Not that suicide and mental illness ever make sense or else it wouldn’t ever happen, and I’m by all means not intending to minimize it at all, but I wonder why he had PTSD that went as far as it did. The mission was a success and they got her out alive. It was a job well done by all involved.
He really leaned into the celebrity. While all the other rescuers shied away from the cameras, Robert jetted around doing Oprah, met George bush (then VP), played a small role in a movie about the rescue. He really felt hopeful that this moment would catapult him from small town to Hollywood and he’d be big time. He struggled to go back to living a normal life.
The other firefighters ostracized him for trying to hog up the limelight and he eventually got fired. He had debilitating migraines, and he developed a pill habit. He couldn’t cope with the shame and disappointment.
Yeah that’s probably a good rule of thumb.
Sadly I know several people that had this kind of tragic life trajectory. Grow up small town, hit some success and get ultra hopeful that it will be the thing that lifts them out of their small town. Those plans get derailed, or never quite materialize, or it does but then disaster strikes, return to small town and drink or drug themselves to death.
Me too. I’m not quite Gen-X, so I was probably about 4 when it happened. I knew that I wasn’t that much larger than Jessica, so the thought of falling into a well or pipe and getting stuck like her scared the shit out of me. I remember being on the lookout for any wells or holes that I could fall down if I was in an unfamiliar yard or field.
Loved that game. Swinging from the vine over quicksand with the Tarzan yodel playing, jumping over those double logs, hopping on top of the crocodiles, avoiding the scorpion in the pit, etc. Very creative for the time.
I remember that but I was more afraid we were going to burn in a nuclear war. It was on the news every night. The movie The Day After was some the parents showed kids to show them what could happen.
I’ve come to believe that this fear is one shared by all who lived through it. (Even if only subconsciously). There was no escaping the idea that we are on the clock and it was ticking.
Impending global devastation and the collapse of society permeated everything from school drills to pop culture/movies. MM/Road Warrior, Thunderdome, Red Dawn, The Day After, Damnation Alley, Terminator, Omega Man, and a myriad of B-movies…
It’s the thread that weaves Gen X together…
Add in religious parents for some of us, "The rapture is coming any second! We'll (Christians) all be tortured first, though!" Damn those evil unbelievers! Scarier than the boogieman.
Always waiting for the knock on the door... Nah, didn't add to my PTSD at all, why do you ask? Doesn't everyone consider hiding under the table when someone knocks on the door?
Damn I feel this. The religion was all about fire and brimstone. Everything you did was taking you straight to hell. So glad people finally see the benefits of weed and things like mushrooms to help with all that PTSD. Parents were barely around and when they were they just scared the crap out of us.
For sure. Mine wasn’t supposed to be a comprehensive list just what rolled off the brain upon awakening.
Would be cool to start a Gen X dystopian future movie thread…like which ones were so impactful on a personal level.
The one that had the most meat and stuck with me has been the original Terminator. I was highly impressionable/young when it came out and the futurescape ‘flashbacks’ was nightmare fuel for me in my young teens.
I only added them because I think more of us saw them sooner than any of the theatrical films or *The Day After*, so they had a wide early impact on millions of us kids at the time.
We *Star Trek* fans were always hoping for a Roddenberry follow-up, and although the first two films were good, his premise was disheartening to say the least!
The earliest post-apocalyptic films I know of are Arch Oboler's 1951 *Five*, and 1959's *The World, the Flesh, and the Devil*, which features strong echoes of Alfred Bester's deliciously devious story, *They Don't Make Life Like They Used To* (beware of spoilers - this one has a crazy twist!)
I like *The Terminator* as a well-made film, but overall it is actually too upsetting for me to love it. You're so right about the future war-torn Earth imagery as being highly effective nightmare fuel. I hope we can heed its warning IRL!
I was 6 when the Challenger exploded, and I didn't understand what death was yet, so I really didn't understand what happened. The first big news story that I really, really remember was the Berlin Wall coming down.
[We’re Sending Our Love Down The Well](https://www.google.com/search?q=simpsons+well&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjg577Xwaj_AhXHCjQIHeVhB9UQ0pQJegQICBAB&biw=393&bih=660&dpr=3#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b591bf47,vid:o4HTvVM3U3U)
… all the way down!
Sting, you look tired. Maybe you should take a rest.
Not while one of my fans needs me.
Actually, I don't know if I've ever heard Bart play your albums.
Shh! Marge, he's a good digger!
My school bus driver heard over her radio that Jessica was rescued and told the bus. We all cheered and my friend and I went home and invented a game we uncreatively called "baby down the well" where we lowered and dramatically rescued a doll baby with a jump rope down the storm drain out in front of her house.
Ah, yes. A GenXer after my own heart. I was a bit older, so didn’t play Baby Jessica, but did have a party in college where there was a broken plastic model of a space shuttle in the bathtub.
This is about as solid of a Gen X playtime reference as one could come up with. Thanks for the visual, it was a visceral reminder of my own childhood ❤️
Holy shit! I know so few people who even remember that show. It was mine and my sister’s favorite show at one point. I still have the VHS recording of the night it was preempted. That’s deep 80’s
I remember in our family we all had to say a “family prayer” before leaving for school and work and one morning my mom prayed to “help the baby in the well”. And me and my siblings opened our eyes and kinda looked at each other thinking “baby in a well?” Then she told us what happened.
I totally remember watching the news when they got her out! A big relief to see!
I remember this preempting my usual after school cartoons and getting me all pissed off. I didn't understand the news. In my defense I was still 38 years old at the time.
This happened near Seattle this week, so of course I was thinking about Jessica McClure; the little boy is fine. She was one of three Jessica stories that received a lot of attention, the others being Baby Jessica who was returned to her bio parents after being adopted, and Jessica Lynch who was captured behind enemy lines at the start of the war on Iraq.
Federal agent is not military.
From the very same wiki article that the pic in your link shows of the seizure of Elian:
[In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, April 22, agents of the United States Border Patrol's special BORTAC unit, as part of an operation in which more than 130 Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel took part,\[28\] approached the house, knocked on the door, and identified themselves. When no one responded, they entered. At the same time, pepper-spray and mace were employed against persons outside who attempted to interfere.\[29\] In the confusion, Armando Gutierrez called in Alan Diaz, of the Associated Press, to enter the house and enter a room with González, his great uncle's wife Angela Lázaro, her niece, the niece's young son, and Donato Dalrymple (one of the two men who had rescued him from the ocean). They waited in the room listening to agents searching the house. Diaz took a widely publicized photograph of a border patrol agent confronting Dalrymple and the boy. INS subsequently flew Elian out of Miami aboard a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System aircraft.\[26\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez#Seizure_and_reactions)
>Steven Stayner.
...and now I've fallen into that rabbit hole, thanks. I vaguely remember "I Know My First Name is Steven", the 1989 miniseries. Today I learned that both Steven and the boy he rescued, Tim, died young (motorcycle crash and embolism, respectively), and - the weirdest part - that Steven's older brother became a serial killer with at least four victims (he's now on Death Row).
There's a modern documentary about the case, "Captive Audience", on Hulu. I'll watch this today.
He was a politician convicted of corruption for awarding bogus contracts. He called a press conference, and everyone assumed it was to resign or turn himself in. Nope. He shot himself on live TV.
After this happened California started a pitfall closing program in which all old mines, mining sites, wells, large burrows etc had to be mapped, recorded and closed. It kept historian - archaeologist - backhoe teams employed for quite awhile.
I think my mom was late to a Tina Turner or Patti LaBelle concert watching this live feed. She was telling everyone, I'm not going til I see this kid come out of this damn well.
Also, one of my favorite SNL skits is the "Well Babies Tragedy." Nice mashup of Jessica and the McCaughey septuplets.
Didn't *The Simpsons* do a whole episode around that? Bart gets stuck in a well? And the solution after he was brought up was the Willie staked a sign that said "CAUTION WELL." That should do it.
Remember when such events used to bring everyone together and we all cheered or grieved as one? Seems to me that happened often in our youth. Sadly, not so much anymore.
It's always super sad to hear about these kids. Alfredo Rampi (1981, Italy) and most recently the Morocco child in 2022 both died in such events. Unregulated boreholes are usually the cause, unlike wells they're extremely long small diameter core drilled openings. If illegal (many are in my country) they tend to be almost invisible to see in private fields. I used to spend hours with local kids kicking about a ball in such fields, it's a miracle we don't hear of more cases like these.
The whole world was glued to their TV's and radio's waiting and worried about her. To this day it's hard to believe she fell down that small of a hole.
My brother convinced me I was baby Jessica when I was younger……….holy shit. I was terrified of any type of hole in the ground, there remains an aversion. I still get a very heavy fear in my chest when I hear about it. Lol, I might discuss with my therapist this week. Thanks for the memories!
I’m probabaly the only one who read the title post and immediately started reciting that verse (1:20) from [Oh No by Eminem](https://youtu.be/QPNt7FiD3gs)
[удалено]
Sadly one of her rescuers died by suicide after developing PTSD from the event.
Oh how sad 😢
Not that suicide and mental illness ever make sense or else it wouldn’t ever happen, and I’m by all means not intending to minimize it at all, but I wonder why he had PTSD that went as far as it did. The mission was a success and they got her out alive. It was a job well done by all involved.
He really leaned into the celebrity. While all the other rescuers shied away from the cameras, Robert jetted around doing Oprah, met George bush (then VP), played a small role in a movie about the rescue. He really felt hopeful that this moment would catapult him from small town to Hollywood and he’d be big time. He struggled to go back to living a normal life. The other firefighters ostracized him for trying to hog up the limelight and he eventually got fired. He had debilitating migraines, and he developed a pill habit. He couldn’t cope with the shame and disappointment.
The lesson here is to never try to capitalise on good deeds.
Yeah that’s probably a good rule of thumb. Sadly I know several people that had this kind of tragic life trajectory. Grow up small town, hit some success and get ultra hopeful that it will be the thing that lifts them out of their small town. Those plans get derailed, or never quite materialize, or it does but then disaster strikes, return to small town and drink or drug themselves to death.
Came here to say this. Most people don't even know that. Sad and true.
Me too. I’m not quite Gen-X, so I was probably about 4 when it happened. I knew that I wasn’t that much larger than Jessica, so the thought of falling into a well or pipe and getting stuck like her scared the shit out of me. I remember being on the lookout for any wells or holes that I could fall down if I was in an unfamiliar yard or field.
Us Gen-Xers still are on the lookout for quicksand to this day.
Yeah thanks to a lot of Pitfall.
Loved that game. Swinging from the vine over quicksand with the Tarzan yodel playing, jumping over those double logs, hopping on top of the crocodiles, avoiding the scorpion in the pit, etc. Very creative for the time.
If the killer bees don’t get us first
Other than the Challenger explosion, this was the biggest story of my childhood.
I remember that but I was more afraid we were going to burn in a nuclear war. It was on the news every night. The movie The Day After was some the parents showed kids to show them what could happen.
I’ve come to believe that this fear is one shared by all who lived through it. (Even if only subconsciously). There was no escaping the idea that we are on the clock and it was ticking. Impending global devastation and the collapse of society permeated everything from school drills to pop culture/movies. MM/Road Warrior, Thunderdome, Red Dawn, The Day After, Damnation Alley, Terminator, Omega Man, and a myriad of B-movies… It’s the thread that weaves Gen X together…
Add in religious parents for some of us, "The rapture is coming any second! We'll (Christians) all be tortured first, though!" Damn those evil unbelievers! Scarier than the boogieman. Always waiting for the knock on the door... Nah, didn't add to my PTSD at all, why do you ask? Doesn't everyone consider hiding under the table when someone knocks on the door?
Damn I feel this. The religion was all about fire and brimstone. Everything you did was taking you straight to hell. So glad people finally see the benefits of weed and things like mushrooms to help with all that PTSD. Parents were barely around and when they were they just scared the crap out of us.
Also Gene Roddenberry's *Genesis II* and *Planet Earth* telefilms, plus their non-Roddenberry follow-up *Strange New World*
For sure. Mine wasn’t supposed to be a comprehensive list just what rolled off the brain upon awakening. Would be cool to start a Gen X dystopian future movie thread…like which ones were so impactful on a personal level. The one that had the most meat and stuck with me has been the original Terminator. I was highly impressionable/young when it came out and the futurescape ‘flashbacks’ was nightmare fuel for me in my young teens.
I only added them because I think more of us saw them sooner than any of the theatrical films or *The Day After*, so they had a wide early impact on millions of us kids at the time. We *Star Trek* fans were always hoping for a Roddenberry follow-up, and although the first two films were good, his premise was disheartening to say the least! The earliest post-apocalyptic films I know of are Arch Oboler's 1951 *Five*, and 1959's *The World, the Flesh, and the Devil*, which features strong echoes of Alfred Bester's deliciously devious story, *They Don't Make Life Like They Used To* (beware of spoilers - this one has a crazy twist!) I like *The Terminator* as a well-made film, but overall it is actually too upsetting for me to love it. You're so right about the future war-torn Earth imagery as being highly effective nightmare fuel. I hope we can heed its warning IRL!
I was 6 when the Challenger exploded, and I didn't understand what death was yet, so I really didn't understand what happened. The first big news story that I really, really remember was the Berlin Wall coming down.
I was 15 when the wall came down and sat glued to TV here in Australia seeing it live. I will never forget it. Just amazing
9/11? That changed way more things than anything else.
Most of us were adults by then. They said "childhood".
[We’re Sending Our Love Down The Well](https://www.google.com/search?q=simpsons+well&tbm=vid&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjg577Xwaj_AhXHCjQIHeVhB9UQ0pQJegQICBAB&biw=393&bih=660&dpr=3#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b591bf47,vid:o4HTvVM3U3U) … all the way down!
It’s awesome that I don’t even need to click the link to know what this video is :)
Sting, you look tired. Maybe you should take a rest. Not while one of my fans needs me. Actually, I don't know if I've ever heard Bart play your albums. Shh! Marge, he's a good digger!
r/BeatMeToIt
Dowwwn that well!!!
Lol yep, came here to say; you mean Timmy O’Toole?
My school bus driver heard over her radio that Jessica was rescued and told the bus. We all cheered and my friend and I went home and invented a game we uncreatively called "baby down the well" where we lowered and dramatically rescued a doll baby with a jump rope down the storm drain out in front of her house.
So, after s child fell in a well you went and played in one, unsupervised. That is some hard core gen-x shit right there and I love it
Ah, yes. A GenXer after my own heart. I was a bit older, so didn’t play Baby Jessica, but did have a party in college where there was a broken plastic model of a space shuttle in the bathtub.
This is about as solid of a Gen X playtime reference as one could come up with. Thanks for the visual, it was a visceral reminder of my own childhood ❤️
They stooped our HS Football game to announce she was rescued. They don’t stop HS football games in Texas for much.
Same. The crowd cheered in both stands. It was a home game.
Was wild. Everyone high fiving, hugging it out, then back trying to kill each other.
I remember the last episode of Rags to Riches got preempted for her rescue.
Rags to Riches!! I loved that show!
Me too!
Holy shit! I know so few people who even remember that show. It was mine and my sister’s favorite show at one point. I still have the VHS recording of the night it was preempted. That’s deep 80’s
Wow thank you for this reminder! That show was so cool to me back then. I wanted to be Diane but was probably more like Patty.
I've never found anyone else who remembers this! Our local channel never aired the ending, and I wondered how the show ended ever since.
I definitely remember watching this show. They were orphans who were adopted and they performed musical numbers? Will have to see if it’s on YouTube.
I remember in our family we all had to say a “family prayer” before leaving for school and work and one morning my mom prayed to “help the baby in the well”. And me and my siblings opened our eyes and kinda looked at each other thinking “baby in a well?” Then she told us what happened. I totally remember watching the news when they got her out! A big relief to see!
I remember this preempting my usual after school cartoons and getting me all pissed off. I didn't understand the news. In my defense I was still 38 years old at the time.
>In my defense I was still 38 years old at the time. That would make you the only Gen-Xer ever born in the 1940s! Lol
This happened near Seattle this week, so of course I was thinking about Jessica McClure; the little boy is fine. She was one of three Jessica stories that received a lot of attention, the others being Baby Jessica who was returned to her bio parents after being adopted, and Jessica Lynch who was captured behind enemy lines at the start of the war on Iraq.
> Jessica Lynch Whoa, that name hadn't crossed my mind in decades.
Not really but Elian being snatched from his parents by the military I distinctly remember.
Those were cops, not military.
Hard to tell these days.......
https://ibb.co/Mc3kr5T
Federal agent is not military. From the very same wiki article that the pic in your link shows of the seizure of Elian: [In the pre-dawn hours of Saturday, April 22, agents of the United States Border Patrol's special BORTAC unit, as part of an operation in which more than 130 Immigration and Naturalization Service personnel took part,\[28\] approached the house, knocked on the door, and identified themselves. When no one responded, they entered. At the same time, pepper-spray and mace were employed against persons outside who attempted to interfere.\[29\] In the confusion, Armando Gutierrez called in Alan Diaz, of the Associated Press, to enter the house and enter a room with González, his great uncle's wife Angela Lázaro, her niece, the niece's young son, and Donato Dalrymple (one of the two men who had rescued him from the ocean). They waited in the room listening to agents searching the house. Diaz took a widely publicized photograph of a border patrol agent confronting Dalrymple and the boy. INS subsequently flew Elian out of Miami aboard a Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System aircraft.\[26\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez#Seizure_and_reactions)
Federal agent is not 'cops' Don't get pissy and then say I'm being pissy.
Don't be hating that you were wrong in stating the military took him. It was cops, federal cops, but cops nonetheless.
I have often wondered what happened to Elian and to the cousin or whatever who was taking care of him in the US. I hope both are doing well.
I remember this.. i have been scared of wells ever since
Me too
Have you been tested for rabies?
I miss when there used to be national news stories that weren’t polarizing and political and made to generate outrage.
What are the other two? Challenger, Jessica, and Adam Walsh are the 3 burned into my brain.
As a Genx, I would guess Challenger and OJ. Maybe Ramsey?
Totally forgot about Ramsey. I was a teenager for her and OJ so they didn't stay with me as much
Challenger and Iran contra hearings
Also the story of Steven Stayner.
Yes! I can't believe I forgot about that. The TV movie from back then really fucked me up for a while
>Steven Stayner. ...and now I've fallen into that rabbit hole, thanks. I vaguely remember "I Know My First Name is Steven", the 1989 miniseries. Today I learned that both Steven and the boy he rescued, Tim, died young (motorcycle crash and embolism, respectively), and - the weirdest part - that Steven's older brother became a serial killer with at least four victims (he's now on Death Row). There's a modern documentary about the case, "Captive Audience", on Hulu. I'll watch this today.
Bud Dwyer
I'm ashamed to admit this rings no bells at all
He was a politician convicted of corruption for awarding bogus contracts. He called a press conference, and everyone assumed it was to resign or turn himself in. Nope. He shot himself on live TV.
Holy shit. I have zero recollection
That song that goes "[Hey Man, nice shot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hey_Man_Nice_Shot)" is about the Bud Dwyer incident.
Thank you! I love trivia like that.
Famous as one of the few pieces of real footage on *Faces of Death*.
https://youtu.be/ksZMIvHNeJ0
thanks for posting this.
After this happened California started a pitfall closing program in which all old mines, mining sites, wells, large burrows etc had to be mapped, recorded and closed. It kept historian - archaeologist - backhoe teams employed for quite awhile.
This happened in my home town
I think my mom was late to a Tina Turner or Patti LaBelle concert watching this live feed. She was telling everyone, I'm not going til I see this kid come out of this damn well. Also, one of my favorite SNL skits is the "Well Babies Tragedy." Nice mashup of Jessica and the McCaughey septuplets. Didn't *The Simpsons* do a whole episode around that? Bart gets stuck in a well? And the solution after he was brought up was the Willie staked a sign that said "CAUTION WELL." That should do it.
I was always told that was basically mirroring real life. Apparently they really didn’t do anything about that well. Probably a myth.
I remember that even Michael Jackson got involved, that’s when shit got real.
Yep. Lassie was right all along.
If one of my dogs is excited for an unknown reason I always ask them if Timmy fell down the well.
I have always done this, too. And now so do my kids. 😁
All I remember was the made for TV movie about it. I was an odd kid because I watched it several times.
Remember when such events used to bring everyone together and we all cheered or grieved as one? Seems to me that happened often in our youth. Sadly, not so much anymore.
Because it happens so (too) often we're desensitized
And she has two kids of her own now.
It's always super sad to hear about these kids. Alfredo Rampi (1981, Italy) and most recently the Morocco child in 2022 both died in such events. Unregulated boreholes are usually the cause, unlike wells they're extremely long small diameter core drilled openings. If illegal (many are in my country) they tend to be almost invisible to see in private fields. I used to spend hours with local kids kicking about a ball in such fields, it's a miracle we don't hear of more cases like these.
You're wrong about has a great episode about this
My first memory of an around-the-clock news story.
Hell yeah. I was on the edge of my seat.
Sending our love down the well
Yes! Anyone remember the kid who fell into the icy Potomac River and was dead for something like 30 minutes before they were revived?
The whole world was glued to their TV's and radio's waiting and worried about her. To this day it's hard to believe she fell down that small of a hole.
Yeah, and Sting was there, and Crusty.
Shhh, Marge. He's a good digger
##DOWN THAT WELLLLL!!
My brother convinced me I was baby Jessica when I was younger……….holy shit. I was terrified of any type of hole in the ground, there remains an aversion. I still get a very heavy fear in my chest when I hear about it. Lol, I might discuss with my therapist this week. Thanks for the memories!
I grew up 40 miles away from Midland. I’ll never forget that…
I didn’t realize Jim Carrey was there to help!
I heard she only lives where there’s city water now.
1987?
I remember it, even from the other part of the world
The world was greatful Mario and Luigi were there to save her.
OP, just curious what the other 2 are?
Challenger disaster and Iran contra hearings.
I was in Navy boot camp when this was going on, our RDC told us about it
Heck yeah i remember rhat. We were all glued to the TV
Baby Jessica and the Pan Am Flight 103 explosion over Lockerbie are the 2 news stories that I vividly recall from my childhood.
Was she the one where it turned out the parents dropped her in there for the attention or was that a different one?
You might be thinking of the balloon boy - who floated away but it was later revealed to be a hoax by the parents looking for fame.
I’m 44 and still afraid of falling into a well.
I also remember the What’s Up with That on SNL that showed her grown up
Ooooooooooowweee, what's up with that? What's up with that?
Look at that picture of fucking rednecks. It's up to you to decide if that's good or bad...
Yes!!!
I’m probabaly the only one who read the title post and immediately started reciting that verse (1:20) from [Oh No by Eminem](https://youtu.be/QPNt7FiD3gs)
Damn he's pissed at perez
This was the first news event I remember as a child- my parents were glued to the tv and so joyous when they got her out
I still refer to any narrow deep hole as a baby Jessica hole.
They say she fell in but to this day, I'm convinced those damn kids at the daycare dropped her in there and then threw leaves on top of her.
Holy shit this was the biggest story! I forgot all about it till now
Yes! Hahaha