Today's episode covers a tragic event that has surprisingly, largely passed from the public's memory. What other events would you like us to cover in a future episode? Let us know below!
I'm curious about 1)1922 Hinterkaifeck murders. 2)Standford prison experiments. 3)Jonestown massacre. 4)How/why did people started to consume parts of mummies to cure illnesses and the conseguences. 5)Ivan Pavlov's experiments on animals and humans.
She never ever spoke of it. I believe it haunted her. She hated loud noises, and the sound of children shrieking. We always thought she was cranky - until learning, in our adulthood, that she had survived this. Side note: rual schools where lax on attendance because the oil worker population was in constantly in flux. As a result, record keeping on student names was inconsistent. This is why the exact death toll was speculative. There is a museum, across from the current Rusk High school, that has an amazing historical record.
@@1836Texas wow, I’m so sorry that your grandmother had to go through that, was she one of the ones who endured that awfully directed grief by the devastated parents? I hate to think of the ptsd she had to deal with. I hope she got some peace out of the rest of her life
My mom, in 1937, was a 10 yo and this was her school. Her dad worked for the Sun Oil Co. She was on a bus on her way home when the explosion occurred (though she was supposed to have stayed at the school for a play rehearsal) She honored March 18 1937 for the rest of her life and she would be pleased that young people are still hearing the story almost a century later.
I have never heard of this before, but I am so glad she stayed alive. I cannot imagine what she went through that day, and the horrific levels of grief involved for the entire area.
Tragic all round for those that died and those that survived, it never fails to amaze me how cruel people can be, fancy blaming survivors, children, and threaten them....
@@noragibson5293 They who? Who are you wanting to take responsibility? The children who by luck survived when others didn’t? The superintendent who completed a routine switch from one utility provider to another and resulted losing his own child and other relations? With 100% hindsight things could have been prevented, but I didn’t hear one action that sounded criminally negligent (unlike other vids on this channel). Sometimes bad things happen through a culmination of otherwise innocent mistakes, oversights, or decisions. That is why natural gas is now scented. The drive for vengeance (instead of justice) is why those surviving kids were being threatened.
It’s so fascinating but terrifying thag that boy just knew in his gut that something was wrong and literally nearly escaped death. Can’t imagine how his mother must’ve felt..
She felt nothing. She ignored his intuition and sent him, anyway. Then, when he was busy saving his own life again by coming home early, she rushed out to beat him. I hope he survived that toxic environment and went on to live a happier life.
I wouldn't put too much into this premonition story. It's a matter of probability and statistics, not supernatural premonition.The world is chock full of kids who suffer from anxiety disorder and do not want to go to school every single day. The difference is millions of those kids just go to school and come home still anxious. It's not surprising that on the one occasion, something actually DID happen to one of those millions of kids. It would be more statistically surprising if nothing ever happened to any of them!
The truth is, people very often claim to have had such feelings after a disaster, even though they hadn't actually, or they exaggerate. There's a term for this, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. But basically, it's a very common thing, and doesn't mean anything.
It's lunacy that parents and relatives of children who were killed in the explosion actually made threats to kill the surviving children. That's the ugliest reaction to a catastrophic disaster that I have ever heard. How could they possibly hate the survivors so much. Humans can be so vindictive and vile.
They were angry, they needed someone to be angry witht, but it was the worst target. Those that survived would have dealt with horrible survivors guilt, grief, and trauma for the rest of their lives.
I'm from East Tx. and had never heard of this before,what a horrible tragedy. Hearing about the threats that the surviving children had to deal with from other families afterwards made me even more sad,the phrase "hurt people hurt people" comes to mind and seems very true in this case. Rest in peace to all those that lost their lives 🌹🕊
I had 2 aunts that were in that school, on that day. They both survived, thank goodness. There is now a monument, in front of the current school, in New London. It's terribly sad to see all the names of the souls lost that tragic day. So many of the last names are the same, meaning that, in some cases, all the children of some families were lost. There is also a small museum in that town too. They are not open all the time, so if anyone wants to go see it, check ahead, to make sure the museum is open. If you are in the area, you should at least drive by and see the monument.
I wonder if the gas leak was making the child who left feel weird without him knowing what was happening, and that's why he was so insistent on leaving.
The local hospital here in my town was scheduled for a grand opening a few days after this. They were requested to open early to take on survivors. They never had the grand opening They just got to work.
I am amazed by the fact that the entire explosion site was completely taken apart and organized into piles in less than 18 hours. What a horrific undertaking. The photo you included of it is epic.
oh my goodness, this is my school! When I was growing up, I lived twenty minutes away from New London, and I'd never even heard of it. It wasn't until I came to work there that I learned about the school disaster, and it was amazing to me that such a tragic event isn't more widely known. Thank you for covering this, particularly with such sensitivity.
There's a book that's written loosely about the school disaster (Out of Darkness- Ashley Hope Pérez) the story is fiction, but it's based on the times and the disaster - it was interesting & emotional, I'd recommend it.
I'm not trying to be snarky, but genuinely curious. There is a huge memorial in front of the school now. Did you never see it ? Just didn't pay attention as kids are wont to do ? Curious how it would be unknown.
@@mimib8032 I just never even visited the campus. It's a very tiny, rural school and it's not on a major highway either, so I never passed it going other places. It's one of those schools you kinda have to be intending to go there, otherwise there would be no reason to run across it. It was in my high school's district, but I wasn't into sports and never went to any away games.
@@mimib8032 The monument isn't super flashy anyway, and being an oblivious teenager I probably wouldn't have noticed or questioned it even if I had seen it. And read a historical marker!? Not if I wasn't getting a grade for it!
It would be so easy to blame and even hate the school board for the cost cuts, but I find myself stopping and imagining the hideous guilt and horror they must have felt when this happened. Even those who didn't lose any friends or relatives to this disaster had to live with the knowledge that this one decision was the mistake that ultimately lead to so much loss and sorrow. I can't hate them more than they must surely have hated themselves.
I live about 20 minutes from New London. We’ve heard the story my entire life. 😢 I hate that it happened to them, but the odorant being added was a positive outcome. I just wish it could’ve been initiated sooner.
I've heard this story several times. Even now I listened from beginning to end. It still breaks my heart to hear how many children were killed. When these children understood the reality of what just happened. I cannot imagine what the children were thinking. The children and adults in the school. Along with everybody that helped. Bless your hearts
ETX native here. The school is now called West Rusk. It’s about 10 minutes away from me, and there is an unsettling feeling when you drive past the campus.
What a horrible nightmare this must've been for everyone. Robert was one of the lucky ones, because he listened to his intuition. So sad that the parents who lost children would threaten the survivors. I wasn't familiar with this story. Thanks for doing such an excellent job retelling this tragedy.
Blaming survivors and threatening to kill them--especially children--is the height of grotesque ignorance and cruelty. You cannot explain that bullshite away with "Well, they were just grief stricken." There have been countless tragedies in the world, I never once heard of mass murder as a coping method. May those responsible for such reprehensible behavior writhe in shame.
my father is a fire marshal in texas, and honestly i think the reason we have so many rules about fire and natural gas safety stems from this event. apparently some other states are more lax than we are, but i can see why, as texas is still traumatized from this event almost a century after. my great grandmother lived within an hour of new london i believe and her parents were super cautious after that and she was super paranoid when she had my grandmother. she made sure to ask around about if there were natural gas pipelines that were similar to new london.
those poor children, and what unimaginable cruelty to expect them all to move on with their lives only two weeks later. To think theyd blame the survivors! Absolutely mad.
It is my understanding that after this tragedy happened several heads of state sent letters of sympathy to the school district including Adolf Hitler, and these letters are still in existence. A young reporter was among the people who ran to New London to cover the tragedy. He was told that if he was going to be there he was going to be put to work helping with rescue and recovery. His name was Walter Cronkite.
This is so heart breaking and I believe it should be used as a learning call on how to make school safer. Thank you for sharing this horrible history so that it is not forgotten
Excellent presentation of a terrible tragedy.. No matter how harrowing the content, Paul always relates these stories with great empathy 👍 How strange that Robert had a bad feeling and hadn't wanted to go to school that day..
This is what brought about adding the scent of sulfur or rotten eggs do that you can tell when there is a leak. It's also why the boy in the car had a bad headache. That is a give away collie to a gas leak.
Good morning from Rome Sir. I wish you all have a great weekend. There are so many stories I am thinking about. I'll watch this video first and then reply again❤️
I find this to be a very appropriate video, considering its back-to-school time in the US and the children of Uvalde, Texas are going back to class. They are not going back to the building where the mass murder happened, but I can't imagine having an easy time in ANY classroom after surviving that horrific ordeal. 🙁
My husband's mother was a youngster at the time. She lost her eldest sister and brother in this explosion and another sister was one of those who never walked again. Their father was one of the oilfield workers who dug through the rubble. What life must have been like in that household in the aftermath doesn't bear contemplation.
I’ve never been this early for a video, I always look forward to your posts! Thank you so much for your educational contributions to RU-vid, you’re one of my favorites to learn historical facts from. I live in Texas and never heard about this!
Thank you for your kind comments! Texas sure seems to have seen more than it's fair share of tragedies. This particular event is the 3rd deadliest in the states' history behind the Galveston Hurricane and the Texas City explosion 😬
@@WellINever that’s so wild! I feel like we should learn about that in school considering we take Texas history once in grade 7 and again in high school, but then again our educational system isn’t anything to write home about 😅 TX sure does seem to attract tragedies for some reason, I’ve noticed a lot of the true crime RU-vid videos Ive seen occur here. I’m from San Antonio and we’ve had lots of strange things happen here, would love to hear whatever you could dig up if you get interested, I know you probably have tons of topics already!
The cemetery there will just make you cry...so many children's graves...all died the same day. Brothers, sisters, cousins....some famalies lost all their children at once in the blast. There were not enough coffins, some relatives made their own for their children. Many tore down barns etc. for the wood, and relatives and neighbors, and volunteers stayed up all night making liners for the hand made coffins. Money being short...clothing was donated to bury a lot of the kids. For some...only limbs etc. were found to bury. It was a hurried burial...embalming could not be used on most of the bodies. Some parents suffered heart attacks, others a nervous breakdown when they had to identify their child's remains. The new school....sits where the old one was...why, I don't know. The cemetery is worth visiting...but be prepared to cry...it's a sad place.
We lived about 30 minutes away from New London when we lived in East Texas. My late mom was a Depression era child in Beaumont, Tx & our family was heavily into Spindle Top (where oil was discovered in that part of Tx) so I grew up among history the of Texas oil & gas. The New London school explosion is the only reason we now have odor in natural gas. Up until then it was completely odorless thus the reason no one knew gas had leaked into the school. It was such a tragic event but at least they learned something from it and improved safety afterwards which has saved countless lives since then. 🥺
Some people were threatening survivors of the disaster? They were kids it wasn't their fault! That must've been soo scary for those kids to first survive the disaster only to have people who I assume were related to those who died wanting them dead. Well also the company responsible didn't get in trouble so the parents and family of them victims were angry and wanted to take their anger out on someone. Poor kids though!
Imagine wanting children who were just incredibly lucky that they survived, to die as well and their relatives to suffer the same fate. Complete lack of empathy, if you ask me. Also the quote "God took the best children and left the others" kinda sickens me...
After spending 27 years in the Fire Service as a Firefighter/ EMS First Responder, the smell of Mercaptan is a smell I know all to well from responding to Natural Gas explosions, motor vehicle crashes and structural fire's. It's so sad that it took this disaster for it to be added to natural gas, but the children and adults didn't die in vain!
Have you done the Bath School bombing in Bath, MI in 1927? At least this one was an accident. A horrific accident but at least odor is now added to natural gas. The number of the dead in New London was just beyond imaginable. I’m from 90 minutes from there. There is a museum about it. There is also a great documentary about it. You did a good job with this!
Good coverage on a event I knew nothing of. I missed the trademark outro on this one, as it adds closure to the story and experience...especially since this one really did make me say "Well, I Never".
My Dad was 4yrs old when this happened. His older brother should have been at school that day but for some unknown reason my grandmother kept him out. Our family on my Dads side were mostly oilfield trash, working all over the great state of Texas and Louisiana. My great grandfather was an old time company man, maintaining numerous pump jacks in East Texas. Miss you bunches PawPaw Roe.❤️
The survivor's guilt had to be extremely overwhelming for those children! To have the victims that passed away's families say such horrible things, not knowing which of their friends were dead or moved away, carrying on with prom as if nothing happened! OMG. I can't even imagine the level of grief for all of these children, the first responders, etc. How horrible. Also, very much like the USA to try to burry tradegy and move on like nothing happened. This is how the past repeats itself. I'm so glad that at least this led to natural gas being ordorized to prevent more senseless loss of life. Their legacy is of the many lives (including my own) that have been spared, since then! RIP.
Thank You Paul - something to take my mind off my Birthday today with the whole country mourning the loss of HRH The Queen, it's too sad xxx I'm going to celebrate it in 2 weeks instead ! Rest In Peace to these people 💕 Thanks for your video - you are doing important work creating a memory for others
Thank you for watching, Em. It's really appreciated and I'm glad the video could help take your mind off of the tragic current events. I shall wish you a happy birthday for today and hope you enjoy your celebrations in a couple of weeks. :)
Young Robert Hatfield seemingly having a premonition that something bad was going to happen was weird but lucky for him, as he left the school early. I don't know why one mother thought the school had been bombed by Hitler. It was 1937 and the second world war was 2 years away from commencing. Very tragic, almost 300 killed by cutting corners to save a little money
Disasters concerning children are always emotional, I am tearful for those innocent lives. You only have to know about our worst disaster, Aberfan, which happened when I was 6 months pregnant so I was in bits. A slag heap, hundreds of feet tall, slid down the hill and enveloped the whole school and over 100 children died and many teachers. I see there is a folder on the right entitled Disasters by you, so I am in for a sad night. Sadly, this disaster had way more deaths. We also had Dunblane, a mass shooting in Scotland so foreign to our shores but seemingly out of control in America. Also there were child fatalities at Lockerbie. I have visited the town, the out of the way little park with a touching memorial to those who died. Unfortunately disasters are a fact of life and will continue. So very sad. Thank you for telling us this story.
Could you do a video of The Crystal Palace fire please? Thanks for all your brilliant content! I was amazed about that village in Bucks, it's only down the road from where I live! (I live in Leighton Buzzard) 😁
I kept thinking about the Uvalde shooting, another small town TX tragedy, while watching this. When children die senselessly, adults need another adult to focus there grief and anger upon.
Methane ( natural gas ) has no odor or color and this was why the tragedy occurred . Nowadays natural gas is treated with an odorous gas compound called mercaptan to note its presence today. This single incident in 1937 changed the natural gas industry forever . Such a tragedy !
What a horrifying story. If you are looking for another absolute tragedy, look up the "Our Lady of Angels" school fire in Chicago in the early 1960s. In the terrible aftermath, it did lead to fire regulations in schools. Prayers for all those involved -- living with the weight of this has to be very very hard.
Wow. Such tragedy and waste. The threats to survivors is the worst part though. Imagine how terrible those parents felt after they had healed a little bit and realized what they had done to innocent children. Adding more to their own guilt and grief.
East Texan here. And one thing about my family is that my grandfather skipped school that day when he was a kid and then after the explosion his mom had him drop out he then went one to work on tanks then became a Pentecost preacher. My dad went to the neighbouring Overton school and played football. Now I don’t go to either overton or new London (now West Rusk)instead the smallest of the three in the west rusk area Leveretts Chapel crazy how three generations went to three schools along with my aunts and uncles going to a now defunct school called Gaston which was also in our area.
I don't know how I've lived this long and never heard this story: I'm from New England originally but this is the kind of catastrophe you'd expect to have become legend.
Imagine threatening to kill a child for accidentally surviving an explosion. Like ma'am I know you're grieving your own child but that one also lost a whole bunch of friends in addition to being in a LITERAL EXPLOSION. You don't think they've been through enough trauma?!
The worst thing about this is, greed is now still rampant and worse, buildings, projects, or councils etc still cut corners to this day to save their precious money. Seriously did all the blood money they get to keep worth all those lives? No but they still do it.
