Apr 24
Some early life awareness of world events.
Sputnik
When the news of Sputnik was all over the media I sensed the fear in the atmosphere. Americans were terrified of Russian (Soviet space craft overhead)
JFK election campaign
My first political activity was hanging Vote for Kennedy door tag advertisements on all my Neighbors doors. Dad was in the ILWU labor union and part of the campaign was to get out the vote. 1959-60 Age 7
I remember the JFK Nixon Debate and the big deal that was made of Nixon's 5 o'clock shadow and how tthe Black and white TV did not flatter Nixon. I was in San Francisco where Kennedy was the favorite and very popular..
JFK assassination
On NoV 22 1963 I was in the 5th grade Mrs Graff . I was home sick recovering from a bad cold. It was a thursday and I was actually looking forward to going back to School on Friday , I had been out all week and felt stir crazy. Early that afternoon I heard a lot of kids outside I looked out the front window and saw all the school kids coming home many of them were crying and upset. I opened the window and called out "What's wrong?" they siad 'The president is dead." Surprised? Sad shocked all of the above. scared worried that too. I think this was a period when our parents had restricted access to the TV so I really had no outside information. Of course that eveneing and for a long time after the TV was back in service and we were all glued to it.
I do remember the Killing of Oswald on TV. that was also shocking and surprising. Then the conspiracy theories really took off...
