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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: What are your earliest political memories?
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Timothy the Obscure
Mostly Friendly
# 292
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Posted
Wow. That's kind of freaky. I don't know how I missed it. It would have been a good occasion for a party.
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When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
- C. P. Snow
Posts: 6114 | From: PDX | Registered: May 2001
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure:
Wow. That's kind of freaky. I don't know how I missed it. It would have been a good occasion for a party.
My impression, buttressed by the Clint Eastwood biopic, is that J. Edgar Hoover pretty much established a personality-cult around himself. At least according to the film, he was actually called before congress and made to answer questions about why FBI-endorsed comic-books exaggerated his role in the solving of various cases.
So, if there's any American civil-servant who would be granted a televised funeral, it would probably he him.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Anna B
Shipmate
# 1439
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Posted
I remember seeing a poster with the Presidents' faces on the wall of my kindergarten classroom. The newest was Gerald Ford.
A later memory: My father was not a fan of Jimmy Carter, and often ranted on this subject. One day we were all sitting at dinner when he started up. I said, "Dad, I know that you don't agree with President Carter, but he is our President and we should respect him." I cannot for the life of me remember how those words came to me, a third-grader. In any case my father turned the color of a beet and the subject was permanently dropped.
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Bad Christian (TM)
Posts: 3069 | From: near a lot of fish | Registered: Oct 2001
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure:
Wow. That's kind of freaky. I don't know how I missed it. It would have been a good occasion for a party.
Apparently some of the footage of that funeral has survived. Possibly NSFW!(You'll see what I mean right after clicking).
It doesn't say if this footage comes from a TV broadcast.
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cygnus
Shipmate
# 3294
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Posted
I vaguely remember Canada getting its new flag (1965), and a couple of years later remember getting a day off school for the Governor General's funeral (Vanier), although we had no TV at that point so I never saw it.
It was the following year that I remember a lot from- I was old enough to understand more, and 1968 was a momentous year. I remember both the MLK and the RFK assassinations, Trudeaumania, and the Prague spring (followed by the Soviet invasion). This one hit close to home as my father is Slovak Canadian. All of these were discussed at school and in the schoolyard, although I was only in Grade 3/4 at the time. I think that's when I became a news junkie and started reading my parents' Time magazines.
Posts: 123 | From: canada | Registered: Sep 2002
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
Cygnus wrote:
quote:
I think that's when I became a news junkie and started reading my parents' Time magazines.
Remember the 1970s split editions, with government-endorsed Canadian content? I never quite got the idea of putting CanCon in American newsmagazines. Doesn't that just make them competitive against Canadian-owned publications?
I also recall Jack Davis, of Mad Magazine, illustrating Time covers of that era. He captured the frazzled spirit of the times well.
Swinging across the pond, I think a close second for my earliest memory of British politics would be the trial of Jermey Thorpe, which apparently started right after the 1979 election.
[ 24. June 2013, 16:08: Message edited by: Stetson ]
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
georgiaboy: (All of which, I guess, puts me in the geezer class.)
Yes, isn't it about time you changed your name to georgiaMAN? Or, georgiaANCIENT? georgiaHASBEEN? Oh, I could go on and on. All this time I've been thinking you were a young whippersnapper, even younger than me (I just turned 46 on June 18). ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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ChaliceGirl
Shipmate
# 13656
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Posted
I was about 5 or 6 when I kept hearing the word "Watergate" on TV but I had no clue what it meant.
I was 7 or 8 when I wrote to President Carter and his daughter Amy. The White House send me back lovely booklet that taught children about the president and the White House. I cherished that!
Posts: 710 | From: Philadelphia, PA, USA | Registered: Apr 2008
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The5thMary
Shipmate
# 12953
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ChaliceGirl:
I was about 5 or 6 when I kept hearing the word "Watergate" on TV but I had no clue what it meant.
I was 7 or 8 when I wrote to President Carter and his daughter Amy. The White House send me back lovely booklet that taught children about the president and the White House. I cherished that!
I remember some relatives sneering about Jimmy Carter being "just a Southern redneck peanut farmer!". Oh, but was that worse than a mediocre actor from "woo woo" California? Boy, they just went on and on about Carter being a peanut farmer. Hey, it worked for George Washington Carver! I love peanuts!
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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God gave me my face but She let me pick my nose.
Posts: 3451 | From: Tacoma, WA USA | Registered: Aug 2007
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
I suppose my earliest political memory is of huge US Air Force planes being loaded with Thor missiles that had been operated by the RAF. It was only years later that I found out that this was part of the deal that prevented us all being turned to glass during the Cuba missile crisis.
A year or so later I remember my mum stomping round the house in a bad move because "the Socialists" had got in, at the expense of that nice Mr Heath.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Boy, they just went on and on about Carter being a peanut farmer. Hey, it worked for George Washington Carver! I love peanuts!
It would probably be more accurate to describe Carter as a mid-level agricultural businessman, with training as a nuclear physicist.
But "peanut farmer" made for better jokes. And admittedly, brother Billy did not do much to help with banishing the hick image.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
I had to find out the names of the leaders of each political party for homework when I was about 9 years old. I can remember thinking it was something to do with birthday parties at first. ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
I remember (age 5) asking my mum about the Jeremy Thorpe affair. And, to her credit, emerging with some sense that 'some men like to live with other men' - but that it was somehow odd, hard to talk about...
At only a slightly older age, my oldest had read a poem at a civil partnership ceremony. How times change.
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
Oops, sorry Stetson, you beat me to it. That'll learn me to read the thread more carefully...
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Oops, sorry Stetson
No need to apologize. Your anecdote was an interesting one. It pretty much captures the way I heard homosexuality discussed by adults in the same era.
I think Thorpe might have been the first public figure I ever heard about being discussed as homosexual, though I had learned about homosexuality itself in the mid-70s.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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cliffdweller
Shipmate
# 13338
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Posted
My earliest political memories include my mom as a block organizer for tricky Dick Nixon in '60, and a rousing playground game of tag we played in '64 that was framed as Democrats v. Republicans.
More seriously I remember the principal coming into my 2nd grade classroom to tell us Pres. Kennedy had been shot, and of course the poignant funeral. I remember watching TV coverage of the looting during the L.A. riots and asking my dad why we didn't go downtown too to get a free TV.
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"Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid." -Frederick Buechner
Posts: 11242 | From: a small canyon overlooking the city | Registered: Jan 2008
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