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August 6, 1974
School will start at the end of the month. I will begin seventh grade at North Clayton Jr. High. We are using Dad's flight passes to visit Aunt Ruth in San Bernardino CA. We arrived around 8 a.m. and went immediately to baggage claim and from there to the hotel shuttle. A bomb exploded at the Pan Am ticket counter as we were boarding the shuttle. It was a very quick trip to our hotel room. We watched footage live from our hotel room as it was being taken from the helicopters over the airport. It happened so fast that I didn't believe the airport covered on the news station was the same one we had just left. But it was.
I remember being told on the news that there were no injuries, but that is not accurate. There were two airport employees that were killed in the blast. We changed out of out travel clothes (suit and tie are required by non-revenue passengers) and into normal day clothes to take the NBC Studio Tour. Aunt Ruth had already taken the tour, and Dad wanted her to pick us up later in the day so that she could sleep late and avoid the heavy LA morning traffic.
Mom took this photo of us in front of the famous NBC sign. This is the same sign featured in an episode of Sanford and Son's The Masquerade, where Fred, Grady and Bubba appear on a game show with host Monty Hall.
I went to the microfiche to pull the newspaper archives, and discovered that this was the same day that Evel Knievel received his permit to jump the Snake River Canyon. Everyone who watched 1974 television remembers the event that was covered live by all 3 networks. They even made lunchboxes about that stunt.
The Evel Knievel comic books were made by the IDEAL toy company in Hollis, New York.
Two days after the explosion at the LA Airport, Richard Nixon went on the air to announce that he was resigning the next day due to Watergate. He left the White House on the afternoon of August 9.
I still own this BOMB SQUAD Hot Wheel car that I found at a thrift store several years ago.
What a clever joke in the world of Intellectual Property Law: Note that the item number on this mug is 80674, which is also the date of the bombing at the LA Airport. The other mug is "MRS.." or 'Misses,' and has the same item number of 80674.
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