Hubub about the President (Nixon, who I really don't remember), leaving office and Gerald Ford coming in. I was 7. I remember Ford being on TV regularly.

Personal event: 1964 - My younger brother died at two. I was four.

National event: 1968 - The Tết Offensive.

I came home from kindergarten to find my mother crying over the JFK assassination.

Probably Reagan's election night, 1980. I would have been 9. I remember lots of things earlier of course, but nothing comes to mind that I can pin a date to it.

The Japanese surrender.

The Iran hostage crisis. Stands out beyond anything else until the Challenger explosion.

I remember my mom being really upset that her brother-in-law was getting deployed somewhere, but no one knew exactly where 'where' was at the time. All she knew was that her sister with a newborn at Ft Bragg was freaking out.

Turns out that it was the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Uncle Sam had my Uncle Sammy at Eglin AFB with the rest of his 82nd Abn buddies.

I was 4.

About 2. I remember speaking to my brother in twin speak in the main hall of the house.(yes, it's a real language)
It was about the red VW mom got.

Cryptophasia

I had a full rupture of my appendix when I was 4. Went full septic and flatlined several times. I remember the bright lights.

When I say this, people think I am talking about an outer-body experience. Nope. The bright lights in the OR.

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
My earliest event memory is the JFK assassination. I was 3 at the time and I think I remember it because my mother was very upset. I remember asking her why she was so sad and I remember the front page of the newspaper.

This is my earliest memory as well. I was 4 years old.

I saw the news on tv, walked into the kitchen and told my mom that someone shot the president. She said "Don't say that, it's not funny". I told her to come look at the tv. She did and burst into tears, which was very confusing to me.

I remember being 4 years old and shoveling snow durring the blizzard of 78 with my older sisters. The snow was a about 3 feet high and over 10 with the snow drifts against our garage door.

We opened the garage and saw a wall of snow, then dugout a tunnel at first then a path to the end of the drive way and cleared just enough for our mom to park the car when she came home from work.

I remember my sisters were 11 and 7, they swung me from the garage into a 10 foot wall of snow. I loved it.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:

quote:

Originally posted by mark60:
My earliest event memory is the JFK assassination. I was 3 at the time and I think I remember it because my mother was very upset. I remember asking her why she was so sad and I remember the front page of the newspaper.

This is my earliest memory as well. I was 4 years old.

I saw the news on tv, walked into the kitchen and told my mom that someone shot the president. She said "Don't say that, it's not funny". I told her to come look at the tv. She did and burst into tears, which was very confusing to me.

My JFK story was not early in my life. I was 14 in 9th grade. The school was at lunch period. Outside in the nice SoCal weather, rumers buzzed all around but there was no confirmation. I happened to see school staff lower the flag seeing through a passage between buildings. I hollered out 'They are lowering the flag. It must be true" There was a deafening momentary silence in the lunch area.

1960 debate between Nixon and Kennedy on television, and yes it was in B&W. I was six years old.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
I had a full rupture of my appendix when I was 4. Went full septic and flatlined several times. I remember the bright lights.

When I say this, people think I am talking about an outer-body experience. Nope. The bright lights in the OR.

I am a 63, model year, and around 68 or so had my tonsils out,

I recall the drive to the hospital , some of the prep, and waking up before they started or after they had,
I recall looking up, seeing people and someone said he is awake,, then back out
and a shit ton of icecream the day or so afterwards,

I also remember the kid in the room next to me was in for burns on his body from falling or walking across some charcoal of some type, and later being told he did not make it,

heavy for a 4-5 yr old,,

outside of my sphere type stuff, per the OP, I do recall some TV news, parents watched Cronkite, and there seemed to be VN news every night, not that I had a clue what was happening then

I do remember when my brother was brought home, (he is 3 yrs younger than me) after he was born

The attempted assassination of Reagan.

I have earlier memories, but the earliest one that I can put a specific time to would be going to see ET right after it came out. That was June 1982, so I was 3 years old. The excitement and the crowds were very unusual for our little town of Dixon, Illinois. It struck me as quite an event.

Probably Jayne Mansfield death. Heard it on a radio that always sat on top of a refrigerator. Mom narrowed it down to a house we lived in about that time. I remember asking about it and her saying she was a movie star. I was 4 at the time.

The earliest event outside of my personal experience that I can remember for sure was the Martin Luther King assassination in April 1968. I also remember Vietnam war coverage in the news, so perhaps the Tet offensive in early 1968. I was 7 yrs old.

My parents shielded us from a lot of the ugliness of the world, and the news was only a 30 minute broadcast in the evening which we kids were also generally shielded from. I already had an awareness of the JFK assassination when RFK was assassinated in 1968, but I don't have a specific memory of learning about JFK.

My earliest personal memories are from 3 years old when we moved into the house I grew up in. As a young child, the external world isn't important if there isn't a direct personal impact.

I have earlier memories, but the first big event would be the 1976 Presidential Election. We would yell out the school bus windows, “Ford, Ford, he’s our man; Carter belongs in a garbage can.”

I do remember celebrating the Bicentennial which would be a bit earlier than Presidential Election.

Christmas in hospital in December 1946. I was just over nine months old, and have clear memories of the huge tall uncurtained night-time windows and the tree, covered with bright shining things. I was given my first Teddy Bear that Christmas, and in spite of all that has taken place between then and now, I still have him beside my bed at night.