# Your first political memory? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 29, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996 "2004-03-29T02:33:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![NotWithoutRage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NotWithoutRage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotWithoutRage)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/101 "2004-04-02T15:48:42Z")
State of the Union address, 1986. I believe it was the night, or very soon after the Challenger explosion. I was almost six years old. Other than that, not too much before George Bush the Elder. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/102 "2004-04-02T15:58:56Z")
I remember Kennedy speaking on TV about something or other (Cuban Missile Crisis?), but my real first political memory was his assassination. I remember a woman coming into my first grade class and asking our teacher if she had heard the news. Mrs. Gaskell replied, “Yes, it’s terrible, isn’t it”. After school I asked the woman (probably someone from the office staff) what the news was, and she said that, “President Kennedy has been shot”. I remember that up until then I had thought that Kennedy was back in Washington’s time. (Hey, I was only six…) ---
**Author:** ![Omnipresent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@Omnipresent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omnipresent)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/103 "2004-04-03T00:16:26Z")
Watching Nixon resign on TV. I must have been about 12 or so. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/104 "2004-04-03T00:23:01Z")
I was 5 and had just learned there was something called a president. So I asked my mother, “Momma, who is the president?” She laughed and said, “Nixon, but not for long!” I didn’t understand what she meant but I’ve always remembered it. It was 1974. ---
**Author:** ![in\_hiding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c5a1d2/32.png) [@in\_hiding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/in_hiding)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/105 "2004-04-03T01:20:53Z")
I saw some politicians on TV (chancellor Kohl, or “Birne”, as we called him ;), was very easy to recognise, even for the politic-ignorant kid I was), but the first time I really understood and cared what was going on was the fall of the Berlin wall, we saw it live on TV. The pictures still give me goosebumps. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Big\_Cheese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8baadc/32.png) [@The\_Big\_Cheese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Big_Cheese)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/106 "2004-04-03T01:21:28Z")
My earliest recollection of anything is JFK’s funeral. I was a month short of 4. I remember the horses, the flag-draped casket, and the procession. that’s it. I barely remember anything else in my first 5 or 6 years, but I remember that. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996/107 "2004-04-03T02:48:36Z")
> [@](#): > > I also remember thinking the NES classic Contra was based on Ollie North’s “adventures”. Too bad they never really made an Iran Contra video game. That would have been awesome. [![](https://i.somethingawful.com/inserts/articlepics/photoshop/12-05-03-vghistory/UnbelievablyFatMan3.jpg) ](https://i.somethingawful.com/inserts/articlepics/photoshop/12-05-03-vghistory/UnbelievablyFatMan3.jpg) This picture is my wallpaper. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-first-political-memory/236996.md?page=5)