# The history you remember

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [September 11, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340 "2006-09-11T20:55:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 10\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/41 "2006-09-12T20:12:56Z")

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[QUOTE=Loach]  
…  
**Whatexit?** I was pissed at Watergate because channel 7 in New York was having their monster movie week on the 4 o’clock movie and coverage of the hearings pre-empted them.  
…I was born in 1967.  
[/QUOTE]

Now that you mention it, not just monster week, but King Kong and Godzilla type Monster week, right? I was born in 1966 BTW. Class of '84. One of the members who doesn’t post very often was in my class in fact.

Jim

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**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/42 "2006-09-12T20:23:58Z")

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I was 4 years old when JFK was shot, and all I remember is the adults being upset. After that, in no real order, Apollo 11, the riots in the summer of '68, Watergate, Nixon’s resignation, end of the Vietnam War, evacuation of the Saigon embassy, death of JP I, shooting of JP II, Solidarity, the Wall, Tiananmen Square, the failed Moscow Coup, Columbia, Challenger, Nelson Mandela’s release from Robin Island, Gulf I, 9/11.

Not that all of these were “life changing”, but I have an undergrad in history and have always been something of a news junkie, and as a result things which I know are going to end up in the history books make an impression.

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**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/43 "2006-09-12T20:25:49Z")

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I was born a year earlier, and I remember Neil Armstrong walking on the moon (because my father told me he got them to do it just for my birthday, and I remember thinking it was the best present in the world).  
The Berlin Wall coming down, the dismantling of the Soviet Union, Tiananmen Square (that one really stuck with me), the deaths of Steven Biko, Elvis & John Lennon. Nelson Mandela released from custody after 27 years.

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**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/44 "2006-09-12T20:27:01Z")

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Heh. That was in response to **Loach** , btw…

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**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/45 "2006-09-12T20:35:28Z")

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Tianamen Square really annoyed me.

The Chinese had no idea of crowd control

- the behaviour would not have been tolerated in NYC or London, but water cannon would have been used.

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**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/46 "2006-09-12T21:55:19Z")

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[QUOTE=KlondikeGeoff]  
From an old geezer (are there young geezers?):…

[/QUOTE]

I was surprised to find out that there **are** young geezers. _Rolling Stone_ magazine did a big story about the Sex Pistols when they were the flavor of the month. The Pistols’ singer, Johnny Rotten, got that name from a bandmate who said, “He was the filthiest geezer I ever knew.” He also had rotten teeth. Later in the story, one of them spoke of “geezing up,” that is, injecting heroin. This may be strictly a UK thing. I had never seen these uses before, and I haven’t seen them since.

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**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/47 "2006-09-13T09:09:47Z")

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[QUOTE=Rodgers01]  
[hijack]

**Mnemosyne** – was going to e-mail you, but I couldn’t access your address in your profile. What base were you stationed at in Germany? I was also at an Army base in Germany at the time, and about the same age (9 when the Wall fell). E-mail me; I’m curious.

[/hijack]  
[/QUOTE]

Hehe - your email is blocked too 😃 I was at CFB Lahr, 1990-1993. I did my grades 4,5 and 6 at Westend Jr School. I had a classmate with “Rodgers” as a family name…

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**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/48 "2006-09-13T12:17:44Z")

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[QUOTE=mnemosyne]  
Hehe - your email is blocked too 😃 I was at CFB Lahr, 1990-1993. I did my grades 4,5 and 6 at Westend Jr School. I had a classmate with “Rodgers” as a family name…  
[/QUOTE]

🙂 Wasn’t me – I didn’t notice your location until I posted; we were with the American military, in Stuttgart (which, incidentally, was the time and location of [this](http://imdb.com/title/tt0252299/) movie, though the movie depiction didn’t at all match what I remember from a 9-year old’s perspective, anyways).

But I think we did visit CFB Lahr a couple times! It was my first time in “Canada” before actually visiting **Canada** , if you know what I mean. Really cool to see English and French everywhere, plus you guys had a couple different things in your stores – I specifically remember the excitement at finding different flavors of Nerds candy than we had in our PX (hey, I was 9…). I got my first GameBoy at Lahr.

Memories. Cool we’ve got three people in the same thread who were stationed in roughly the same place at the same time.

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**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/49 "2006-09-13T13:25:33Z")

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Also, I was in 2nd grade but I remember the Nixon/Humphrey election.  
we sang:  
_“Humphrey, Humphrey, he’s our man…  
Nixon is a garbage can.”_

I remember my mom saying she was voting for Pat Paulson.

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**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\
**Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-history-you-remember/372340/50 "2006-09-13T13:40:39Z")

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Tasman Bridge disaster, Hobart, Tasmania, 1975. A ship took out a section of bridge. As a small child, I remember seeing [this frightening image](http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/history/bridge73.jpg) of two cars on the brink.

Vancouver Olympics (and all Games since).

The Granville rail disaster, Sydney, 1977.

The Iranian hostage affair, IRanian revolution, etc.

USSR invades Afghanistan.

US boycott of Moscow Olympics.

Australia/NZ cricket affair (if you don’t know, it’d be boring. If you do, I need go no further).

Challenger.

Fall of the wall.

Everything since - Balkans, Diana, 9/11 etc.

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