October 19, 2017. Canyon Lake, Texas. Black Monday.

They call it Black Monday and it happened 30 year ago.  I just happened to be at the right place on that Black Monday in 1987.

I had just become a Merrill Lynch Realty manager.   At that time, the national company required all new managers attend a week of training,  held at corporate headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.  The course began on Sunday evening for dinner and Monday at 8:00 the training began.  At the first break at 10:30, every computer kiosk around the hall was crowded with young brokers, who were also taking courses.  The real estate part of the company was just borrowing the financial companies facility.  We real estate folks did not know what was going on.  But they did.

Every time we left our room,  the crowds got bigger and more somber.    It seemed that the sky was falling.  As the day went on, the panic began.  Evidently, the financial world was not prepared for Black Monday and I got to watch the responses right before my eyes.   I still recall the foreboding in the hall, even though we did not talk with anyone.  Things just got worse and worse on that computer screens.  The stock market had just fallen 20%.  And that is why it is still called Black Monday.

As an aside, the stock market has increased over 2,000% since that difficult day.  The watch word is to stay steady and buy when the market drops.  We in the real estate world ignored the whole thing and encouraged people to buy real estate.   I had an eye witness to the drop.  And it is vivid and  interesting even after 30 years.