I am not talking about the first presidential election you remember, but the first one you did anything about. It does not have to be something that mattered, but just something you did, like casting a vote in a school mock election or making a poster.
My first memory was in the four grade, I believe, (It could have been third - I know I was at Brown Elementary and that was only third and fourth). Someone had brought a picture of Dwight Eisenhower (yes, I am that old) and three of us linked arms and walked through the playground chanting “I like Ike!”. Children kept joining the different ends of the line, and before we knew it there were over thirty childeren walking shoulder to shoulder chanting.
Obviously, we were too young to know about politics, but we were certainly backing the status quo.
The funny part was that I remember when we turned a corner, it was like “crack the whip” and the kids on the end wemt flying. (But I suppose that’s politics - any campaign loose some on the extreme right and left)
Second grade, the Bush vs. Dukakis campaign. My teacher had gathered us all around for a political discussion. She asked us the question, “The day after the election, who will be president?” This was, of course, a trick question for second graders, because Reagan would have still been president until the new one was inaugurated.
I, having listened very closely to my parents’ discussion at home of who they were voting for, blurted out, “George Bush!”
I think it was third grade. We were having a mock election between Carter and Ford.
For some reason, the teachers kept holding it, day after day. I remember first Carter was winning, then as the days went by, Ford began to pull ahead.
The last mock vote we had, Ford was the unanimous winner. After that, there were no more mock votes.
I have no idea what that was all about. I certainly didn’t know diddly-squat about either one. But it was almost like the kids who were voting for Carter felt intimidated (even though it was a secret ballot) that everyone else was voting for Ford and began switching their votes. I wonder if it was some experiment the teachers were running?
Who knows. But as an indicator of who would win the election, we failed miserably.
Around 6 years old, I asked my Mom which candidate she would be voting for. She replied “Carter” and I was horrified. I was sure my father would lose his job if they didn’t both vote for Mr.Ford, and did everything my little teary six year old self could do to convince them.
How was I supposed to understand secret ballots and Gerald Ford not owning Ford Motor Company?
I still have my third-grade school project from the 1984 election: a binder full of newspaper clippings about the candidates and my very own design for a bumper sticker reading “We want women! Vote FERRARO!” (Alarmingly, I think my eight-year-old self might actually have liked Sarah Palin.) We also had a mock election in my Brownie troop, which Reagan won by four votes to two, despite my best efforts to campaign for Mondale.
In 1st grade, my friend’s mom took a few of us to the airport to see President Carter and VP Mondale, who were making a campaign stop in Akron. I don’t think we saw the rally, we were just there to watch them disembark from the plane. I vaguely remember watching Carter walk down the steps onto the tarmac. But what I remember very clearly is the woman standing behind us had a sign that said “Fritz is my blitz!”
The first presidential election that I was old enough to vote in was in 1980. I was so clueless that I registered as an Independent because it sounded kind of cool and rebellious. I didn’t even know it was a party. It gave my friends a good laugh though.
In 3rd grade we had a Ford vs. Carter fight on the playground. I don’t remember who won, but I think I was on the Ford side because the Carter group wanted to put an end to war (I was a big WWII nut even then, in my mind no war = Hitler).
Fifth grade, 1976. Our teacher told us that he supported Ford.
He had an area of the chalkboard reserved for miscellaneous comments that he would write there each morning. The day after the election, he wrote, “Well, I had a few peanuts with my breakfast this morning.” <----- Carter smiley
I remember Eisenhower being ill, and seeing him wave from a hospital window on television. I sent him a get well card and received a reply. I cannot determine the date or the nature of the illness from a brief Google.
Reagan giving his evening address after the Challenger explosion.
I can remember, being in 2nd Grade at the time, Reagan saying, "We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”
I was a little kid, but I understood. We had watched it on TV that day, so it sticks in my memory solidly.
Ca 1991 I wrote then-President Bush to gripe about the environment (I was 10, and had recently gotten the book “50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save the Earth”, which handily included addresses to politicians).
A few months later I got a watermarked and signed letter from the White House (I still remember how excited I was to get that big rigid envelope from the mailbox right after school) and a picture of the President at the Grand Canyon. I still have it, I’m just not as enthused about it now.
