Bob (this one) wrote:
> jmcquown wrote:
>
>> Julia Altshuler wrote:
>>
>>> jmcquown wrote:
>>>
>>>> Okay, Bob - gotta test your knowledge. Do you remember where that
>>>> phrase "Oh, the humanity" originated? And please don't tell me it
>>>> was on an episode of WKRP in Cinncinnati!
>>>
>>> Alex, for 400 points, what is Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener?"
>>>
>>> --Lia
>>
>> BZZZZT! No, sorry, wrong answer! The phrase actually came from the
>> reporter standing outside what was my house (gawd!) at Lakehurst
>> Naval Air Station, NJ.
>
> I actually knew that, growing up in NJ as I did. I visited Lakehurst
> on a class trip in high school. We saw the old newsreel footage before
> we went on the trip. It was chilling to stand there on the ground
> where it happened.

Think about what it was like to LIVE in that place! It was a very weird
feeling. Every time I saw the newsreels I was like, "They are standing in
my front yard!" The place was converted to base housing in the 1950's with
a kitchen added onto the back. The large waiting area was our living room
with the dining area added. I recall having my 6th birthday party there; my
folks gave me a green and yellow parakeet

Mom was the consummate officer's wife; she hosted lovely cocktail parties
and I remember peeking in on them when I was a kid. Everyone all dressed
up, martini glasses in hand.

My bedroom was one of the small "offices" off the long hallway along the
front and my two brothers shared a bedroom on the sunporch at the left end.
There was a garage out back where dad had a funny car - a Metropolitan, old
black & whitething; it was funny. From there the yard sloped down to a golf
course. Across the way, of course, the airfields. My oldest brother tells
me he and his friends used to find scraps of metal and pieces of things they
thought were from the Hindenburg crash. Talk about creepy.

Jill

> In Bartleby, I believe it's "Ah humanity," IIRC.
>
> Pastorio
>
>> Herb Morrison reporting. You can hear him he
>>
>> http://www.otr.com/hindenburg.html
>>
>> Our house was the former waiting station for the arriving passengers
>> of the Hindenburg dirigible coming in from Germany on May 7, 1937.
>> She burned and fell at the airfield just across the way. I've got
>> some military paperwork from that day you wouldn't believe.
>>
>> They used this phrase when television character Les Nessman reported
>> as staff from 'WKRP in Cinncinnati' tossed live turkeys out of
>> helicopters over a supermarket, not realizing turkeys are flightless
>> birds. "Oh, the humanity!"