What's the First Big News Story You Were Aware Of As a Kid?

1968 really was a year from hell. When MLK was killed, there was real fear the urban areas were just going to go up in smoke.

LBJ's decision not to run was a complete thunderbolt. There was a general feeling the war was kinda going badly, but there was no national consensus it had become a disaster.

But the Tet Offensive from January-March pretty much brought it home that the US couldn't just lace up its cleats and kick ass whenever it wanted to.

When LBJ bailed out, public consensus really turned against the war. LBJ made his announcement on March 30, and then MLK was shot four days later.

Two months almost to the day after that, RFK was killed. It really did seem like the nation was falling apart at the seams.

 

Like others, it was the Challenger explosion. For some reason, though, even though we were in New England and it was a big deal there because the teacher was from N.H., we didn't watch it live. I was in second grade music class and another teacher came in to deliver the news.

Another one where I remeber my mom was glued to the TV was the Iran Contra hearings. I wondered why she cared so much about a guy in a uniform talking into a microphone on CNN.

First sports moment was the Patriots-Bears Super Bowl and that playoff run. "Squish the Fish!" and "Bury the Bears!"

 

Along with the events listed above, I distinctly remember that year's Democratic convention. My grandparents lived on the southwestern edge of Chicago -- not all that far from the convention site at the old International Amphitheatre -- and we visited them for Sunday dinner the day before the convention began. As we were driving home to the suburbs, we saw hundreds of National Guard vehicles rolling into the city, and my father (who was no fan of the first Mayor Daley, even though he was a staunch Democrat) saying something like, "This convention's going to be a real mess." He sure got that right.

 

Think the shirts said "Berry the Bears" at least some I remember seeing.

 

Cal-Stanford '82.
I ran out into the back yard to practice laterals for the next hour.

 

That was my answer, wanted to go through the thread to see if anyone else had it.

We were on our one family vacation that I remember as a kid, going from Florida to California to visit relatives. He resigned mid-trip and we listened on the radio. I was 7.

 

Clearly? The 1980 election. I remember a magazine cartoon cover with Reagan and carter as runners neck in neck, with Anderson lagging behind.

Vaguely, I might have been aware of the hostage crisis or the Israel-Egypt peace treaty.

 

Does George Brett hitting three home runs at Yankee Stadium in the 1978 ALCS count?

The failed rescue attempt in April 1980 of the hostages in Iran.

 

That's not my first "big news story" memory -- I think RFK's killing is my first one -- but we were driving to the beach when RMN's deal was going down and I stayed glued to the car radio.

 

I was 10, 4th grade, and had just started the Hebrew Academy Lubavitch, and was at school -- at recess playing kickball -- when someone had come to the playground to say that Reagan had been shot. Was the buzz of the next few days.

 

Sports-wise, it was when I was 6 -- 1977 World Series -- when Reggie hit 3 homers on 3 pitches.