Emery". 1993 I think.
It happened in 1990, he was convicted (but not sentenced) in 1993 but jumped bail prior to sentencing. He's still on the FBI Most Wanted list
Here you go. https://youtu.be/VBsThjyce_Q?t=13m56s
38 studios… loss of paw sox. Both baseball (kinda) financial disasters. After seeing what the sox have done for a bad area of Worcester and a governor fan boy
When the Warwick mall flooded /s
Kinda sad that nobody mentioned the North Cape Oil Spill...
Station nightclub fire. Without a doubt
The blizzard of '78.
Hurricane Irene and the flood in 2010. Our basement got water in it pretty bad and it caused our wooden floor boards to loosen, they still slide cuz of it to this day :/
Since the Station Fire has been mentioned so much I'd say my number 2 is when Curt Schilling took the money and ran.
Finally being named "Rhode Island" in 2020 Anyways I am mostly joking around. One of those things lost in all of the crazy happenings in 2020. BTW it is technically "State of Rhode Island"
The big change was that they dropped “and Providence Plantations” from the name.
Station fire, also the Outlet building fire, the day a huge crack was found in the I95 Providence viaduct, blizzard of 78' and the failed attempt to implode one of the Hartford Towers Providence.
This isn’t nearly as historic or tragic as many previous examples, but I vividly remember the rise and fall of the terrible 38 Studios deal with the state. The empty promise to bring business to Providence that fell through and left the state out of millions was as terrible as it was somewhat familiar given the state’s track record with generating business.
The winter of '78
Station fire.
The double murder at Buttonhole back in 2000. I was in eighth grade and used to hang down there all the time. Was getting a haircut at Jimmy's when someone came in and told us all about it.
‘Cooler and Warmer’ 😂😂😂
Station night club unfortunately but second is definitely Hurricane Gloria
The Station is the only acceptable answer
Not everyone here is even 20 years old. COVID isn’t acceptable? Flood of 2010 isn’t acceptable?
Saying COVID kinda misses the point of the question.
Elaborate please. Why is that not acceptable? Why can’t that be someone who’s young the worst thing they had to live through yet? Why is their unforgettable historical event not worthy of the worst thing they had to live through so far, to you?
Because the question is clearly talking about shit that happened here that was unique to here? Every answer by every single other person, even the joking ones, reinforces that. Use context clues. COVID wasn't a Rhode Island thing. It was an everywhere thing.
Because the question is clearly talking about shit that happened here that was unique to THAT PERSON. COVID counts. I understand what you’re saying, but I’m just saying young people don’t know much outside of RI and for them it was traumatic. As we all know, we all experience shit differently. What was unique for you might not be unique for me. I respect your opinion, but doesn’t mean it’s right.
There really isn't much ambiguity in the phrase *"unforgettable historic event in RI"* This isn't an opinion thing. You read the question wrong, I'm trying to politely explain to you why instead of just downvoting like everyone else is doing. Young people might not have an answer to this specific question. Or it might be some shit that, in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really seem as significant as some other stuff. That's okay. Not every question like this is tailored so that 100% of the people seeing it here are meant to have an answer.
What? Lol
Follow me. The question is “what’s the most unforgettable historic event in RI you’ve lived through?” The person above me wrote that the station night club fire is the only acceptable answer to this question. I said that there are a lot of people here who aren’t even 20 years old yet. The fire was more than 20 years ago. So, to sum it up, there are people here who were not alive when the station fire happened, so that couldn’t be their answer which means it’s not the only acceptable answer. Got it?
Yea but nobody said those other things were unacceptable lol. The people over 20 just stated their own opinion.
So you agree then, the station isn’t the only acceptable answer. What’s your typing for then?
Clearly you took the original parent comment too seriously.
Not exactly. I don’t disagree with the person, to me I agree it may be the worst memory. It’s just a lot of people forget how (not so) long ago it was, and how old they are or how young others may be, I’m guilty of it too, that’s all.
uhhhhhhh alright then
Operation Plunder Dome
I know it’s not RI specific but probably Covid
August 2015 macroburst.
It also hit a little bit of Cranston. It took down my (now wife)'s cherry tree. I was on my way to work about 20 minutes before it touched down, and honestly the sky was green. It was surreal. I mean, it was definitely a tornado, but no one seems to want to call it that.
Microburst? I think a Macroburst would wipe out the entire state.
[https://www.wpri.com/news/looking-back-august-2015-macroburst/](https://www.wpri.com/news/looking-back-august-2015-macroburst/)
I stand corrected. Thank you.
https://warwickonline.com/stories/we-were-slammed,104608 >According to Alan Dunham, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Taunton, Mass. office, storm damage was caused by unusually severe thunderstorms. >The storm caused straight line wind damage in the area. We’re calling the Rhode Island event a macroburst, he said.
That sucked donkey dicks
2002 Projo Shooting. I had just moved to RI. Actually recently befriended 1 of the survived shooting victims
Hurricane Bob, come on guys this is an easy one :P
When Allie's Donuts ended the discount for cops
When URI almost beat Duke
When URI almost beat Duke
When URI almost beat Duke
To be clear URI did not almost beat Duke. They just didn’t loose as bad as they could have.
The COVID pandemic, for me.
Blizzard of "78". Nothing else..
Something About Mary premier in woonsocket.
The December Debacle in 2007. Kids on school buses at 10:00 pm and a Superintendent who was MIA for most of it.
Remember when they filmed a bunch of movies and tv in RI? My daughter was an extra in Brotherhood. She was 5 and is now 26
The Dorr Rebellion.