I remember going on a family trip to South Padre Island and crossing over to Mexico for a day. I couldn't have been more than 4 or 5 years old. A couple of things stand out about the trip. My father was a police officer and I remember stopping somewhere just prior to crossing the border so that he could drop off his pistol for safe keeping while we were in Mexico. Even at that age I didn't like the idea.
While in Mexico we went to a local outdoor market and my Dad pointed out some onyx statues on a small table and asked "which one do you want Bubba?". I was small enough that I was looking up at them and I pointed out a stallion rearing up on his hind legs. I still have that statue now some 40+ years later. It's one of my most prized possessions.

Side note: In my lifetime I've only been on a few trips with my Dad. Most being when I was very young. Time just got away from us. We are planning an epic road trip in September to include the meteor crater in Arizona, Grand Canyon, Mt. Zion, Bryce Canyon, up through Utah, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and on to Mt. Rushmore/Deadwood area before heading home. It's gonna be awesome!

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
JFK's assassination and funeral.

yep, same here

Interesting how there are events that stick out in a lot of memories. Like others, the Challenger space shuttle exploded. Think I was in half-day kindergarten at the time and remember it happening on tv and my grandmother crying.

Watergate I was pissed because it interrupted my cartoons

1951 7 years old near Christmas Day, I was looking through the Houston Chronicle (?) and read that a 21 year old soldier had been killed on his birthday. Really saddened a 7 year old boy.

Carter's election. My class had a mock election beforehand. I voted for Ford, because that's who my mom said she wanted, but Carter won the mock election. I think that prepared me for when he won the real thing.

quote:

Originally posted by qxsoup:
Challenger explosion. I was in the 4th grade and watched it live in the cafeteria along with the rest of my elementary school.

Same for me, though I was only in kindergarten.

Cuban Missile crisis ,got stuck on Mac Dill AFB for 3 days. and JFK assassination 4 th. grade.

I remember the day Elvis died. Don't know why I remember that, but probably because he was just so big.

Lived within 30 miles of Brookly Air Force base in Mobile Alabama, remember "duck and cover" drills at school and on tv in case of nuclear arrack. Like that would save you.

Probably the Challenger Explosion. I was only 5, but we watched it live.

Back then, space shuttles were still a big deal. It was the USA, going into space, and no one else was going into space... Well, maybe the USSR, but those pansies hadn't even tried to land on the moon, and we did multiple times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...e_Shuttle_Challenger

That is the first HUGE deal.... The teachers shut it off very, very quickly. I honestly had no idea what i was watching until many years later as again, I was fricking 5.

Next, although as I understand now, the Nintendo being introduced. We didn't have one until then, and even then, I NEVER had one. My parents didn't believe in video games, and I had to play for limited times, on weekends for brief periods, at my cousins place as we were limited to an hour a day, divided among 4 boys, once a week if we were lucky.

Pan Am flight 73. My first introduction to Islamic Terrorism.

I remember hearing about Iran-Contra in the news, and had no idea what it actually was.

Before that, I remember hearing Ronald Regan's voice each morning on the AM radio.

Let me allow some context, for both how i remember these things while so young, and while such significant events:

1. My parents had an AM radio as their alarm clock. One of the few stations with programming appropriate for children was KMOX (1120 AM in St. Louis). It is known as a pretty conservative radio station in St. Louis today, but was more news orientated back then. My parents, despite our political differences, were well educated and well informed and listened to news radio then. That was on in the morning. They always had RR's morning radio addresses like clockwork, and it happened to be as I was up and getting ready for school. So I always heard it. I knew it was the President of the US, but wasn't quite aware of the significance (again, I was only 5.)

Also, since they sent us to private school significantly away from out house, but close to the school my mother taught at, we listened to the radio for 30 minutes on the way to school, and then for 30 more on the way home. Usually talk radio again.

So I had no choice but to absorb a lot of news....

If my mother only knew how that helped shape my views that are totally opposite of hers... She'd be mortified...

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Revolution37:
Probably 9/11. That was the start of the 24/7/365 news cycle. I was in third grade.[/QUOTE

Goddamn, now even I feel old... I was 20 during this and remember coming downstairs at my parents house (I only had one class tuesday and thursdays, and IIRC, it was a thursday) Class was afternoon so i was up later and the first plane had hit. The TV was on downstairs where I was going to shower and I stopped, in my underwear and watched in horror... Then the second plane hit live on TV.

I actually drove to school that day. Some idiot was celebrating them. He may, or may not have been punched... Well, he did get punched, it just may or may not have been by me....

For me, I think it was the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I would have been about 4 1/2 at the time.

The Challenger shuttle explosion. I was one week shy of turning 6 at the time.

I'm gonna have to go with the space program in general, but specifically (like others), Neil Armstrong walking on the moon 20-JUL 1969.....I was 8 1/2.

Nixon getting the Pandas in China.

The earliest distinct memory (7 yo) was when Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Night of the shooting and the funeral. I still have vivid memories of the moon landing the next year.

All through this time, I still remember watching Vietnam war footage every night on TV.

quote:

Originally posted by texassierra:
I remember going on a family trip to South Padre Island and crossing over to Mexico for a day.

Our family did this very same thing several summers in a row, when I was young.
 

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
JFK's assassination and funeral.

This.
Seems liked I watched his funeral procession
for months.

Not a news event, but I clearly remember when WW2 ended. We lived in Lewiston, Idaho about 100 miles from an air force base in Spokane.

2 P51 fighters came screaming over the town, did a couple of loops, etc, then for a moment I thought they crashed. They descended to hedge hopping altitude, flew along the Clearwater river, under the bridge, then pulled up into a very steep climb.

Not childhood memory, but when the Berlin wall came down is very clear. We had family living "over there" and suddenly they were free.