Community Chat

[Mersha]

I saw this topic on Facebook and found it interesting:

What was the first major news story you remember as a child?

I was very young but had a sense that my mother and dad were very frightened and it scared me.  They seemed to be upset watching the TV.  I remember hearing the word Cuba.

Not understanding anything at all, but my first brush with a big news event was the Bay of Pigs.

[phoenixbrd]

Kennedy being shot and the immediate response of his wife.  It seemed surreal.

[RedTop]

I've been told that around the age of 3, I walked around repeating the name Nikita Khrushchev every time it was said on TV, and if I saw him on TV, I would touch the screen and say his name.  

[Scooby Doo]

I remember Sputnik.  The young uns will have to google that one.

I remember John Glenn's first flight.

And I remember when the first birth control pills were approved.

Yes, I'm a dinosaur.

[rms1954]

JFK assassination.  I remember waiting outside for my school bus and heard about it.  I was 9.  I also remember that day because there was this girl who bullied me all the time.  I was trying to remain invisible to hide from her but she found me.  She pushed me up against the brick school building and hit my head and pulled my hair.  I hated school.  From day one kindergarten.  

[haddon9]

Probably the first big story for me was the election of JFK.  I can remember waiting with my mother for her to vote and then hearing that Kennedy won.

[shoesnbags]

I vaguely remember the Soviet Union invading Hungary in 1956, but at 7 years old I didn't really understand what was going on.  Just remember seeing it on TV.

After that, it was probably the Cuban missle crisis In 1962.  I remember our Civics teacher discussing it with us in great detail.  Very scary for a 13 year old.

Then the next year Kennedy was assasinated and I have vivid memories of that. I can clearly remember standing at a bus stop with my friend that afternoon and staring at the newspaper box with the horrible headlines. I was 14.

[MezzieStarr]

The Challenger Explosion.  I was in elementary school.  We had spent the whole month of January studying NASA.

They had us watch the launch live on tv. The tragedy happened and they sent us all home from school early.

I remember everyone being in shock/disbelief. Silence in the classroom among the students. Teachers crying.

Probably the first time that many of us as children experienced death.

It is burned into my memory like it happened yesterday.

[Kachina624]

I think when Eisenhower was elected president.  He had that catchy "I like Ike" slogan which would appeal to a child.

[Mersha]

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@rms1954 wrote:

JFK assassination.  I remember waiting outside for my school bus and heard about it.  I was 9.  I also remember that day because there was this girl who bullied me all the time.  I was trying to remain invisible to hide from her but she found me.  She pushed me up against the brick school building and hit my head and pulled my hair.  I hated school.  From day one kindergarten.  

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@rms1954   I am so sorry you had to deal with bullying.  No child should ever be subjected to that.  It must have been very difficult to go to school every day.