Where were you when Nixon resigned?

[footenote]

When Nixon resigned 40 years ago today, my family was vacationing in Door County. My mom and I had been following the hearings all summer. Our vaca rental had a tiny black and white tv. We all huddled around it, agog, to watch his resignation speech.

Where were you? What do you remember thinking or feeling?

 

[MRG]

We were at a concert, Mannford Mann, Queen, and Uriah Heap.

They broke for a short intermission. The crowd was very happy to hear the news. Not sure how many really understood, but there was a very stong positve reaction.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app

 

[jayc]

Ran out of gas on the New Jersey turnpike by Raritan. Two hippies in VW stopped to help unsolicited.
They went and got the can and the gas. They would not take any money, said "It was a great day in America, Nixon resigned".

 

[poorcarver]

I was in the Army at Ft. Bragg. Obviously like everyone had been following the whole thing for months. Looking back, I personally think that might have been one of our finest hours as a nation. Constitutional government worked, no coup, no fuss, no mess. The President stepped down, the VP took over and that was that.

 

[footenote]

poorcarver - Strongly agree that it was one of our finest hours as the transition went very smoothly. (Thank goodness Spiro Agnew wasn't still the Veep!)

 

[Bestwifeever]

We were on our way to a Pink Floyd movie and watched the resignation right before we left the apartment. I remember going to that movie only because of watching the resignation that evening. What a culmination of the previous ten years.

 

[Mmm Rrr]

I saw the news in a bar in East Lansing, Michigan. The locals were astounded that Gerald Ford was going to be president...

 

[aja8888]

I was working as an Industrial Engineer at that time, so I was probably at work.

 

[easysurfer]

I was still in grade school. I remember the teachers huddling the kids into the classroom to watch the Watergate hearings (on a black and white tv of course) saying this is a big part of history and me thinking (great, don't have to attend regular classes).

 

[Bestwifeever]

I was working as an Industrial Engineer at that time, so I was probably at work.

You must have been working overtime? His speech announcing his resignation was at 9 pm edt.

 

[pb4uski]

Unlike some more notable events like JFK assassination, lunar landing, and the space shuttle disasters I don't have a specific recollection but I'm sure I was at our family's summer home since we spent each summer there.

And I agree that the peaceful transition of power was one of our finest moments.

I recall the hullabaloo about President Ford pardoning President Nixon. Even though it was unpopular and likely caused him to lose re-election, in retrospect it was wise and enabled the country to move on and put Nixon and Watergate in the rear view mirror.

 

[aja8888]

You must have been working overtime? His speech announcing his resignation was at 9 pm edt.

Well, that's the best I can do since I can't remember. Realistically, I was probably out with my buddies drinking beer at 9 PM back then.

 

[foxfirev5]

With some buddy's down by the river fishing and drinking Boone's Farm. No celebration or feeling of anything special. Later I realized how enlightened we were that we knew they're all a bunch of crooks anyway.

 

[W2R]

I was in grad school full time, and also working full time at night. August 8, 1974 would have been a Thursday so I was at work and probably didn't even hear about it until later.

Honestly, that whole year was a blur.

 

[travelover]

I was a few months into a 6 month, one lap of America, trip around the US in a converted Econoline camper.

 

[6miths]

Thirteen at the time and remember watching on the old B&W Ford Philco with my parents. The importance of the success of the democratic process was lost on me at the time but agree that it was in many ways a great thing. How utterly stupid. Seems to have set the stage for much of the politics to this day.

 

[M Paquette]

Wow... That was, like, the 70s, right?

I don't remember.
O0

 

[braumeister]

Maxwell AFB in Alabama, attending a military education program. Gathered around the TV with some classmates. We all marveled at how appropriate it was, and we gave RMN high marks for having the courage to do what he did. Made no difference what we thought of him or his presidency; we just admired the act of resignation and how smooth it seemed to be.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Well, that's the best I can do since I can't remember. Realistically, I was probably out with my buddies drinking beer at 9 PM back then.

We waited til after the resignation and the movie to drink

 

[FIREd]

I was in my playpen, probably.

 

[Rosie]

I was 14 yrs old and on vacation with my parents. We were staying at a quaint little guest house in Gloucester MA run by a couple of prim and proper little old ladies, and we watched the resignation on the tv in their living room -- ordinarily the guests didn't have had access to their tv, but the ladies made an exception in this instance.

I most distinctly remember the little old ladies gasping in horror, my father trying -- not very successfully -- to not chuckle out loud (iirc he wasn't much of a Nixon fan), and my mother glaring at him out of the little old ladies' view. Dad did manage to hold his outright guffaws until after we left the house to go out for a walk. I'm pretty sure that walk was Mom's idea.

 

[CaliforniaMan]

I was on an oceanographic vessel off the coast of South America trying to figure out what was going on from static filled shortwave broadcasts. We really didn't know what was happening. Things seemed to be chaotic. Did he resign? not resign? were there riots, were things stable? Remember these were pretty turbulent times, market falling, oil embargo, abolishing convertibility of dollar to gold, wage and price controls, political polarization (I think even more than today). So we really were worried if there would be a peaceful transition of power since this kind of transfer had never happened before. No sat phones back then, just some small short wave radios set out on the deck, with a lot of worried people sitting around trying to figure out what was happening and what kind of country we would be returning to. BTW, we had just been in Valparaiso, Chile not long before. Where we had to walk past 50 caliber sand bagged machine gun emplacements to get to our ship, and talking to fearful Chilean oceanographers who would not dare talk about the situation, only that some of their friends had disappeared. We could see they were afraid for their lives. And now the president of the U.S. was resigning, possibly unstable, controlling nuclear weapons, and for those critical hours all we had were those damn shortwave radios.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I was 14 and don't remember, guess I watched the speech during dinner in California (we always are at the same time each day). My boyfriend at the time (still friends) was in DC visiting family. He told me he went to Ford's inauguration. I was jealous.


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum

 

[braumeister]

we had just been in Valparaiso, Chile not long before. Where we had to walk past 50 caliber sand bagged machine gun emplacements to get to our ship

Ah, those were the days!
I remember the same situation in downtown Buenos Aires a year or two later.

 

[rodi]

I was 12. I don't have specific memories of my reaction/where I was for the resignation - but I do remember my mom being GLUED to the tv that summer during the hearings. We had a tv-cart that we'd roll from the living room, to the kitchen area... so where-ever she was, downstairs, she had the tv in the room with her with the hearings going.

I think I was annoyed because I wanted to watch Gilligan's Island and couldn't get her to share the tv.

The Nixon hearings/resignation was also the start of the political rift between my parents. They had both been Republican... my dad was pretty disgusted by Watergate and shifted to Democrat - my mom was Republican till the end. I like to joke I was raised in a mixed household. LOL.