# WERE YOU ALIVE ON THE DAY RICHARD NIXON RESIGNED 25 years ago? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 8, 2000, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584 "2000-08-08T17:32:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/21 "2000-08-08T23:32:29Z")
I was 12. Mom called me and my brother over to the TV to watch Nixon’s resignation speech. She sat there kind of teary-eyed. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/22 "2000-08-08T23:49:43Z")
Nope. I was one of the first born into the great Ford administration. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2000, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/23 "2000-08-08T23:52:23Z")
1974, hmmm… I was 7. Don’t remember much, mom & dad didn’t talk much politics at the dinner table. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/24 "2000-08-09T00:17:04Z")
I was 21, in the Army in Germany, about 3 weeks shy of getting out. Remember that goofy wave he gave as he boarded Air Force One for the last time? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/25 "2000-08-09T00:27:51Z")
I was on the air. ABC Radio had been sending update notes all day. They started the countdown to live coverage 5 minutes before. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/26 "2000-08-09T01:26:25Z")
I was 9 years old. I let Nixon blather on on the TV for 3 whole minutes before I yelped, “This is boring, mom, I wanna watch _The Six Million Dollar Man_!” Politics never interested me much. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/27 "2000-08-09T01:53:29Z")
I was 16 and had received in that day’s mail a letter offering me a job on Capitol Hill as a Page. Later held the door open in the House chamber when the box came over from the Senate during the formalities to confirm Rockefeller as Vice President. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/28 "2000-08-09T01:58:28Z")
I was exactly one month shy of my first birthday. Pretty oblivious at the time, so can’t say that I remember much. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![FarTreker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@FarTreker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FarTreker)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/29 "2000-08-09T02:33:08Z")
I was 23. I did not like the media frenzy then and still don’t. I did not care either way for Nixon, but he got caught doing what many presidents had done before him. I think the presidential office is still wired up, though the original microphones were removed, I believe, but then replaced by the next elected president. The excuse was that it is easier to keep records that way for presidential memoirs later. I was also around when Kennedy was shot. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/30 "2000-08-09T02:56:54Z")
11 days shy of my 4th birthday. Now, if you were to ask me where I was when Reagan was shot, or when the Challenger blew up, or when the Gulf War began… ---
**Author:** ![Anti\_Pro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Anti\_Pro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anti_Pro)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/31 "2000-08-09T03:14:38Z")
I was twenty one and had voted for Nixon too, believing he could end the war. I truly had convinced myself he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to have done what he was accused of till that day. I just sat and cried. ---
**Author:** ![Baglady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Baglady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baglady)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/32 "2000-08-09T03:46:43Z")
Yup; but I was living in Japan so I missed that. I was living in Oregon during Nixon’s election against McGovern, though. My, how far we’ve come: 1974: A president, shamed into resigning because he didn’t want to be impeached. 1999: A president, shameless, is impeached but refuses to leave his seat. ---
**Author:** ![2nd\_Law](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/f475e1/32.png) [@2nd\_Law](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2nd_Law)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/33 "2000-08-09T03:51:40Z")
I was 15 years old, and I remember watching it on the tube. I also remember being livid when President Fraud pardoned that bastard 60 days after he resigned. I lay a lot of the current distrust of government at Nixon’s feet. Remember his secret plan to end the Vietnam War in 90 days? It took over 4 years and thousands of lives, and IMHO he took so long so he could use the war as a re-election ploy. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/34 "2000-08-09T04:19:30Z")
I was 3. I don’t remember it much. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/35 "2000-08-09T05:41:44Z")
I was 20, and on my way to my junior year at San Francisco State. > [@](#): > > Remember that goofy wave he gave as he boarded Air Force One for the last time? My favorite picture of Nixon is the one of him walking alone on the beach at San Clemente, wearing wingtips and a pair of big ol’ shorts. The poor guy never had a comfortable day in his life… ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/36 "2000-08-09T06:04:50Z")
I was 14 going on 15. I watched the resignation speech over at my friend’s house with his dad, a crotchety right-winger. After Nixon was done, the network talking heads appeared, and the dad grumbled, “Now they’re gonna tell us what he just said.” LOL ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/37 "2000-08-09T06:07:17Z")
> [@](#): > > The poor guy never had a comfortable day in his life… George Carlin’s memorable assessment of Nixon’s facial expression: “He looks like he hasn’t taken a shit in a month!” ---
**Author:** ![DRY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@DRY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DRY)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/38 "2000-08-09T06:42:25Z")
8 years old. I don’t remember the speech, but I was coming home from vacation with my family when I first heard he was going to resign. I didn’t really understand the significance of what was going on. I asked my fourth grade teacher, who explained that he did some bad things. She may have told me that he lied. It helped, but I was still pretty clueless. My fourth grade teacher was the first one I had a crush on, though. I probably wasn’t paying too close attention to her when she explained the Nixon thing. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/39 "2000-08-09T07:47:48Z")
I was a wee lad of 9. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2000, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584/40 "2000-08-09T09:02:14Z")
I was nine. I didn’t really pay attention. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-you-alive-on-the-day-richard-nixon-resigned-25-years-ago/28584.md?page=3)