44 years ago tonight.

[Mdlerth]

How do you tell a Republican streaker from a Democrat streaker?

They were showing Nixon's departure on TV the day of my grandmother's funeral. Dad's brothers and sisters all came to our house for a reception after the graveside service. My older brother and I were busy handing out refreshments, so we weren't paying much attention to the news.

My clearest memory is of my oldest uncle telling a political dirty joke, which I thought hilarious. My straitlaced father never told a blue joke in his life, but his gregarious brother was definitely the life of the party.

 

[pb4uski]

I was home for the summer from a lackluster freshman year of college.

Jobs were hard to come by, but in June I had stopped by a local tire store and asked if they were looking for summer help... the store manager said no but I filled out an application anyway.. then he said to me... "Do you have a car?"... I replied "Yes"... he responded... "What are you doing this afternoon?... I need some tires delivered to Northfield."... I replied "I think I'm delivering some tires to Northfield for you." I ended up working there the whole summer doing a variety of jobs from selling tires on the floor to changing oil in the bays.... it was that experience that fueled my drive from that point forward to do better in college.

Later that summer a friend set me up with his girlfriend's younger sister... nice girl.... after we had been seeing each other for a while I was accosted by my younger sister (two younger sisters in between)... all pissed off that I was going out with one of her classmates... my friend had failed to tell me that the girl was only 14 (she was mature for her age and I thought that she was 16... I was 18 at the time). Oops! Glad that we never made it past second base!

 

[38Chevy454]

I was 10, so beyond hearing about Nixon's resignation, it did not really affect me as too young to really be aware of the significance of the whole Watergate ordeal.

 

[I was misinformed]

I remember this quite clearly. I was a student working for the summer in a university physics lab in Canada. I was pulling my usual 4 pm-midnight shift but recall the lab that evening was fuller than usual for that time. IIRC even the prof who was the lab’s PI was there. We listened quite attentively to Nixon’s speech on a radio. Right after the speech everyone turned to our only American - a fairly young post doc. I certainly felt a little bad for him as his country was undergoing this trauma, but he seemed to take the event in stride.

 

[DrRoy]

I was 15 and still at the family cottage on a lake up in Quebec. I would buzz around in my outboard boat, hang with friends, swim, and water ski. We would have heard the news on the radio (no TV). Don't remember a specific reaction other than probably being surprised.

 

[Maenad]

I was still baking in mom's oven. Born in December of that year, to parents and a big brother who were all very happy to meet me.

I do know that my folks weren't Nixon fans, so they felt no regret at his resignation.

 

[Ronstar]

Just finished freshman year of college. Spent the summer working in an engineering office, drawing plans for an oil refinery. August 8, 1974 was a Thursday, so I was most likely working that day.

But probably listened to an 8 track of Uriah Heap on the way home.

 

[VanWinkle]

I was married at 19 with a pregnant wife living in a 1 room apartment, furnished with utilities paid for a total of 85$ per month. I was working 4-12pm
at a gas station that had cars lined up for blocks due to the gas shortage. I attended college classes during the day. If all of this sounds like sour grapes, it is not. It was the best of years for my DW and I as we celebrated 44 years of marriage in June. We were so alive. No concerts for us as we could not afford it, but we did like to listen to each other. I wouldn't change a thing!!

VW

 

[tmm99]

I was married at 19 with a pregnant wife living in a 1 room apartment, furnished with utilities paid for a total of 85$ per month. I was working 4-12pm

at a gas station that had cars lined up for blocks due to the gas shortage. I attended college classes during the day. If all of this sounds like sour grapes, it is not. It was the best of years for my DW and I as we celebrated 44 years of marriage in June. We were so alive. No concerts for us as we could not afford it, but we did like to listen to each other. I wouldn't change a thing!!



VW

Wow, a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing.

 

[REWahoo]

I was waiting for the klaxon to go off. If it did I would haul thousands of gallons of a 50/50 kerosene/gasoline mixture several miles above Baffin Bay and give it to Major Kong.

 

[tmm99]

I was in the 11th grade in Japan then and joined a three week home stay program during summer and stayed with a family who lived in San Jose. My first exposure to the American culture. It was so exciting.

 

[NW-Bound]

I was at a concert with a pretty girl, she's sitting next to me right now. It was August 8, 1974...

Where were you and what were you doing 44 years ago?

I would not remember anything to the exact date. But that month, I started the freshman year in college, having been accepted to two colleges (with the highest score in the entrance exams at both schools) and chose to go to the one that would virtually guarantee employment upon graduation.

I should feel at the top of the world because economic security was something even 18-year olds were preoccupied with, in that time and place, but I was not. I was madly and hopelessly in love. Too long a story to tell here.

For a while, I would wander the streets on rainy nights on my motorcycle, with a particular song in my head. Some years later, I researched for this song on the Internet, but could find nothing about it. Now, it seems there's a revival, and there are several copies of it on Youtube. It was an international hit in 1973, but unknown in the US.

 

[PatrickA5]

I was playing foosball at the local foosball hall. They had a TV on and saw Nixon's resignation speech. I was 16 at the time and having the time of my life. The following year, I met my DW. Just celebrated our 39th anniversary.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

1 year old. Dumping loads in my diaper and letting my parents clean it up.

 

[MOSAT]

I was on strike with the United Mine Workers Union. I had gotten a job in the mine to get $$ to go back to college and had worked just over the 60 days needed to (mandatory) join the union. It went on strike, three days later it settled with management, but since I was summer help and was only contracted for the summer, management told me not to report for work as I was terminated. Three friends in a similar situation who were hired just days later got to finish out the summer and got an additional two weeks pay, which was huge to a college kid. For the PRIVILAGE of joining the Union for three days and missing out on those two weeks pay the union took out dues from my last check.

But, I had saved enough to continue my education.

I remember Nixon resigning and his last helicopter ride out, but I wasn't too interested.

And so it was August 8, 1974, good night and God bless......

 

[Mmm Rrr]

I was in a bar in East Lansing, Michigan. Everyone in the place was relieved that Nixon was leaving, but astounded that that left Gerald Ford (from nearby Grand Rapids) president.

 

[deserat]

A bit late to the thread: I was ten years old living on FE Warren AFB in Cheyenne, WY. I was really excited because I could get my own ID card at age ten and when I did, I would ride my bike off base to go to the local corner store to buy some candy.

I do remember when Nixon resigned. I was naive, but I remember telling my Dad that I did not understand why this was a big deal as I believed people should be able to quit a job if they didn't like it. He replied that that was true but that no president had ever resigned in US history. He was like that---I didn't realize until later how much he understated things that way.

Similar with the men walking on the moon. He picked my up, plopped me in front of the black and white TV and said, "You are watching history." Still remember it.

 

[golfnut]

Turned 19 yrs. old on 8/7/74. Probably was in a bar as Illinois changed drinking (wine/beer) age to 19 in early 1974.


Spent that summer working for Yellow as a cabbie. Now that was an interesting job for a 19 yr. old in Chicago. Grew up fast !

 

[Scrapr]

I was in a bar in East Lansing, Michigan. Everyone in the place was relieved that Nixon was leaving, but astounded that that left Gerald Ford (from nearby Grand Rapids) president.

I happened to be in GR over the weekend. We ended up going to the Gerald Ford Presidential museum (Library?) It was very interesting and brought back a few memories. Ford was only VP for a few months before he got the step up. Agnew had resigned in October & Ford was sworn in December 1973. Ford was very popular in Congress and was confirmed by a very wide margin.

Also Betty Ford was a groundbreaker for the time. Instead of the quiet First Lady she was out there supporting causes. The ERA, then she had breast cancer and was very public about that. And of course the Betty Ford center

It was a nice few hours.

 

[Bamaman]

We were being transferred back to Memphis after a very long 2 years working in a somewhat toxic Terre Haute, Indiana.
Instead of our neighborhood smelling like a chemical factory, it smelled of barbecue and smoking hardwood.

 

[Doribe]

Newly graduated from high school. On my way to state university. Probably hanging out with neighborhood friends.

 

[DelMarGirl]

1974, I was 14 and ABBA won the European Song Contest in Brighton. Pop music was my thing then and it was fantastic

 

[Popeye]

I was 10 years old and still basking in the afterglow of The Philadelphia Flyers first Stanley Cup win that May. And probably riding my bike with a bowling ball to the summer league. That was always fun when we couldn’t get a ride from parents!

On a side note, my genealogy research seems to be showing an 8X great grandfather named Milhous, as in Richard Millhouse Nixon. That makes us cousins of some degree! So stop picking on my cuz!

 

[Koolau]

For me, it was just another day at Megacorp. Don't particularly remember anything about it except watching the speech that evening. Now, when Agnew resigned the year before, I recall where I was and what I was doing. Weird, but YMMV.