Refelction on the death of O.J. Simpson on Wednesday, I remember exactly where I was the night O.J. Simpson captivated the entire nation with his slow-speed chase through Los Angeles.
On June 27, 1994, I was at Hooters.
It was a few weeks after I returned to Milwaukee for the summer after my sophomore year in college. I had just started working as an intern in the corporate communications department at Johnson Controls. My friend, Eron Laber, and I decided to drive to Chicago to watch game five of the NBA finals.
Being 20 and underage, and with just one fake ID between the two of us, we settled on Hooters as a possible place to sneak in. It was the first and last time, actually, I’ve been to a Hooters. They didn’t even card us.
Before the O.J. shenanigans, I remember mostly the tension in the air from the World Cup, which was being held in Chicago. On one side of the bar, drunken Germans chanted loudly, while confused Bolivian fans were raising a ruckus of their own on the other side. It felt weird that few people were interested in the NBA Game, which of course, was interrupted by O.J. and the slow white Bronco.
I remember sipping a Miller Lite and eating some fried food, watching the scene play out in a dreamlike state. Eron and I expected O.J. to shoot himself in the head on live TV, or a European soccer fight to break out. Neither happened.
I also remember the ride back. I was staying with my grandma that summer, and our freeway exit was Brown Deer Road. We ran out of gas on the off ramp, and coasted into the gas station on Brown Deer and Port Road. It seemed like a fitting end to a surreal night.
Where were you when O.J. took off?
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
