Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The Kennedy assassination. I was very young, and the impact on me was mostly because how very upset my parents were. I remember my father coming home from work early, coming in the front door, yelling, "The President's been shot." I was watching "The Friendly Giant" (remember him?) on NET, so there was no news bulletin and we didn't know. It was scary, seeing my dad, especially, so worked up. And he hadn't even voted for Kennedy... Later, when the funeral was televised, I remember my mom had me watch John, Jr. salute, and she told me that he was saluting his daddy, who was dead.
If you ask my daughter, she would probably say 9-11. She was 15, home from school that day, and I called her from work when someone came in the office and said a plane flew into the World Trade Center. I knew she was watching Fox and Friends, so if it was true they'd have it on. She gave us a blow-by-blow description of what was happening, from the time the second plane hit until the buildings collapsed. We had clients in the waiting room, and I related to them everything as my daughter described it.
this date 13 August 1961 the Berlin Wall was activated I had only been in the USA for a few years .. we were still very much greenhorns and watched in horror as the wall went up and many of our friends were on the eastern side and we could only watch and pray ..
that was the one thing I will never forget and then in 1989 the wall came down great joy as we saw old friends and family again .. :: sighs:: theres other things but this is something that shaped my future I think or at least planted the seed of Liberalism in my mind ..
The wall coming down made me feel proud to be a conservative.
When I was six, I was so oblivious that I didn't even know that JFK had been assassinated. However, the day of the funeral, I came home either from playing outside or from school, I can't remember which, and saw my mom crying while she watched it on television. I can still see the images from it in my mind (in black and white, of course). My mom explained to me what had happened, but I think I was more nonplussed than anything else. But it definitely left an impression of, "this is huge."
After that, it would be the various Gemini launches. I became pretty obsessed by what was going on with the space program during my elementary school years. Bobby Kennedy's assassination pretty much killed the buzz from that, though. This country seemed to be making so much great progress and then that happened.
So how about you?
I was 6 at the time of the RFK assassination (as well as the MLK assassination). I vaguely remember them, but I can't say they made that much of an impression.
I'd have to answer the Arab oil embargo, when I was 11. It gave me a sense of unease and vulnerability that I had never had previously. That was followed by a lot more of that feeling in the years that came later. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan when I was 17 had a big impact also, driving home the danger of war with the Soviet Union and the possible destruction of our way of life.
All Kennedy's for me. First, the Cuban Missile Crisis, then RFK's assasination followed by brother Bobby's assasination. Of course MLK too.
I remember my mom and dad at the kitchen table telling me of the crisis and how imminent it was. I was a little concerned and they let me watch some of it on tv but I think I ended up playing war outside anyway. I was about 9 and had my priorities.
World War II.
I was old enough to know that a lot of people would get killed.
Every movie schedule in those days had a war movie.
This made my fears worse.
And the really worse thing I worried about was that the boy who would have been the one for me would be killed or grossly maimed.
I used to read the list of names of the war dead in the daily news paper.
I was sure that I would recognize his name if I saw it.
Some had photos and I studied each of them sure that I would know him if I saw him.
All these years later, I am sure that he was a casualty.
I was 9 years old then. My brother was in the Army at the time, helped my mom make care packages for him. I remember watching the nightly news with my parents, dad would always say not to worry.
For me the Rodney King riots, and Desert Storm were probably the first historic impression I had as a kid. I was in elementary school and it was the early 90s.
The Cuban Missile Crisis. I was around 10, didn't really comprehend what was going on, just knew Mom and Dad were really scared, so of course we all were, too.
Me too. I was the same age. I remember quite distinctly why Dad didnt go to work that day and I was kept out of school. If the world was going to end we wanted to be together. I sometimes think of that as the end of my childhood for it burst the bubble mom and dad built around me. It was just reinfoeced by Kennedy's assiagnation a year later. But the strongest memory is just being with my parents that day, not knowing if there would be a tomorrow.
No doubt. It still boggles my mind. I work in aerospace now and with all the hurdles and hoops and bureaucracy and inefficiencies we deal with every day I still don't know how the US put a man on the moon in nine years (five out of six times in four years) when engineers didn't have desktop computers, email, Excel, hand held calculators, etc.
Whenever something totally frustrating happens at work (like being told it will take three days for an IT guy to replace toner or you need to fill out a form to get a light bulb changed) I exclaim out loud "We never put a man on the moon - No Way - not this country."
That is the shining bright spot of my teenage years. We were on vacation and rented a tv so we wouldn't miss it. I remember just standing outside, looking up at the moon thinking there were really *people* there.
My dad worked in the program and I was so proud of him for being a small part in something so awesome.
I remember when I got my first pc, something my phone now completely outruns, that it had more processing power than the biggest computer that served the space program. It was amazing to think of how incredable an accomplishment it was.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
