What was your earliest national/international memory?

EdFred

EdFred

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Inspired by the you know you're old when thread, it reminded me of a discussion I had with some friends. What was your earliest memory that was big enough to be something "everyone" knew about? Examples being 9/11, Challenger, Moon Landing, Olympics Games, Bobby Thompson's HR, etc... and not things like the opening of the local McDonald's, the birth of a sibling, some family dinner, the town's fireworks, or when Old Man Smith's barn caught fire.

The earliest big event I remember was the Lake Placid Olympics, followed by Mt St Helen's eruption.
 
Eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980. I was seven years old, but in one of the photos, the photographer captured the wheel pant of the plane! Got my attention and my Grandma thought it was because of the volcano and started clipping newspaper articles for me!
 
I clearly remember watching the gulf war on TV, I would have been about 3 years old.
 
I remember Chicxulub like it was yesterday.
 
1969 Moon landing. It was the longest length of time I ever sat in front of a TV.
 
We have a lot of young people responding to this thread.

My earliest memory of a 'big' event was the Kennedy assassination.

I was five, and while I was aware at the time that something big and bad had happened, I was also annoyed that the TV coverage was pre-empting all of the cartoons.
 
Moon Landing. Christmas the year before was when my parents were able to buy a TV. Mom woke us up to watch Neil take the first step.
 
Challenger explosion. I was attending Sally K. Ride Elementary at the time.
 
Gas station lines on the national news, and rationing by odd/even license plates on the local news. 1972 +/- 1 year? I would have been 5 years old.
 
I think the first thing I can remember was Eisenhower running for President. I didn't have a clue what it meant, or even that there was a world outside of my neighborhood. But I remember mom answering the door and getting a poster about it.
 
For me, I guess the most notable early one would be the Cuban missile crisis. I remember the feeling that it could lead to nuclear war.
 
Kinda counts on a national level but probably not international.. would be the bi-centennial celebration. (9-10 years old)

as far as a particular event....a where were you when, kind of moment
Elvis' death... (I really don't know why, I was not really a fan, nor were my parents any sort of over the top fan. I guess it was just because "everyone knows who Elvis is")

I have "earlier"...but not a particular moment kind of thing, more of a general background awareness....not sure they really count
but I recall stories about viet-nam on the evening news.
then a little more specific, Maybe the arab oil embargo...still really just an awareness, early memory sort of thing...not specific (6 or 7 years old)
 
I remember what must have been Mercury launch when I was really young... like maybe 4 years old. I remember being pretty ticked because it was on instead of Captain Kangaroo.
 
Gemini launches.. I don't remember any of the Mercury flights.
 
Earliest memories of such events are from around '79, '80, '81

Namely the presidential election in '80. My elementary school ran a contest where students could 'vote' for who they thought should/would win. If we picked the right one, we would get a coupon for a free McDonald's cheeseburger. I picked.... incorrectly. Regan won by a landslide and I didn't get a cheeseburger. (note - this is not turning this into a political post.... my 'vote' as a six year old in no way represents how I may have or have not voted as an eligible voter)

Remember the first shuttle launch vividly. Also the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. Kept asking my parents if there were any volcanoes that were going to erupt and kill us all (answer - no, there are no volcanoes near Pottstown, PA that we know of).

Also remember very clearly watching the mini-series The Day After. I asked my parents if I could watch it. They said no way. I begged and pleaded. They caved and let me watch it. Nightmares for years after that about getting irradiated in a thermo-nuclear war. Thanks a lot mom and dad.

Much later, we happened to have a snow-day on January 28, 1986. Home from school at a friend's house, we were watching live when the Challenger exploded after launch. I can still remember thinking this can't be real. Similar to the feeling I had on 9/11 working in DC at the IMF when my colleague (who had a window office looking toward the Pentagon) came in to my (interior, no window) office to let me know there was a huge amount of smoke coming from across the river. That whole day is imprinted in my memory banks and it would take too much time to type it all out here.
 
I don't remember my birth........but it was 1945
Eisenhauer Elected.......................1952
Coronation of Elizabeth II...............1953 ( my father was there.............photographer for View-Master)
 
Palmpilot said:
For me, I guess the most notable early one would be the Cuban missile crisis. I remember the feeling that it could lead to nuclear war.
Click to expand...
Hmm. Air Raid Sirens. Get under your desk at school drills. CONELRAD testing on TV and Radio. I wonder if someday someones first memory will be that Emergency Broadcast System fiasco that happened in Hawaii a few years ago. I remember getting into all the how to build a bomb shelter stuff. Those things woulda made cool forts.
 
Brad W said:
Kinda counts on a national level but probably not international.. would be the bi-centennial celebration. (9-10 years old)

as far as a particular event....a where were you when, kind of moment
Elvis' death... (I really don't know why, I was not really a fan, nor were my parents any sort of over the top fan. I guess it was just because "everyone knows who Elvis is")

I have "earlier"...but not a particular moment kind of thing, more of a general background awareness....not sure they really count
but I recall stories about viet-nam on the evening news.
then a little more specific, Maybe the arab oil embargo...still really just an awareness, early memory sort of thing...not specific (6 or 7 years old)
Click to expand...
Hate to break the news to you, but Elvis is not dead. Neither is JFK Jr.:rofl:
 
Going to the 1964 World's Fair in NYC is the earliest dateable event I can remember.
 
'84 Olympics in Los Angeles. I was about 5. I used to play this old DOS game called "Summer Games" on my Dad's Compaq luggable, and when my Dad asked me if I wanted to see the Olympics for real, it took me some time to understand that the game I liked to play was based on a competition between real humans!
 
I vaguely remember 9/11 but I’d say my first one was the invasion of Iraq in ‘03
 
Here's another vote for JFK's assassination. Weirdly, what I remember most is my mom using the word "assassinated" when I didn't have a clue what that meant.
 
Bell206 said:
1969 Moon landing. It was the longest length of time I ever sat in front of a TV.
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I remember being bored silly by that. Apparently not appreciated by a 3-year-old.

I remember hearing “bombings in Cambodia” on the news.
 
I was 4 when JFK was killed. Mom was upset, my sister came home from school early and my dad came home early, visibly upset.

I did not understand what was going on at the time, but I was crying because even though I did not know why everyone was upset, I was pretty sure it was going to lead to getting the seat of my pants warmed up.... (a paddling for those who are too young to understand that phrase...)

Plus Captain Kangaroo wasn't on. We only got 3 channels, and when mom's stories came on, I would be banished to the back yard...
 
Deelee said:
Namely the presidential election in '80. My elementary school ran a contest where students could 'vote' for who they thought should/would win. If we picked the right one, we would get a coupon for a free McDonald's cheeseburger. I picked.... incorrectly. Regan won by a landslide and I didn't get a cheeseburger. (note - this is not turning this into a political post.... my 'vote' as a six year old in no way represents how I may have or have not voted as an eligible voter)
Click to expand...
Omg, did we go to the same elementary school?
I also remember exactly this when I was six. Whoever chose the photos for the three candidates chose a simply awful one for Reagan —looking like a shriveled raisin— such that none of us kids voted for him.
 
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