What is your first memory?

Panther · Post by **Panther** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 3:43 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Allen M:

That sort of thing can't happen here? Ho, ho, ho! A lot of youse guys reading these forums weren't born yet, but I remember Kent State which was only the frosting on the cake when America was in turmoil.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This comment from Allen of the Moulton Clan got me to wondering (amazing isn't it

)... It isn't really a tough issue, but this has been a question that I've asked of new acquaintances for years, so I might as well ask it of some old friends. IMNSHO, the answers have sometimes been very revealing and insightful into each person's perspective.

So the question is simply this:

What is your very first memory, the one that immediately comes to mind and is prominent, of an event that others might also recognize?

In other words, I don't want to hear about your remembering the first time you went potty all by yourself or your memory of throwing birthday cake when you were 1,2, or 3 years old... As an example, and to start things off, I'll go first.

My first memory of a major event was sitting down in front of the TV and watching the news about the Kennedy assassination. I have some very vague memories of major things prior to that, but the most prominent and first to come to mind is the Kennedy assassination and the funeral/aftermath.

Just curious...

Next?

Oh and BTW, I remember Kent State.

david · Post by **david** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 4:06 pm

I too remember the Kennedy Assasinaton. My family had in been in the country for less than a year. I remember having cartoons disrupted on the black and white tv. I remember the solemn images, of John Boy saluting, of my parents being distraught. Kennedy was appreciated my immigrants of parents generation because he pushed for my equitable quotas of immigrants from Asia.

I remember my first fight in first grade.

I remember the "I have a dream..." speech.

I remember the assasinations of MLK and RK.

I remember the race riots of the sixties.

I remember Kent State.

I remember the images of the vietnam war.

I remember the SDS riots and Boston tactical police units riding through the crowds.

I remember the busing riots. I got caught in a few of those myself.

I remember the Fall of Saigon.

I remember my graduation class as being the first to not have to register for selective service.

I remember feeling in turmoil and depressed about some of the stuff going on.

david

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 9:30 pm

I remember the live news coverages about the Korean Conflict.

I remember as a 4-year old in kindergarten watching my first schoolyard fight between two eight graders. Remember there was blood everywhere and I even got splattered a little. It was a horrifying sight to see and I was scared, but I remember being mezmorized by the punches and the grabs and the throwing down the 7 steps of the looser as he was trying to run inside the school building for safety; kind of hypnotic. I remember the thoughts of that fight lingered in my mind for days or even weeks afterwards and that I never wanted to loose a fight and I wanted to win like that big guy did. I remember play-acting out the fight a number of times until one of the nuns stopped me and then I seemed to have forgotten all about it. Whenever I drive by the steps of that converted barnhouse on the way to vosit my mom, I sometimes can still see that fight going on in my mind. Those steps were once painted brown, a blood brown. I remember a white shirt and a tie but I don't remember which oone was wearing it. Emotional memory!

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote

I remember my graduation class as being the first to not have to register for selective service.

You must have been grinning from ear to ear when you received that news, David.

------------------
Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

Panther · Post by **Panther** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 10:06 pm

The various childhood memories are interesting, but I just want to point out that the question was specific...

"What is your very first memory, the one that immediately comes to mind and is prominent, an event that others might also recognize?

What I mean by the last part is a major news event, a national news story, a political event, or well-known occurance. Such as (but obviously not limited to) Kennedy assassination, the Korean War, Bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki, Pearl Harbor, The Stock Market Crash of 1929, the launching of Sputnik, the VietNam War, Nixon resigning (Watergate), Prohibition (or the repeal)... Those are all answers that I've been given (and accepted) over the years. I did except one answer from a woman once (a young woman) that didn't really fit what I was looking for. Her answer was "Saturday Night Fever"...

having talked with her for a little bit, I figured that about summed her up nicely.

(or should that be)

Anyway, I'm not trying to stop people from sharing memories, just clarifying.

For example (forgetting all the other memories), just from david-sempai's post I can tell that he and I are about the same age (OK, I knew that anyway from the fact that I attended some of the same early 80's tournaments that he kicked @$$ in

). AND I can safely say that Allen-sensei is older than either david or myself... with all the perspective of growing up in that different time means. I know there's a better than good chance that there are some things that david and I can "completely relate to" with each other. And that Allen has a perspective that I sometimes envy. Then again, I sometimes envy the perspective (or lack thereof) of the 22 yo woman that gave me a cigar last night at a birthday party! (HA! Figure that one out... it's not what you think at all...

)

Mary S · Post by **Mary S** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 10:21 pm

I remember those "mop top" Liverpool lads on the Ed Sullivan show...I liked the tunes but I couldn't understand what the screaming was all about!!!!

student · Post by **student** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 10:28 pm

Sputnik - October, 1957.

Nasser-United Arab Republic blockade of the Suez Canal/British-Israeli invasion of of the Sinai - 1956

Vice-President Nixon's South American tour - he was booed, frequently.

Kitchen debates in Moscow.

Fidel Castro plucking chickens in New York.

Nikita Khrushchev pounding his shoe at the UN, saying he would bury us.

Cuban missile crisis/blockade/Adlai Stevenson saying he would wait for an answer until Hell freezes over.

Churchill.

Churchill dying.

Eisenhower.

Ex-president Truman.

David Ben-Gurion.

Elvis Presley on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Topo Gigio on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Steve Allen on TV: Steve & Eydie, Louis Nye.

John Kennedy for President.

Camelot.

Vaughn Meader.

November 22, 1963.

Attorney-General Robert Kennedy.

Senator Robert Kennedy.

Sirhan Sirhan.

The Reverand Dr. Martin Luther King.

Yuri Gagarin

Alan Shepard.

John Glenn.

And I also remember Kent State.

I attended Kent State the quarter following the shootings. I'll write about that later.

Panther, what have you wrought?

student

[This message has been edited by student (edited April 18, 2001).]

Post by **gmattson** » Wed Apr 18, 2001 11:34 pm

Listening to the radio announce Japan's attack of Pearl Harbor. . .

Newsreels at the movies depicting the 2nd WW. . .

Face of Hitler as he spoke. . .

Newsreels updates of the war.

Announcement of the war's end. (By radio)

FDR's dog Falla. . .

FDR's death. . .

Many others, but the early memories are most vivid.

------------------
GEM

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Thu Apr 19, 2001 4:16 am

I remember watergate although I thought it was a flood or plumbing problem in the White House.
I remember the olympics "72"? where they held the hostages.
Lennon being killed.
The next big one coming to mind was Reagan being shot.
I think I'm blocking out the late seventies because of disco.
The next big memory was the OJ Simpson verdict. I was the only car on route 1, everyone else must have been by a radio or tv. There are lots of others but these seem to stand out the most.

David Talley · Post by **David Talley** » Thu Apr 19, 2001 4:49 am

First news worthy memory..hmmmmm

President Reagen being shot

The plane crash in DC..My dad was supposed to be on that plane

The Challenger exploding. I was at lunch in the 6th grade.

Mir going up....Commie bastards

Mir coming down...glad we could help our new friends

First woman in space

Grenada

The Movie "The Day After" I remember spending most of the early 80's being scared $hitless because of that movie.

The Wall coming down

The end of The Cold War

Panama

Desert Sheild

Desert Storm..I was 16 and my favorite teacher had us all convinced that it would be worse then Vietnam and we would all be drafted and die in the desert. Boy was he wrong..My father would have enlisted me

Registering for the Selective Service..Dad's Pen. I guess that's not news worthy but we can all relate right?

Rodney King

The Riots

OJ

The verdict

The Riots

Being sworn in for the first time as a police officer...I know I know something we can all relate to..but if I catch you speeding in my town you'll be able to relate

Press hard there's 5 copies

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You can't fight if my thumb is in your eye.

talleyuechi@earthlink.net

[This message has been edited by David Talley (edited April 18, 2001).]

Allen M. · Post by **Allen M.** » Thu Apr 19, 2001 11:09 am

I played in the swollen swamps and climbed up and down the trunks of all the old huge downed trees in my neighborhood, with the wind still howling about in the aftermath of Hurricane Carol in 1954. That was exciting. Was anyone around for the Hurricane of '38? George?

Do I remember any good news of those early days? No! I remember a lot of bad news, but am just scratching for the earliest connections with anything newsworthy [Sorry about the drivel of my first post, Panther, I thought you were just looking for the earliest childhood action memories, of which I have aplenty, not necessarily "big news"]

How the newfangled "Television Set" affected us even then with "no news is good news" and could a Dove with an Olive branch possibly hold anyone's attention? What will the young children of today remember as adults, and how will TV have shaped their lives?

------------------
Allen Moulton from Uechi-ryu Etcetera

student · Post by **student** » Thu Apr 19, 2001 11:27 am

Today is Yom HaShoa - Holocaust Memorial Day. I attended a memorial last night.

This may be why reading George's memory of the face of Hitler when he spoke sent an unspeakable reaction through me.

George - what was that like, while he was alive, and not knowing how thing were to turn out?

student

Panther · Post by **Panther** » Thu Apr 19, 2001 3:32 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by Allen M.:

Sorry about the drivel of my first post, Panther, I thought you were just looking for the earliest childhood action memories, of which I have aplenty, not necessarily "big news"<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Allen-sempai, Please don't misunderstand my point. I enjoy(ed) all of the things that were posted and there isn't any reason to apologize. (I didn't consider it "drivel"...

) I was just clarifying that I was looking for people's earliest memory of an event that other people would also know about. Don't cha think it gives some insight into different people's perspective based on the era/times in which they grew up? I do...

david · Post by **david** » Thu Apr 19, 2001 3:51 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote

I was just clarifying that I was looking for people's earliest memory of an event that other people would also know about. Don't cha think it gives some insight into different people's perspective based on the era/times in which they grew up? I do...

Panther, actually, I think the memory may indicate awareness but not necessarily understanding/perspective. I listed some significant memories/images but I really didn't have an understanding despite having emotions stirred.

With JFK's death, I picked up on the solemness of the occaison by the fact of disruption of tv programming and the hushness or the adults around me. Beyond that...

The race riots and fire engulfing cities was terrifying. With the rage, I didn't quite understand.

Even the selective service thing, I didn't quite know what to think. I was prepared to do it and face the luck of the lottery though I would have had a college deferment because I got in somewhere. There was not any thought of not doing it. The funny thing was as much as the thought of engaging an enemy of oversea was scary, it was not as much as the stories from the minority folks I knew who had gone over, survived and came back. They talked of the tension with our own ranks. The Chinese vet's talked about being disrespected by soldiers in their own units. A black vet talked about being more afraid of the white guys in his unit in fire fights, of watching his and other "brothers' backs" because the occurence of the possible (I think the term was) "fragging" where you can shot purposedly by "friendly fire."

It was only with the transition from high school to college that I began to develop some perspective about those images that were seared into memory.

david

[This message has been edited by david (edited April 19, 2001).]

Post by **gmattson** » Sun Apr 22, 2001 1:30 pm

Student:

Sorry for the late reply. Without my DSL, going on-line is a real pain. . . Ties up my phone line and is sooooo slow.

All that changes May 3rd, when my new dsl gets installed. Hopefully ATT won't buy them out and shut me down for a 3rd time!

Anyway... As a young child, my mother spent lots of time helping me understand all the violence taking place around the world following Pear Harbor. My uncle enlisted and was sending letters to my Grandmother, who would in turn pass them around to other relatives. Although many sentences were cut out of the letters, my uncle was able to tell us a lot about the horrors of the war he was experiencing. He lost many of his friends to the war and eventually got shot himself.

As a youngster, I had a hard time understanding why people were killing one another and why my favorite uncle was involved in all this. We went to the movies on Saturday to view the newsreels that updated the war news in vivid black and white. . .

Whenever Hitler's image appeared on the screen, usually in front of marching troops or in front of screaming throngs of people, my mind associated him with the devil. . . an image that remains and will probably always be with me.

------------------
GEM

Panther · Post by **Panther** » Mon Apr 23, 2001 3:00 pm

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>Originally posted by david:

Panther, actually, I think the memory may indicate awareness but not necessarily understanding/perspective.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I can understand and agree with that statement. But when I say that it gives me an indication of someone's perspective, I'm not necessarily talking about that person's perspective based on the given event, rather that it gives me an idea of the time/era that the person grew up in. Growing up in different times (IMNSHO) shapes the way we are in certain ways simply because of the way "society" was/is during those different times. That's all...