topic Re: How smart do you think you are? in Community Chat

How smart do you think you are?

qualitygal — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:12:27 GMT

Got to thinking about the history and stories of our past presidents. In school we never did much on the presidents. So while my husband was up here I drilled him. He did better than I would have. Didn't go back past the 30th on.

As you were growing up, although you were younger, who was the first president you recall being aware of. My husband remembered Eisenhower he's older than I am, I was more aware around the time of the Kennedy's.

How's your history memory?

Re: How smart do you think you are?

MoJoV — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:19:56 GMT

JFK, he was Irish and Catholic and so was my Mother. Not to mention young and handsome. I was a kid but I knew he was different.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

Love my grandkids — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:27:35 GMT

@qualitygal I'm 75 and well recall Ike. The first big news story I recall is his heart attack.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

SurferWife — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:28:37 GMT

My earliest true recognition of president was Gerald Ford, but I was too young at that time to understand politics. I just knew he was our president.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

deepwaterdotter — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:32:31 GMT

I don't think I'm very "smart" relative to others I have met.

I remember President Kennedy and his tragic demise. The country was united in its grief. I miss that feeling of national unity.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

qualitygal — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:33:58 GMT

@Love my grandkids wrote:
@qualitygal I'm 75 and well recall Ike. The first big news story I recall is his heart attack.

I don't know that I remember that. I'm 75 too.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

Coastalcarolina — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:35:40 GMT

President Nixon for me. Remember well the summer of Watergate. Home from school and nothing on the networks but those long hearings with the men in black suits. Boring for a young child. I still remember him saluting from Marine One after he was impeached. My mom cried.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

spumoni99 — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:38:10 GMT

@Coastalcarolina wrote:
President Nixon for me. Remember well the summer of Watergate. Home from school and nothing on the networks but those long hearings with the men in black suits. Boring for a young child. I still remember him saluting from Marine One after he was impeached. My mom cried.

I came here to say the same exact thing, I am 62 and I remember that ruined summer time TV!

Re: How smart do you think you are?

patbz — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:42:07 GMT

I'm 79 and have vague recollections of Truman. I'm from Silver Spring MD and remember that Truman used to take walks near the White House.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

paixmcdao — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:44:34 GMT

@Coastalcarolina wrote:
President Nixon for me. Remember well the summer of Watergate. Home from school and nothing on the networks but those long hearings with the men in black suits. Boring for a young child. I still remember him saluting from Marine One after he was impeached. My mom cried.

He was not impeached, but did resign.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

Coastalcarolina — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:50:43 GMT

@paixmcdao wrote:
@Coastalcarolina wrote:
President Nixon for me. Remember well the summer of Watergate. Home from school and nothing on the networks but those long hearings with the men in black suits. Boring for a young child. I still remember him saluting from Marine One after he was impeached. My mom cried.
He was not impeached, but did resign.

👍

Re: How smart do you think you are?

CatsyCline — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:52:42 GMT

i remember the JFK campaign song on the radio and i was a few months away my 4th birthday. we had a rubber tree plant too (high hopes - whoops there goes another rubber tree plant)

High Hopes

Everyone is voting for Jack

'Cause he's got what all the rest lack

Everyone wants to back -- Jack - Jack is on the right track

'Cause he's got high hopes!

He's got high hopes!

1960 is the year for his high hopes!

Come on and vote for Kennedy

Vote for Kennedy

And we'll come out on top!

Oops, there goes the opposition - ker -

Oops, there goes the opposition - KERPLOP!

Re: How smart do you think you are?

JillyMarie — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:55:57 GMT

Truman was the President when I was born. When I was a little girl my mom dressed me up for Halloween as a nurse carrying a medical bag with a "Get Well Ike" sign taped to the side. So I knew that Eisenhower was the President and that he was ill.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

bmorechick — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:56:46 GMT

My husband is a politics guru. He has been interested since he was an adolescent. I was interested in playing, listening to music and hanging with my friends.

I do remember vividly the death of JFK as my mom and her sisters were huddled around the TV crying. I was 8 and all I cared about was I got to play outside as we were sent home from school. My mom voted for him because he was Catholic (as were we) and young and handsome. She was not a political kind of woman.

I remember Watergate because my dad was all up in that! He was and is the original derogatory name caller of all politicians! He's 97 and served in WWII and Korea so yeah...he's seen and witnessed almost the past 100 years.

I will remember a lot from my lifetime, but sadly, probably mostly the worst now as the world is upside down on its axis.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

just bee — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 17:57:42 GMT

I was born during the Eisenhower administration but was too young to remember any of it.

I do remember, however, watching JFK's funeral with my mother. I had turned four the previous month.

After that, I was fully aware of who came and went through the White House and was even doing substandard impressions of Lyndon Johnson.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

on the bay — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 18:05:06 GMT

I use to me able to memorize a whole play or script but now when someone asks so what did you do today or yesterday or this weekend, I usually have to think hard or take a few minutes to remember!

I don't think it has to do with smart, more like how much our brain can remember details out of all the important things.

And some people have incredible recall and remember random facts about so many things.

I think Kennedy was the first president I remember because my mother held me on her shoulders to see his casket go by.

It all did seem like the age of Camelot looking back on the feeling of that time and how we felt about it then.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

scatcat — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 18:13:32 GMT

Probably Ford. I remember Carter as "the peanut farmer" and his brother Billy. I was a child.

I vividly remember sitting in math class when the announcement of Reagan getting shot came over the school intercom.

I'd like to go back to knowing not much about presidents.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

on the bay — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 18:16:13 GMT

When I was a little older, probably jr high (middle school as it's called now), or late elementary I was very interested in all the presidents and wanted to know about them.

Plus we had very good elementary school teachers that taught a lot of history.

I had a wonderful glossy paperback book with a page of each president. A colored photograph or painting and a page describing their presidency and the nation at the time. I loved that book. Wish I still had it but you can't save everything.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

Love my grandkids — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 18:20:10 GMT

@qualitygal I've been a news junkie from a very young age. This was in the paper and all over the news and all the adults talked of it endlessly.

Re: How smart do you think you are?

J Town Girl — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 18:38:11 GMT

I think I was in the second grade when President Eisenhower came to our town. It was a small Catholic school with eight grades. The nuns took all of the students from the grades out to the playground and the president's car drove by and he waved from the open window.

Since I was young it wasn't all that exciting to me at the time. In later years I realized what a nice experience that was for a girl from a small town in PA.

My full memory of a president goes back to John Kennedy. Before he came to our town one of the priest in our parish was in a church in MA and the Kennedy's were members of his church. For the first year he was at our church I think every Sunday sermon was filled with stories of the Kennedys. That was his claim to fame. I think a lot of our parishioners got pretty tired of the constant stories and I believe he was told to limit the stories. Every once in a while he would throw one in just to keep us reminded of where he was before he came to our town. I don't think he really liked living in a small town and there was always talk of his disagreements with the other three priests in the parish.