Timewaster's Guide Archive
General => Everything Else => Topic started by: Mad Dr Jeffe on June 07, 2004, 08:07:28 AM
-
The death of Ronald Reagan on June 5th heralds something, possibly the death of an era and brings up stong feeling in me. the 8 years of Reagans presidency when I was 5-14 years old were definately interesting (in a chinese proverb kind of way) the biggest most omnipresent feeling I can remember from that time was a general fear of communism, communists and the Russians.
The presence of a Berlin wall, Afganistan, Nicaragua and our loss in Vietnam drove that fear home and people in the circle I lived in (Army brats) were geniunely afraid of MAD or mutually assured destruction.
Still even though I suppose that one could argue that Reagan didnt really win the Cold war, I like to think he was instrumental in bringing about its demise.
What are your memories of Reagan..?
-
I remember having a mock election when I was in the 5th grade, and voting for Reagan (who would have voted for Mondale?). I also remember the day he said, "Mr. Gorbechev, tear this wall down." I don't remember what I was doing or anything, or what year it was, but I remember talking about it in class. And pretty much my entire grade school years (1st grade-8th grade) were in the Reagan presidency, so anything we learned in Social Studies having to do with government had to do with him--how he was the oldest president, etc. I had a book of presidents with his photo on the cover.
He embodied a sea change in people's attitudes--he carried 48 states, and even though many liberals thought he was too conservative, he was the most popular president. People were just a lot more conservative during those years. They even dressed more modestly (for the most part) than in the 70s.
It's all very interesting to think about.