Tuesday morning, February 20, 1962. Our kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Haig (who I did not refer to as Mrs. Hag like the other kids … because I had a huge crush on her) set up a TV set in class and we watched the Mercury-Atlas 6 rocket liftoff.
Indeed, my classmates were green with envy at lunchtime when, after retrieving a bologna sandwich and thermos of Tang from my official NASA “attache case”, I pointed out that the two astronauts depicted on the case were me and my co-pilot, John Glenn. John and I had already been to Mars, so this Earth orbital mission was old hat.
I think even Mrs. Haig was impressed with my space cred, but to my dismay, it didn’t result in a booty call.
First the orbital flight of John Glenn. I was 2½ and watched it sitting on my mother’s lap.
I have no memory of the moment of hearing about the JFK assassination the way everyone else does. I think the reason is that I was never directly informed. I was 4 years old. My parents must have decided not to break the news to me. I do remember watching the funeral that Monday with my mom. She must have somehow conveyed to me that Kennedy wasn’t around any more, and this is how they say goodbye, but that wasn’t the same as the wham-o moment everyone else experienced.
Well at least nobody has (that I’m aware of) said the event of…no, no I’m not gonna mention it. If I do someone will come along and say that very thing, and not in a smartass way either, they will genuinely mean it.
They will be sincere, and cheerful and hopeful and bright and smiling and shiney and new and I will have the urge to pat them on the head and shoosh them back over to the kiddy table.
I’m not old dammit, just starting to look like it.
The 1992 Summer Olympics - particularly remember watching the 100m final with my dad. I also have vivid memories of the news footage of Hurricane Andrew.
Looking it up now, these event were just a couple of weeks apart.
I was in third grade, too. I remember the principal coming to the door of our classroom and calling our teacher, Mrs. Robinson, out into the hall. When she came in she was weeping so so unashamedly that it set the whole classroom off. Every child crying.
I vaguely remember JFK’s funeral (although I can’t swear that what I actually remember was live). I also remember rows and columns of body bags on an airport Tarmac during the Viet Nam war.
The 1976 presidential election, which I remember mostly because I walked with my mother to the polling place, where she shushed me and said “you don’t tell people whom you vote for, it’s a secret thing” which impressed me mightily and memorably. Edit: if that’s more of a personal memory than an “event”, the first “event memory” was waiting in long lines for gas and seeing images of long gas lines on tv.
Sputnik. I remember being in the backyard, in the arms of my father, and everyone was pointing up into the night sky and talking about “sputnik”. They tried to get me to look up, too, but I thought a sputnik was some kind of sky monster and hid my face and wouldn’t look.
I’m curious. I know the First Moon Landing was broadcast live worldwide. Were the other Apollo Missions that resulted in Moon Landings also broadcast live worldwide or at least in the US?
Borderline case:
I vaguely recall a great gathering of the family at my grandpa’s house, with everyone sitting around the radio (yes RADIO), and being very excited.
No memory myself of what the event was, as I was only a year-and-a-bit old at that time.
The date was July 20, 1969.
Dang, I wish i was just a teensy bit older, so that I could actually have a real memory of this. I was there, but I was not yet myself
Didn’t know that! Of course, since it hasn’t come up again in the past 58.7 years, I guess there’s no reason why I would.
Wonder how many 49-star flags were actually made, given that Hawaii statehood was imminent by 7/4/59. I’m sure they had to have the correct flags flying over the White House and the Capitol during that year, but other than that…?
Military bases and embassies/consulates would have the correct flag. So would many state and local level facilities: the state capitols, city halls, police and fire stations, etc.
Speaking of the Capitol, there’s the Capitol Flag Program which flies flags over the Capitol building for a minimal amount of time. Those would be the correct flag.
If someone has an earliest memory that was 30 years ago, that doesn’t necessarily make that person young. :eek: