First political memory?

[dorktv]

Mine was of the Bush/Dukasis race where I wondered why everyone was sitting on couches. I was nine.

What about you?

[kitp]

1. nixon-kennedy debate

on tv, remember seeing it, no idea what they talked about...I was 7

[ElsewheresDaughter]

32. kennedy...my mother campaigned for him in miami...

and her being a poet and the mother of 10...she wrote a poem about his mother....she recieved an invation to kennedy's inauguation dinner and was to be seated at the table with robert forest....she couldn't make it (didn't have the means) what with all us children and all and we were in dire straits in those days. but she was mighty proud to have recieved that beautiful invitation from the postmans hand....i will never forget it and it hangs framed on her wall till this day.

i was 10 years old

[ginnyinWI]

2. ten years old

Watching the Nixon-Kennedy debate on TV.

[Liberty Belle]

3. Saw Kennedy in a San Diego parade when I was six. - 1963.

[dweller]

19. November, 1963

i remember the tears on all the adult's faces.

i hope your memory was of a brighter time.

dp

[deadparrot]

4. Being about five years old...

watching Governor John Ashcroft on TV and thinking that he was one scary SOB.

In terms of a good memory, I was with my family at a Burger King during a stop in Hannibal, MO in '92 when we heard "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow" blaring down the street. A Clinton/Gore campaign bus pulled in. My cousin was on German TV with Clinton, and I shook Gore's hand. :)

[kineneb]

5. Berlin Wall

I was all of 3, but I have a memory of family and friends sitting in the kitchen discussing it.

[susanna]

116. Wow - you brought back a memory for me...

I watched the wall come down on TV - I was like 17 or 18, I think. It was strange at the time for me. I was glad it happened, but I never bought the "yay" mentality of everyone else. I remember being really reserved about it for some reason. Maybe all the anti-communist brainwashing I got as a kid?

on edit: clarity

[Suich]

6. I Like Ike!

Watching the Republican convention on tv at my aunts in Oakland.

I was 9, too! :hi:

[dorktv]

12. Everything happened that year, I never remember anything else until

I was about 12

[TahitiNut]

117. Yep. 1952. Fourth grade, playing "king of the mountain" during recess.

We wore campaign buttons. It was the "I Like Ike" team against the "Adlai" team. I was on the "I Like Ike" team, with an 'M' penciled in in front of the "Ike."

... mike

[Brigid]

7. The first one that comes to mind . . .

is my grandmother trying to convince me that I should become a Republican (I was about 8 or nine, I guess).

But my most vivid memory is the Watergate hearings when I was 14.

[Ignacio Upton]

8. 1992 Election

I was in Kindergarten, and in the cafeteria there were posters of Clinton, Bush Sr. and Perot on the wall. I didn't know which party either candidate belonged to, and I didn't realize that there was a two-party system until 1996, when I asked why Perot was running again...so up until that point I always thought that there were three candidates. My first memory dealing with Presidents in general must have been when I was just starting to attain a cognative memory. Whenever someone on the tv said "President Bush," I thought that a bush was President. I was either three or four when I thought that.

[Jane Eyre]

9. Four years old

Actually, I don't remember this but people in my family do. I was four years old in 1960. One day, my mom watched me as I kept running in circles around a tree so she asked me what I was doing. I told her that I was running for president! :)

[Vadem]

77. That's adorable and so cute!...........n/t

[Union Thug]

10. Nixon resigning

I was only around 8 years old, but I recall still images of what I saw on television when Nixon resigned. I didn't really know what was happening, but I remember it as a huge event...

[Autonomy]

11. A school-wide Carter vs. Ford election

when I was in third grade. Ford won, btw. All we knew is that Carter talked funny, and that's the kiss of death in elementary school. To this day, it remains the only time I've ever voted Republican.

[justice1]

26. Me too!

I voted for Ford, because he was from Michigan. He lost in a landslide in my school.

[CPMaz]

43. Hah! I voted for Carter in 6th grade.

I have voted for 2 Reps for real, though.

When I lived in MA (grew up there) I voted for Silvio Conte for Congress in 84, and Bill Weld for Gov in 1990. If you met the Dems running against them, you would know why.

[JDPriestly]

13. I remember watching my mother throw away sugar stamps

a few years after world. That wasn't all that political. My father was a minister and a pacifist. I remember that the Des Moines newspaper printed the pictures of the fallen soldiers on the back page of the Sunday edition during the Korean war. My dad used to look at the pictures -- each one carefully, prayerfully -- and he talked about the sadness of comforting mourning parents. He had done it a few times. So, my introduction to politics had to do with war and the loss of human life it means.

[salvorhardin]

14. Nixon resigning

I was about 7. I remember after Nixon made his little speech my grandmother said disgustedly, "They're going to put a Democrat in the White House next, you just watch and see! Everytime we get a Democrat in the Whitehouse they start a war!"

I don't think Grandma voted, or watched the news and she got all of her political information out of The Grit,The National Enquirer and the NY Daily News.

[bobbieinok]

94. common meme that a dem president meant a war

I remember when I heard about JFK putting US military on alert after the Soviets put up the Berlin Wall in August 1961. I had just graduated from college and thought of friends who had married guys in ROTC and who were upset that Kennedy had been elected in 1960.

What many younger people do not realize is that the Vietnam War was considered a democratic party war. (Maybe that's why opposition was OK???) In 1968 the Republican Senators' White Paper on Vietnam was published. There, for the first time, I learned that at the end of WWII the French freed Japanese POWs in Saigon to help them regain control of French Indo-China. HoChiMinh appealed to the US for help in fighting the French attempt to retake their colonial empire. When he got no answer from the US, he turned to the Soviet Union for help.

[JDPriestly]

15. I also remember that, very early on, my grandmother explained

to me that she and my grandfather used to be Republicans, but the Republican party left them so they became Democrats. Most people in my family have been Democrats ever since.

[xxqqqzme]

31. my mother's family blamed FDR because

he changed Thanksgiving 2 the last Thursday in November before that it was on my grandmother's birthday. The whole lot never forgave FDR for that. They were all/most still are rethugs!

[dorktv]

81. that is a bizarre reason to be annoyed at a president.

[Blaze Diem]

16. My mom & dad talking about their Union of Farmers, that is,

grain growers and cattlemen.
They were fighting that year for the Democratic Governor of the State of North Dakota.
The grain growers joined to strengthen unions so they would have parity for their product.
We went to a picnic that day in our county for the unionization.

I was about 8 yrs old, I grew up in a family that fought for fair wages all their lives. They understood the strength of unity for a common and good cause.
It was somewhere around 1960.

[low_phreaq]

17. Nixon-McGovern

First grade, having heated discussions on the playground about whether our parents were voting for Nixon or McGovern.

[incapsulated]

23. Me too!

All I remember, and obviously I got this from Mom, was McGovern=Good, Nixon=Evil and if he wins we are moving to Canada, lol. I remember seeing pro-McGovern graffiti, too.

Edit to add: I remember going to a candlelight vigil for MLK when I was very small. All I understood was that a good man died and we were paying our respects. This was in Manhattan. The vigil went down West End Avenue. I remember looking down, where it sloped, and the candles went on forever.

[havocmom]

18. My dad, the procrastinator, putting off registering after we moved

And my mom finally telling him, as deadline approached, that if he didn't get it done, she would vote for Nixon come November. He got up IMMEDIATELY and went to register. Showed her proof and everything. Come election day, he pressed and begged her to assure him she voted for Kennedy and not Nixon.

She never would tell him. He used to ask us if we knew right up until he died.

That, and my granny died in 1960, at the polling place where she was an election judge. She had been hospitalized, but checked herself out on Primary Day so she could do her job. She knew it was that important. She died with her boots on, so to speak.

1960- yep it was a big year for becoming aware for me.

[rwenos]

20. Senator Jack Kennedy, October 1960

Making a whistle stop speech in Richmond, California.

I was seven. I can still remember his slender, tanned face, grey suit, and lean forward while he spoke. Pierre Salinger, JFK's warm-up speaker, was running for US Senate, and made a "carpetbagger" joke on himself. There were many well dressed women my mother's age in the crowd, both black and white. Most of the women wore hats and gloves.

He was elected President of the United States about a month later.

[Jane Austin]

21. Three years old!

Honest to God!

I was walking along our street with two older kids, and somebody was talking about who should be President. One of them said "Eisenhower", and I said "Oh, he's too old"!

My saying it made an impression on me at the time because, even at that tender age, I realized I was just parroting some adult I'd heard, and I felt stupid about it.

This isn't one of those memories that you only know because you've seen the home movies of it. This was just an afternoon of play one a dirt road in a small town in the late 40's.

[Va Lefty]

22. Robert Kennedy's Funeral

Six years old. I remember watching on black and white TV not understanding but knowing I was seeing history.

[Betsy Ross]

24. Going to the 1960 Democratic Convention. n/t

[pansypoo53219]

25. i voted for carter in grade school.

and i didn't like reagan. EVER.

[JI7]

27. about 5-6 years old, Reagan's re-election

i was more aware in 1988 and we would make fun of Quayle although not for partisan reasons. i had a friend named Barbara and some kids would tease her by calling her "Barbara Bush". as i got older and learned more i realized how horrible that was.

[Hippo_Tron]

144. My friend's dad worked on campaign travel for the Bush campaign

And he told me that one time his dad was driving Barbara Bush somewhere and she told him to be a gentleman and look away as she changed her clothes. I almost threw up at the thought.

[flaminbats]

28. Reagan's Inauguration..

we were watching TV..I remember seeing a guy with grey hair talking at the podium and a younger looking guy standing near him. My mother was very angry..saying that "Reagan would be the worst President in history, that he was too old and would probably die when in office." I asked.."Is that Reagan?"

she said "No..that is our current President, Jimmy Carter. He has done a great job."

"who is that young guy" I asked?

"That guy is much older than Carter, he's the one who will reck this country with high military spending and big taxcuts. He doesn't care about the workers or the poor. That is Ronald Reagan."

I was only four.

[BlueCaliDem]

83. Governor Ronald Reagan's congratulatory letter to my late father...

...for being an "exceptional driver in California".

The great big smile on my father's embattled face (my parents were going through some really dark times, and we five children got to share in my mom's adultery), when he showed me (I was, I believe, 10 years old at the time) the letter from California's governor.

I was a pro-Republican back then (okay, I was 10 and naive!), but it was only because Reagan was our governor, and...he sent my father that letter that put a rare smile on his face.

That's when I learned what a governor was, and that we had one.

I was a non-voting Republican until I lived in the Netherlands, and their liberal culture opened my eyes, and had me question my loyalty, and views to the "conservative cause", and then came Clinton...and I, having always fretted about the huge deficits of the Reagan era; and the claims "we could never pay it down", Clinton came along and did the impossible.

I promptly became a voting Democratic constituent...

[Zookeeper]

29. The day President Kennedy was assassinated.

I was seven. I don't remember it being announced in school, but we were sent home early. I went to a babysitter's house and she told me, with tears in her eyes, what had happened. The T.V. was on and she was saying the rosary.

As I watched the news coverage and listened to the adults around me that day, I remember thinking it was odd that everyone was now mourning, even though it had seemed that no one liked him just the day before. Although, I didn't yet know the word "hypocrisy," that was how I viewed the reaction.

Now, of course, I realize how deeply shocking the assassination of any President was at the time (and still would be, except that people are more jaded and pessimistic now).

[xxqqqzme]

30. I grew up surrounded by politics - my cousin

was mayor - a Democrat - my great-grandfather (rethug) running for Congress - he lost. All politics is local? You bet it is!

[OneBlueSky]

33. watching Estes Kefauver being nominated for vp . . .

don't know why, but that seems to have stuck with me . . . it was 1956 (I was about 10) and we'd had a television for only about a year (a big boxy Philco, b&w of course) . . . there were three channels, and they didn't broadcast 24/7, so I watched everything I could, including the national nominating conventions . . . the whole process fascinated me, and for some reason Kefauver stands out as someone memorable . . . maybe I liked his name or something . . . :shrug:

[Awsi Dooger]

34. 1968

I remember vaguely following the early primaries. Then the night before the California primary my dad and I were eating at a burger joint and my dad was discussing the primary with some man at the counter.

The next morning before school I turned on my kids shows and instead there was a man with a bull horn standing atop a truck, talking to a crowd. I listened long enough until I realized it was outside the hospital in LA, that Bobby Kennedy had been shot. I awoke my dad and he was initially furious, convinced I was kidding him.

We threw away all the toy guns in my toy chest after RFK died.

Actually, I have a much earlier political memory but until a few years ago I had no clue how it connected. I was in nursery school and one day the teachers talked softly amongst each other and then stopped the class in midday. It became very silent and strange. All the kids were walked outside and to the road leading to the back of the school. One by one the parents arrived to pick us up. I was one of the last remaining and the teacher held my hand until my grandmother arrived. I always knew that was a Friday since classes didn't resume for several days. But I never realized what it was until I looked at my class picture and it read 1963-64. That was obviously the JFK assassination. My parents insist I watched the coverage and asked plenty of questions, but I have absolutely no memory other than the oddity at school.

[niyad]

35. hearing the weekly body count in vietnam in 1961 and thinking it was

horrible, and had to end soon. I could not have imagined it would go on for another 14 years.

[Broken_Hero]

36. Mondale/Reagan

We held a mock Election, i was in the third grade...Reagon won our mock election, and won the national election..

[Raksha]

37. I remember asking my parents who they were going to vote for...

I must have been about four years old, because my father died when I was five. I thought those "I like Ike" buttons were cool and I was disappointed when my mother told me they were going to vote for Adlai Stevenson. My mom said it was because they thought Stevenson was the smarter one. I was too young to understand anything about Republicans vs. Democrats at the time, but as soon as I got old enough to think at all I realized I was a Democrat, and have been one ever since.

Edited to add: I must have been six, not four, because what I'm remembering would have to be the 1952 election. So my father voting would not have been an issue, although it's my understanding that he too was a lifelong Democrat.

[Hardrada]

38. With my folks, going to the polls in 1948.

I was four and waited in the car. I remember a lot of people going in and out. It was a nice day too since I wasn't wearing a heavy coat.

[nadinbrzezinski]

39. Did not grow in the States, so don't feel bad if you miss

the reference


President Luis Echeverria Alvarez making his statement before the UN General Assembly about Zionism... yep scared teh living daylights out of me, and I was six

[dorktv]

65. Argentina?

[liberalpragmatist]

125. So where did you grow up?

Israel or Argentina or somewhere else?

[Stinky The Clown]

40. My first full memory is of sometime in the summer of 1959

when Kennedy flew into our little airport in Bridgeport CT. A prop plane. A lot of people there. He and Jackie came out of the plane and the crowd went wild. My father took my mother, my aunt, my brother and me. I remember that clearly. I was 12.

I have more vague memories of going to vote with my mother, my brother in a baby carriage. The machine, with all the levers, fascinated me.

I also remember a picture my grandmother had in her kitchen. A picture of FDR, right next to one of the Sacred Heart. I have no idea how old that memory is. Probably back to 1951 or 52, maybe even earlier. My clearer memories are of the same spot with FDR replaced by Kennedy. That stayed there until she died.

[dg10348]

41. Another" I Like Ike"

I wanted a button so badly but couldn't have one because my parents were voting for Stevenson.I couldn't understand why they would vote against such a cute grandpa (Ike). I think I was in 2nd grade and many of the other kids had Ike buttons. Importance of political slogans. I have never voted for a Republican but if I saw an I Like Ike button at a garage sale, I might buy it.

[murielm99]

63. I remember that, too.

And We Need Adlai Badly.

We had just gotten our first TV. I watched the convention on television.

My parents were not too disappointed in Ike after he won. They were Democrats, but thought he was a good President. I was eight years old.

My brother was five. He was just learning about Presidents. He asked my dad what they were going to do with George Washington now that Ike was President.

[CPMaz]

42. Hmmm...

Vague memory - Nixon resigning over Watergate

Clearer memory - Jimmy Carter running for Prez (it was still a couple of years before I understood what the lust in his heart comment was all about, though. :) )

[Debs]

44. Cuban missile crisis

I was in first grade. It was quite hushed and tense around our house. My father was a DI at Parris Island at the time. It was explained to me and we watched it unfold on the news

[Dulcinea]

45. The Watergate scandal.

I was almost 8 when Nixon resigned. I didn't understand what it was all about, & I asked my mother to explain it. She tried, but I was still very confused.

I also vaguely remember seeing footage from Vietnam when I was very little, and remember the famous picture of the helicopter on the embassy roof.

[Minnesota Libra]

46. I was in high school setting in class when the principle came in and......

....announced President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, TX. A few minutes later the principle came back and announced President Kennedy was dead.

Teachers and students alike were crying and we were sent home early, politically it was the saddest day of my life.

[mrgorth]

47. My mom telling me she was voting for Ford

only because she thought he deserved a full term. Although, she's BEEN telling me that after Watergate she swore she'd never vote for another thug. Maybe I'm wrong. I was young.

[Connie_Corleone]

48. The Carter-Reagan Debate

I was 8 years old and I told my grandparents if I was old enough to vote, I would vote for Reagan.

Chalk it up to one of those "kids say the darndest things" moment.

[Hippo_Tron]

143. LOL I like that excuse

[raccoon]

49. Looking at the pictures of the Nixons, their reactions to Nixon's

losing the 1960 election in Life magazine.

That's if you don't count us saying as kids, "Who do you think you are? President Eisenhower?" :-)

[rockymountaindem]

50. Bill Clinton's first inaugural. n/t

[drthais]

51. 6th grade - cover of a Weekly Reader...1968

confusing for a 6th grader
remember Weekly Reader?

cartoon race cars coming around the bend...
Humphrey, Wallace, Nixon in the cars

[1932]

52. ...when my white nursery school teacher reprimanded her black teacher's

aid for doing something that I knew for a fact didn't happen and that I knew the teacher knew didn't happen.

That's my first political memory.

[OzarkDem]

53. Age 3, going with Grandad to the state capitol

Its a vague memory, but I recall standing on the front steps of the Missouri state capitol, then later looking at the view of the Missouri River from the back. We traveled there to see the large stone sculpture of a bear that had been carved on a farm adjacent to our family home. Plus grandad had some visiting to do with Dem party officials.

I learned politics from listening to the grownups talk about Eisenhower and later Kennedy and Nixon while sitting around the wood stove in the living room.

[bennywhale]

54. Miners Strike Britain 1985. i couldn't understand why the police

kept beating up my Grandad's friends, nor why a soup kitchen sprang up in every pit town, nor why everyone was arguing all the time, or why people's parents were splitting up a lot. i did however know that the enemy was a lady called Maggy or that bitch or worse.

[dorktv]

66. one of my NI friends hates Thatcher and he was not even alive

for most of her years in power.

[SteppingRazor]

55. My first "in the news" memory is John Lennon being shot...

I was 3 or 4.

As for an out-and-out politician, I remember Reagan saying this could be the generation that faces Armageddon. It scared me, and is probably the basis for my lifelong loathing of Republican demagogues.

[one_true_leroy]

56. Oliver North and Iran Contra...

those trials (when I was 12ish) were the first I'd ever paid to politics, and the first time I had reason to question the gov't. I didn't know all the politics back then, but the next few years lead me to seriously question the Cold War mentality that has unfortunately taken grip in the more insidious Terror War.

[meow2u3]

57. Kennedy getting shot

My mom was driving me to the doctor when the news broke on the radio. I was only 3.

[donsu]

58. WWII

nt

[AzDar]

59. My Mom thought George Wallace was brilliant; I remember her

lamenting his shooting. Yikes.
I'm STILL trying to school her..lol.

[dorktv]

67. I am about half way through the Politics of Rage about Wallace...

Have not gotten to Lurleen's passing but I think that maybe he did change. God works in mysterious ways after all.

[LA lady]

97. sad death

My aunt was one of Lurleen Wallace's nurses. She said no one on earth deserved the death she had.

[dorktv]

103. She passed away from cancer right?

[Arugula Latte]

60. I lived in a suburb that was mostly for Nixon in '72.

I remember kids (including myself, I must admit...following Mommy and Daddy at the time who were for Tricky Dick -- luckily they came around after Reagan dragged the party so far right) singing on the playground:

McGovern is a nut
He has a rubber butt
and every time he turns around
He goes "putt putt."

:rofl:

I'd like to apologize to George McGovern for my past sins! :hi:

[Radical Activist]

61. "You sir are no Jack Kennedy!"

The first political thing I clearly remember.

[bklyncowgirl]

62. Kennedy giving a press conference, Cuban Missle Crisis, Assassination

I don't remember what it was about. I don't even remember what was said. I do remember that I lined up all my dolls & toy horses to watch the President. He seemed like a nice man. I think I remember Helen Thomas asking the first question but I could be wrong about that. I was in first grade.

I can also remember air raid drills at school and of course that terrible day when, during choir practice, we were all suddenly ushered out of church and back into the classrooms (Catholic School here). Several of the nuns were crying. The principal made the announcement that President Kennedy had been assassinated.

[LiberalEsto]

64. My dad shaking his fist at the tv and cussing Nixon

It must have been in 1960 when I was 8 years old.

[dflprincess]

72. I have a similiar memory of my Dad

though it's not my first political memory. It was in 1964 when Bobby Kennedy was running for Senate. I remember my Dad tossing the Buffalo Evening News to floor and saying "Goddamned Republican newspaper."

My first memory is also from 1960, I was 7 and my Dad took me into the voting booth with him while he voted for Kennedy - I think it may have been the New York State primary, but it could have been the general election.

[GymGeekAus]

68. Political Memory....

Gosh. I don't know when it was. Mom went to the elementary school to vote, and she took me with her. We walked the half a block to the school. I got to stand in the booth with her, which was one of those lever-machines with the drapes you close when you vote. It was kind of neat. So much cooler than what I've gotten to do (punch cards and electronic machines).

Hmmm. I have no idea how old I was at the time.

You might have just awakened my oldest memory with your question!

[dorktv]

69. And it is a good one!

[radio4progressives]

70. Kennedy Nixon Debates on TV - and then Kennedy's Inaugeration Speech

I was about 10 during the debates, and then 11 for inaugeration.

i was 13 when he was assassinated. i remember every breathing moment of those next hours and days that followed and it has influenced my politics along with the civil rights movement and all that followed since.

[NJ Democrats]

71. 1996 Election

I was driving home from t-ball and Clinton was debating Dole on the radio. My coach was also named Bob Dole so I though he was running for President until my dad told me otherwise. I was 5.

[Progressive4Life]

73. Presidential election 1980

I had the day off from school that day, and my mom took me to the polling station with her. I asked her if all adults "had to vote" (as if it were mandatory). She said no, but she didn't want to forgo voting, turn on the TV later that night, and find out that President Carter had lost by only one vote. I was only five, so she didn't get into the whole electoral college thing.

[Mikimouse]

74. My fifth-grade class (in Texas) applauding that...

Kennedy was dead, because we were going to have a Texan President (woo hoo:sarcasm: ). Assholes! I have never forgiven them.

[Arugula Latte]

79. ...

:wow:

[alfredo]

75. McArthur being fired, and the McCarthy hearings. The hearings

made me a Democrat. The Republicans showed their hateful core.

[Vadem]

76. "I like Ike" was the first campaign slogan that I remember....

I was, however, for Adelaide Stevenson! A liberal, still, after all these years!

Go Dems!

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:

[CTyankee]

100. "Adelaide"????

You mean Adlai, of course.

I remember my father being for Bob Taft in 1952, but he voted for Eisenhower anyway (Taft was challenging Eisenhower at the Convention). In those days, I don't remember so many primaries, if any at all. Most of the politics were fought out in "smoke filled rooms" at the conventions. Then they would poll all the delegates and they would cast their votes. It was kind of exciting.

I have NEVER been a Republican.

[Fabio]

78. Desert One.

I was six

[thatsrightimirish]

80. Going to see

Bill Clinton when I was 5. Yes I'm young

[wiley]

82. The announcement in grade school that Nixon had beaten Humphrey

My parents let me take the week off from school.

[otohara]

84. Kennedy Election - My Mom Waited Until Morning

to see who won!

[Mountainman]

85. Eisenhower re-election, My grandmother had a button with a string

When you pulled the string it said, "I like Ike". I remember the McCarthy hearings also.

[jumptheshadow]

86. Kennedy running for President

I was very young, and I remember asking my Irish Catholic grandmother if Kennedy had a chance. "I wish he could win," she said. "But he's a Catholic, he won't win."

It was the first time, too, that I was exposed to the concept of prejudice.

[coffeenap]

87. Going out of the main door of our elementary school for the first

time ever (usually went out the kindergarten door) so everyone could pause at the flag before going home to mourn for President Kennedy--age 5.

[POAS]

88. On our first TV in 1956 saw

JFK give a speech at the Democratic Convention. He had our hearts and our votes in 1960.

[Sisaruus]

89. Wrestling in the dirt, at age 8, over Kennedy-Nixon race

I got into a wrestling match with my cousin, a Nixon supporter, while waiting for the school bus. I won, as did Kennedy. My cousin and I have never discussed politics again.

[BrotherBuzz]

90. Democratic picnic McNears Beach, Marin County, California 1959

Kennedy wasn't expected to show, but this youngster picked up gobs of free Kennedy buttons, bumper stickers, and a cool straw hat (Mom, why in the hell did you toss them?) Lots of good vibes in the air that summer day. Rep Clem Miller was there, and the reason we attended. I was sad when he died in an airplane crash in 1962. Jeez, the sixties had a lot of disappointments

[Odin2005]

91. Vauge memory: The Berlin Wall coming down

Clear Memory: the Bush/Clinton debates.

[indie_voter]

92. Nixon resigning in 1974. I was 10. n/t

[RandomKoolzip]

93. Seeing Reagan on TV when I was five and feeling nauseous.

[Dr Fate]

95. Seeing Ford on TV. n/t

n/t

[bobbieinok]

96. I must have been about 4......I was at a friend's house; a woman friend

of the mother came in and they both started crying. I went home and told mother something had happened; then later all the kids' shows on radio were cancelled. Later I realized that was all about FDR's death.

In 48 I remember being very confused that Truman won b/c on the radio (my dad was a BIG news junkie) I'd heard Truman booed a lot.

In the 56 election we had a class vote. I remember one of the guys on the front row turning around and saying he'd beat up anyone voting for Stevenson. (Hey, it was Tulsa OK.) Years later in grad school in CA one of my fellow students (from the east, of course) was talking about the 52, 56 elections and how he didn't know anyone who had been for Ike.

During the 52 campaign, Nixon came to Tulsa. My dad took me to hear him speak at Skelly Stadium (stadium of the U of Tulsa).

In the 1960 election I was a senior in college and extremely frustrated; I was not 21 and thus could not vote.

Which democratic convention had white-haired men from the south, one after the other, saying that their 'Nigras' were happy and all problems about civil rights were caused by 'outside agitators'? I have the picture in my mind, which is countered by an image after Carter's acceptance speech in 1976; everyone was on the plaform and they--and the convention--were singing 'We Shall Overcome', the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement.

[Stinky The Clown]

98. What a purely vile word ......

'Nigras'

Intentionally mispronounced to skirt the edge of disgusted, forced policitcal correctness.

[CTyankee]

101. Yes, vile. In Texas where I grew up (and left at age 17 for college

and for good) racists would say "chigras" for chiggers, then laugh and say "We're integrated now." That was in the 60s, after the Brown deseg decision.

Vile. Vile. Vile. Vile.

Thank god I am now a Connecticut Yankee!!

[Homer Wells]

99. We had a mock election in my Junior High

It was the 1960 elections-Nixon v. Kennedy. There were debates between the two candidates-symbolized by two of our better speakers; also campaign posters and all the miscellany connected with the REAL campaign. Looking back, I am quite amazed at how deeply we went into the issues and events of the time. This was at the very beginning of the 'dumbing down' of America, so many of us still had our own minds.

Kennedy won the election handily, incidentally.

Steve:dem:
:patriot:

[lwcon]

102. I remember my parents had a lot of Kennedy-Johnson stuff in the house

And I remember a few events around JFK's assassination but not when I was first told about it.

Biggest memories from then:

1. Seeing pictures of John-John at the funeral.

2. Coming home after seeing "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" and seeing Oswald being shot on TV.

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[ArnoldLayne]

104. In 1964 when I was 7 years old and I remember telling kids

on the playground at recess if Barry Goldwater becomes President we will have to go to school all year round no more summer breaks. They should make sure when they go home to tell their parents to vote for Lyndon Johnson for President. This is a true story. :dem:

[JohnLocke]

106. Bwhaha!

:D

[Hippo_Tron]

142. Maybe we should try that in '08

Remember kids, Republicans hate summer vacation.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

105. "Iron Curtain"

First time I heard that phrase I was in a mom and pop grocery in Braman, OK. Recall I had one of those pink candy bunnies (ate his feet off first so he couldn't kick me). Must have been in about '53 or so after Churchill made his speech in MO, although then I didn't know where the term came from. Even at the age of 4 or 5 I was really big on maps. My Dad had been in the Merchant Marine during WWII and he got to go to some great places like N.Africa, Oz and NZ and Nat'l Geo mag was essential reading in our house. At least for Dad and me, my mom didn't have much interest beyond the end of her nose. Anyway, I could visualize what Churchill was saying.
Also saw Eisenhower during his campaign for Pres. Our car pulled up next to his convertible during his swing thru Dennison, TX (where he was born). Dad saluted the General, said "Hi, Dwight" which was my Dad's name, too, and I waved to him.

[MountainLaurel]

107. Election returns in Carter vs. Reagan

I would have been 8 years old, plus a few days.

[Radio_Guy]

108. I was six when Ike was elected

My parents told me Eisenhower was a warmonger. That he was elected only because we won WW2. When I was ten even then I knew he was going to lead us into war again. I was right. The reich wingers blamed Kennedy for "starting" the Vietnam war, but it was started by Ike in 1954. Ike cut taxes for the rich (sound familiar?) and did nothing to support the civil rights movement. It is a shame Poppy Bush and the other repugs had JFK killed, because he was well on his way undoing the mess Ike got us in.

[leyton]

109. Newt Gingrich, in a political cartoon.

Specifically, my mom telling me that that nasty man pointing a gun at Uncle Sam was Newt Gingrich.

Actually, I remember the three-way race between Clinton, Bush, and Perot, but nothing specific about it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

110. Two real, real early memories

1) My mom is listening to the radio, gasps, and goes to call her parents. "Stalin died," she tells them. (This would have been big news for my grandfather, who was from Latvia.)

2) I'm sitting on my mother's lap as she is looking at Life magazine. I point to a picture of a man and ask who that is. "That's Senator McCarthy," she says. (And it was Joe, not Gene.)

[WCGreen]

111. I remember the assasination....

But the furst politcal event was when rumours swept the playground that Goldwater would make us go to school on Saturdays.....

[Tinksrival]

112. Fifth grade

We had a substitute who asked us to write a paragraph on what we thought Watergate was.
I wrote about how Watergate's were used to hold back water so boats could get through damns. I had vacationed on Tablerock Lake in Missouri the summer before and wrote extensively about damns.
I was really proud I knew so much. Then my mother told me my class's answers were on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Reading some of the answers was a bit Johnny used to do. When I found out I was wrong and my answer was a joke on TV I surprised my mother by being angry and determined to learn all I could about Nixon. I guess my parents never talked about Watergate cause they were repubs and voted for the creep.

[Hidden Stillness]

113. Kennedy Era

I remember sitting on the floor in front of a TV and listening to a public service announcement about the Emergency Warning System or whatever it was called, the old practice broadcast alert for a National attack, and "...if this had been a real attack, you would have been instructed where to turn in your area" for further information--that one--and just assuming that it was Cuba attacking us. This was at the time of either the Cuban Missle Crisis or the Bay of Pigs, can't remember which, and there was real tension in the air among the grownups. I remember hearing adults talking about who was planning to build a Bomb Shelter, and who was not (my parents thought it was stupid). There were "Duck and Cover" films in school, right along with Tornado and Fire drills. I also remember hearing in school about how the Commie Russians had launched Sputnik a few years earlier, we still had not, and it was getting scary as space could be a launching pad for raining down bombs on us; I actually remember Khrushchev and, compared with Kennedy, Khrushchev was scary. I have a few, vague memories of Kennedy as President. Very loved in our household, and when Kennedy was shot, I drew a picture of Kennedy in the casket for my Mom, and she saved it.

[mitchum]

114. JFK assassination and the days following, I was really pissed...

because there were no cartoons on TV. I was only three.

[susanna]

115. Nixon's resignation speech. I was a little kid.

Powerful stuff. I asked all sorts of questions. My father simply said that "he had abused his power and gotten caught." I remember thinking, "so if he had not gotten caught it would be okay?" Strange. Thanks for this topic. Really interesting!

[nickinSTL]

118. probably my mom voting in 1976 - for Carter...

I'm not absolutely sure that's what I'm remembering, as I was not quite 4 if that is the election I remember.

The first CLEAR political memory is from 2nd grade, when they had each of the 3 2nd grade classes represent one of the candidates (Reagan, Carter and Anderson). My class represented Anderson.

[loyalsister]

119. 1st Grade- Carter vs. Ford

We talked about it here and there. One kid in my class was really into the election. He was a very serious first grade Ford supporter. It's pretty funny in retrospect.

[Vidar]

120. Kennedy's assassination.

[Tiggeroshii]

121. The Bush Clinton race where I wondered where the horses were..

for the race on the screen. Or the cars. I wondered why all they showed were their faces. What kinda race exactly is this? I was 6

[Dogmudgeon]

122. Almost dying in a nuclear war

My father was a nuclear missile technician and ordnance engineer when the Cuban Missile Crisis hit. The brass must have told the bunker-and-silo guys to prepare their families for Armageddon; he came home late one evening, pale as a ghost, and left again an hour later in his uniform, carrying his full-dress uniform in plastic dry-cleaner bags, and with two suitcases. I thought that we would never see him again. There was a very real sense that WW3 was going to take place within a week. Mom packed some bags for us, for when we'd have to evacuate. I was told that Halloween might have to be "rescheduled", and that we might be staying at Uncle Bill and Aunt Rose's place for a while.

The evening after next, he came home, and the tension had broken. Halloween was back on. The Russians had backed down.

I was four-and-a-half years old.

--p!

[Don Claybrook]

123. Carter-Ford Debate, 1976, San Francisco

I was in the 2nd grade, in Mill Valley, CA. My teacher wheeled a television into the classroom so that we could watch the debates happening across the bay. I remember staying inside during recess so that I could keep watching, even if I didn't understand the issues being discussed.

[PassingFair]

124. My father thrusting a "Hubert Humphrey" sign into our front

lawn and mumbling about "screw the neighbors" or something.
Must have been either '68 or '72.....

He was "a" political, but he was NO REPUBLICAN, and I don't
think he ever voted for a 'puke.

[Carbon Tiger]

126. Mine

I was a little kid (like 6 or 7) and I remember Reagan on TV but paid little attention, Bush the 1st I mainly recall from my early teenage years and all that stands out for me is war. Fitting in retrospect on some ironic level.

But I'd have to say I started paying attention when Clinton won. I started to form ideas then.

[MethuenProgressive]

127. Ed Muskie & me

My first political memory is a Democratic picnic at Kennebunk Pond in Lyman, Maine over 40 years ago. Ed Muskie actually stood on a tree stump and gave a talk. My Dad, Ed, and me, got in our car after the speech and went to visit some of the local old folks who couldn't make it to the cook-out. Years later, when Muskie ran for President, my Dad and he went with the secret service men to call on many of the same old timers - much to the annoyance of the secret service men.

[union_maid]

128. My father didn't like Ike.

I must have been all of six and there were "I Like Ike" buttons everywhere. I could read them. Adlai Stevenson's campaign literature - not so much. I was so surprised when my father said he was voting for Stevenson. I thought everyone liked Ike. My father said that President Eisenhower was a good man, but he and my mother thought that he wasn't as smart as Stevenson.

[dorktv]

130. Truman did not like him either.

[Hippo_Tron]

139. Remember this ad by any chance?

http://www.archive.org/stream/Eisenhow1952/Eisenhow1952_64kb.mp4

Of course if you said that your father didn't like President Eisenhower you must be talking about '56 and not '52 when the "I like Ike" ad was run. Personally I think this is the greatest ad in political history and personally if I'd have been alive in '52 I would've been humming "Ike for President, Ike for President" while in the voting booth checking off Stevenson's name.

BTW, your father's statement says everything about how different politics is today. When's the last time that somebody could say that they like the President, but that they are voting for the challenger because he is smarter and will do a better job?

[union_maid]

146. Don't recall that ad

But then, I was two or three when that ran. I guess they brought the buttons back in '56. Rhymed and everything.

[yardwork]

129. Kennedy's assassination

I was three. I remember seeing the schematics of the event on TV. They looked just like my wagon. I thought that the president had been riding in a wagon and somebody shot him.

[Bariztr]

131. Democratic National Convention 1976

Barbara Jordan's keynote address. I can still remember how it gave me goosebumps when I heard that woman speak. I asked my dad if she was running for President and he told me she was not. I asked why and he smiled softly and said "I don't know".

[GreenPartyVoter]

132. Iran hostages and Raygun getting elected

[ihelpu2see]

133. Nixon impression for my family at age 3-4 with the "V" for victory pose.

You know the both arms over head holding up the peace sign or V for victory I mean...

[AllieB]

134. Nixon resigning

I was five, and my parents were very happy. They're lifelong Democrats.

[annabanana]

135. army McCarthy hearings

Had NO IDEA what was going on... I was 3.
Dad was teaching at Harvard (comm-symp central dontcha know?), and had a bunch of colleagues over to watch the TV.

I knew it was "serious" by the mood in the room.. but it was just boring babble to me...

[Hippo_Tron]

136. Dad took me into the voting booth with him in 1992

Both parents and teachers were really excited about the outcome of that election. I remeber seeing two guys sitting in chairs outside of the voting booth and thinking that they were Bush and Clinton trying to get peoples' vote. I went around telling everybody that I had seen the presidents.

[dajoki]

137. JFK's Inauguration...

six years old and I was hooked!!

[MassLiberal]

138. JFK assassination

Nov. 1963. I was nearly four. I remember my parents watching the news and hearing about how the president had decided not to have the bulletproof shield over his car during the parade. I didn't really understand what it all meant.

[peacetheonlyway]

140. late night discussions with my father in the kitchen

while watching Carter deal with the Iran hostage situation.

Dad always thought Carter was a genius and misunderstood by American people and impaired by Congress.

he felt that people did not give credit for his exemplary foreign/middle east diplomacy or getting the hostages back alive.

it was then that I had an inkling that politics were important....

I was about 8 years old...

[mwooldri]

141. Falkland Islands Conflict, Margaret Thatcher vs Michael Foot.

It was the early 1980's. That's my first experience of politics. I was too young to get really interested and active at that time. Didn't know the significance of it all. Except I know the Falklands conflict helped Maggie get elected. If there was no war, there might have been a complete schism in politics in the UK in the early 1980's - the SDP/Liberal Alliance might have got more votes, got more seats, Labour might not have lost so many, and UK politics would have changed forever. However it didn't - and it shows that even if you get a quarter of the votes you don't get a quarter of the power - they only got 3.5% of the seats in Parliament despite getting 25.4% of the vote. Not fair!

Oh well, if Labour do bad enough next election and the Conservatives don't do well either then maybe the Lib Dems can pick up some more and cause a hung parliament in the UK.

Mark.

[APPLE314]

145. Passing money to the police from a brothel for a judge's election campaign

Even prostitutes pay attention to politics. All politics are local.

[Fire Walk With Me]

147. "Watergate" headlines.

Being very young, I could only conclude that a damn had broken.