I recently finished reading Sean Wilentz’s new book, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008. It’s about the rise of the conservative movement from the post-Watergate era to the present, with its culmination in the Reagan presidency.
I didn’t notice this right away, but it eventually struck me that the era covered in The Age of Reagan coincides almost exactly with my lifetime. I was born in December 1973, at the height of Watergate. I was an infant when Nixon resigned. I used to think I was a “Watergate baby,” until I learned that the term “Watergate babies” actually refers to the 75 Democrats elected to Congress in 1974 in the wake of the scandal. But I still like applying the term to those of us born around that time. I feel some solidarity with people who are my age or pretty close to it, who were in the same grade of school at the same time as me, who experienced world events at the same age I did.
It got me wondering about when I first discovered “the news.” What’s the first news story I remember?
I think it was the Iranian hostage crisis. I remember sitting in my parents’ bed one morning in the late ’70s. On TV there were men with white hoods covering their heads. This was a striking image for a little kid to see, and it scared me. Did I see something similar to this?
The next news event I remember is the 1979 gas shortage. My mom packed me into the car with some sandwiches on a spring (summer?) day and we drove to the nearby gas station, where we waited on a long line that stretched around the block, everyone waiting to get gas.
Next: the 1980 election. I remember being in my first grade classroom and looking at the latest edition of the Weekly Reader, the weekly newsmagazine for kids. On the cover were pictures of the three major presidential candidates, each in an oval: President Carter, Ronald Reagan, and John Anderson.
Next I remember the 1984 election. In my fifth grade classroom, we had a mock vote. One student portrayed Reagan and the other portrayed Mondale, and each articulated the candidate’s positions. Then we voted. Out of 20-plus kids in the class, everyone voted for Reagan except me. I voted for Mondale.
From then on, I started to become more aware. Live Aid. The Challenger disaster. Chernobyl. Iran-Contra. The 1988 election, where every candidate seemed to have a one-syllable name. (Bush. Dole. Gore. Hart. Haig. Kemp.)
What are the earliest news events you remember?
I’m six years younger than you, born in September of 1979. I think the earliest news story I recall is Indira Gandhi’s assassination in 1984. Somehow I knew who Mahatma Gandhi was, and I remember being surprised seeing her picture on TV and finding out that she was a woman and not little bald man in a diaper.
I was born in 1977. One of the earliest big news stories I remember was the launch of the first space shuttle, Columbia (which, after looking it up, I now see was in 1981). I can even picture Dan Rather reporting and the old TV set we had. In fact that may be the year I started remembering news stories, since I do remember some other stories from that year, like the wedding of Charles and Diana, etc.