On this day in 1974. It was Richard Nixon. I remember it like it was yesterday.
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On this day in 1974. It was Richard Nixon. I remember it like it was yesterday.
another watergate wallower. my wife says I have a 2-track mind.
I missed it. I was backpacking on the day, in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado. I got into Durango a couple days later, dumped my clothes in a laundromat, and went to a cafe for some real food. They had the radio on to a speech by President Ford !!!
as I said on the day he finally died, we don't have Tricky Dick to kick around any more.
For years, I thought we could never have a worse president. [sigh].
The first time I felt real disappointment in the American Electorate was when Tricky was elected _again_ - because he had a Secret Plan(tm)!
I couldn't believe it at the time. But then, my draft lottery number was ten, and I couldn't believe that, either...
On another note, this is the anniversery of The Great Train Robbery!
Gathering around the TV in the living room to watch this was the first time in four years that our family had watched a news event together (since the moon landing, of course.) My poor Dad finally faced up to his mistake in voting for Nixon just two years before.
He has been a Democrat ever since.
For me, as a fourteen year old who had taken a lot of shit for being a McGovernite in 6th grade, this was vindication (followed by the disappointment of Ford's pardon.)
Oddly, I don't remember this event at all, though I remember the pardon.
One of my very first fuzzy memories though was gathering around the radio at what may have been my great grandmother's house and the excitement of hearing the election results of 1972. Obviously, I didn't really grasp what was going on at the grand old age of five, but it seemed like everyone was very happy that the President was this guy named Nixon.
I was serving in the Air Force during the whole Watergate period. Nixon stopped at our base in Maine on his return trip from Moscow just before the July 4 weekend. All the airmen (and women) had to spend the afternoon picking up litter along the route that Gerald Ford would drive to the flight line (where he would join Nixon and fly back to Washington with him.)
There was already a lot of buzz about whether/when he would resign. I didn't go see him. I had no desire to "show my support" for this commander-in-chief by standing behind him in uniform for the cameras. I watched on tv in the dorm and then went outside and watched as Air Force One took off. Relief when he finally announced his resignation.