50 Years

[Swift]

I have trouble both believing it was only 50 years ago and it was as much as 50 years ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smEqnnklfYs

It is one of those speeches I have to watch at least once a year. We need you so much now Dr. King.

[geonuc]

I'm in the 'can't believe it was that long ago' camp.

[Rommie]

Can't believe because you remember it, or just that it was influential?

Based on this I guess the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting is up this fall...

[geonuc]

Can't believe because you remember it, or just that it was influential?

Based on this I guess the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting is up this fall...

Can't believe because it doesn't seem that long ago to me. Mind you, I'm at the age where I can't believe a lot of stuff that happened during my early life was so long ago.

I don't have clear memories of those times but I do sort of recall being informed when Kennedy was shot. And I do remember when King was killed.

[Rommie]

Can't believe because you remember it, or just that it was influential?

Based on this I guess the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting is up this fall...

Can't believe because it doesn't seem that long ago to me. Mind you, I'm at the age where I can't believe a lot of stuff that happened during my early life was so long ago.

I don't have clear memories of those times but I do sort of recall being informed when Kennedy was shot. And I do remember when King was killed.

Ah ok, that's fair- I've asked my parents where they were when they heard JFK was shot (high school hall monitor duty and doing homework respectively) but never did the same for JFK. I should ask.

Interestingly I'm now trying my hardest to remember the first thing that I remember of national/international significance- Oklahoma City bombing leapt to mind first even though I know it's not that, though I guess that was the first "mom dropped everything and ordered us to switch from afternoon cartoons to the news channel" type surprise event.

No after thinking a little the earliest I remember is when I was 4 years old and my dad was watching some tanks on TV, which was the first Gulf War. I remember asking what was happening and he said something to the effect of there was a war but it was far away and we were safe, and my sister similarly didn't know there was a war despite being in first grade and my dad seemed surprised they hadn't mentioned it in school, or something. Then the next day while grocery shopping with my mom the power in the store abruptly went out and switched to eerie generator light- spooked me and I thought it must've happened because of the war (not, you know, the giant storm raging outside).

I mention this btw because it's funny how a little kid mind works and how it wires you later in life as I was thinking about it. I don't know if I would've remembered the Gulf War had it not been for the lights going out the next day as that's how I "associate" with it.

[Rommie]

Back to the OP since I just did a great threadjack btw, one thing my dad did say that struck him dumb about MLK and civil rights is how there's now a black president (not that he likes said president mind...). Seeing as how he spent 1962 in southern Georgia and remembers kids in his class throwing stones at little black children if they were in the "wrong" neighborhood, he just can't believe how we've progressed in that regard.

[Swift]

Can't believe because you remember it, or just that it was influential?

Based on this I guess the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting is up this fall...

Can't believe because it doesn't seem that long ago to me. Mind you, I'm at the age where I can't believe a lot of stuff that happened during my early life was so long ago.

I don't have clear memories of those times but I do sort of recall being informed when Kennedy was shot. And I do remember when King was killed.

I'm similar. I don't remember Kennedy getting shot (my wife does, she is a little older and was in elementary school; I was only 5), but I have vague memories of watching the funneral on TV.

I do remember King getting shot - can't say I remember when I heard that he was shot, but I do remember the aftermath, with riots all over the place. NYC actually remained calm, in large part because of Mayor John Lindsay, who walked the streets of Harlem that night, talking with people.

With King and Bobby Kennedy and everything else going on, 1968 was a very bad year.

[Rommie]

Can't believe because you remember it, or just that it was influential?

Based on this I guess the 50th anniversary of the JFK shooting is up this fall...

Can't believe because it doesn't seem that long ago to me. Mind you, I'm at the age where I can't believe a lot of stuff that happened during my early life was so long ago.

I don't have clear memories of those times but I do sort of recall being informed when Kennedy was shot. And I do remember when King was killed.

I'm similar. I don't remember Kennedy getting shot (my wife does, she is a little older and was in elementary school; I was only 5), but I have vague memories of watching the funneral on TV.

I do remember King getting shot - can't say I remember when I heard that he was shot, but I do remember the aftermath, with riots all over the place. NYC actually remained calm, in large part because of Mayor John Lindsay, who walked the streets of Harlem that night, talking with people.

With King and Bobby Kennedy and everything else going on, 1968 was a very bad year.

Yeah, crazy stuff happens that season on Mad Men (which is how I know how folks reacted to most stuff in the 60s).

*ducks and runs*

[brite]

I was a year old, when MLK made that speech. MSNBC played the speech in it's entirety, yesterday. All 16-17 minutes of it. I was laying in bed, trying to take a nap, before class, tears, rolling down my face at the enormity of it...

He was a powerful speaker. Those still alive, who were around him then, say that he had prepared notes of a speech that he meant to give that day, but that he was "dragged off topic" by Mahalia Jackson, who called out to him to tell everyone about his dream. The rest... is history.
The full text of the speech can be found here

[Swift]

He was a powerful speaker. Those still alive, who were around him then, say that he had prepared notes of a speech that he meant to give that day, but that he was "dragged off topic" by Mahalia Jackson, who called out to him to tell everyone about his dream. The rest... is history.

I heard that story for the first time yesterday; when I was watching the speach last night I tried listening for Mahalia Jackson, but didn't hear her.

I also heard part of that story from a gentleman (can't remember the name) who was giving some advice on the speech before hand. Apparently MLK wanted originally to use the "dream" idea, which he had first used (in a somewhat different version) a couple of months earlier in another speech (I think in Detroit). He had advised MLK not to use it again. When he heard King start in with "I have a dream...", he says he literally thought "Oh no". But he says he was obviously wrong about it.

And yes, the speech always brings me to tears.

[SciFiFisher]

The really strange thing is that I barely noticed JFK, MLK, or even Bobby. Of course, the years between 1958 and1977 were spent in mostly rural(ish) settings in Eastern Washington. The area I grew up in didn't have a black family live there until about 10 years after I graduated from high school. I didn't even know we had segregation in our area until about 15 years after they abolished it.

Strangely, most of the events that occurred between 1958 and 1969 were not something I ever recall my family talking about either.

[Rommie]

Not even the Space Race?

[geonuc]

Not even the Space Race?

That was a hoax. Everyone knows that.

[Sigma_Orionis]

Of course it was, the USSR won it too, so HAS to be a hoax

[SciFiFisher]

Not even the Space Race?

Not even a blip on the family register. Of course, I don't really remember watching television until sometime in the early 70's. The only television I can recall having in our home prior to 1970 was a black and white. I think it was a 25 inch model. My family did not subscribe to a newspaper either the entire time I was growing up. I may have been the first generation to ever subscribe to one once I grew up and moved away from home.

I recall some things being mentioned in high school which would have been the mid-70's but by then we had already landed on the Moon. I can definitely say that my history books had very little about the space program other than the very early rocket experiments. In the 1960's and 1970's it usually took textbooks about 5-10 years to catch up with current events. And that was presuming the schools bought the most current books.

Watching the evening news wasn't something that became a part of my families routine until around 1974(ish) when my step father invaded the house and started pretending he liked my mom and her five horrible kids.

I grew up in a family that did not produce any real scientific types. I may have been the only true pseudo-geek in my entire generation. Out of 30 to 40 first cousins I think 5 of us actually went beyond a high school education. By the time they landed someone on the moon I was still reading books by authors like Louis L'Amour and Luke Short. Yes, children they actually wrote western novels once upon a time. When we went out to the drive in picture show we really went in a car and hung a speaker off the drivers window. I almost remember watching "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" at a drive in.

I didn't start reading science fiction and turned in my cap gun for a ray gun until around 1971. Two years after they landed a man on the moon. And then it was Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.

[Parrothead]

I was born mid 60's, so much of these happened shortly before and after my birth. Probably a false memory, but my dad hurrying to get a 20 inch b&w tv running in time for the Apollo 11 Moon landing. For sure, "Summit Series '72", watching some of the games from Moscow on tv at school.

MLK and civil rights movement, touched upon in social studies courses at school. Mid 80's OMD sampling excerpts from MLK speeches in the instrumental "Southern" from their "Pacific Age" album.

IIRC, my mom has some newspaper clippings/special sections stuck in old photo albums, printed after the JFK and RFK assassinations. I remember coming across them and spending time reading them, in the past.

A few years ago, I found some cassettes in a box. Some are sis'. One I still pull out every August, like I did 2 weeks ago. She had been taping off the radio, on that particular cassette when the DJ came back on air, the breaking news being: "Memphis police confirming Elvis Presley has died". I can say with certainty that cassette was recorded Aug. 16, 1977. Mom an Elvis fan, saw him in concert at Maple Leaf Gardens, April 2, 1957, biggest complaint, couldn't hear anything he was singing, all the screaming drowned him out.

Heck, I find it hard to believe, come Christmas this year, it'll be 25 years since I visited Oz.

[cid]

I turned 61 a few weeks back...
Was walking the halls in grade school collecting flags from classrooms for a big assembly when the news came over the PA about JFK.
I remember the country going up in flames on TV when MLK was gunned down.
Was laying in bed when Mom barged in announcing RFK's assasination (that's the last time she came in without knocking...I was sleeping au naturel...).
I can still picture who was where in the basement watching that old Zenith b&w when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
I was in Michigan at a SAC base, being all NCOIC-ish in the motor pool when Nixon resigned -- Aug 9, 1974 -- best birthday present I ever got.
Was behind the wheel of a school bus when a student came out and told me that Challenger had exploded on takeoff.
Was down in Fort Lauderdale at a conference when we learned that Columbia disintegrated on re-entry (I'd been at Kennedy Space Center just two days earlier.)

Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it...ya think we oughtta reemphasize that point to TPTB on a regular basis??

[grapes]

I can remember teachers getting agitated and seeking out TVs (not radios) to get updates on Kennedy. A few minutes later, they made class updates.

I was at a friend's house and we turned on the TV to watch the broadcast from the moon. Another friend (a lawyer now) made fun of Armstrong's first words, said he screwed it up.

I was at work at an aerospace firm when a cow orker walked in and said there'd been an explosion after liftoff.

I was watching the shuttle re-entry at home, alone, during the second disaster.

[Rommie]

As long as we're sharing Columbia reentry memories (as I was born 5 days before Challenger so no memory of that), I was actually at a county-wide science fair that day. Didn't hear about it until at the beginning of the awards ceremony that afternoon when they announced it, and I was in a bit of shock when they said it (and in the days after). So much so in fact that I didn't care much about getting 2nd that year instead of 1st which meant I didn't get to go to state-wide: the Earth&Space division never had judges who knew what my projects were about, so I'd get docked for doing things that were "too simple."

Interesting thing there is my mom remembers waking up when I did and my dad drove me over, so she was watching the news that morning and they were telling everyone under the flight path to go out and watch the reentry within the hour, and she was thinking how if we lived in the south I'd surely be awake and dragging her outside to see it (she was probably right on that). So she was similarly a bit shocked when the news came in an hour later that it had burned up.