My first concrete news memory:

I remember the evening news showing white and black balls (ping pong ball size) in big glass jars to show presidential candidate's current standing in the polls. I don't remember what presidential election it was for, though. Seems like it should have been for the 1976 election, but Ford v. Carter doesn't seem right, so it must have been earlier. My parents were majorly involved in the McGovern campaign, so 1972 was probably it. I was five.

First concrete news memory:

Mine would be Chernobyl, I still can remember the broken building etc and how we were forbidden to play outside. ( I´m in Germany and apparantly the cloud came over here or something or was supposed to - can´t remember that really.) Though back then I was hardly allowed to watch TV being only 5 years old.

i'm pretty sure my first "news" memory is when the Challenger exploded. i was six. feel free to tell me you have shoes older than me. i'm used to it.

First major news memory is the Berlin wall coming down. I knew it was important, but I was very fuzzy on the details.

Hmm...images of Vietnam are my earliest news memory. I kind of got the Nixon thing by osmosis, I guess; I don't remember seeing it on the news. Ford is the first president I remember knowing was president.

A guy we know in the Foreign Service was one of the Iran hostages and the first person to arrive at the scene of the Jonestown massacre. When we were talking story with the intern and mentioned that, we discovered she'd never heard of either happening.

Not to be on-topic or anything, but this Lost/Firefly crossover vid is very clever and amusing. It does include spoilers up to the S2 finale of Lost, though.

I have vague memories of Watergate. I didn't understand what was going on. I just knew that the President had been Bad and was in Trouble. I remember seeing that now-famous footage of him leaving the White House and I remember Ford getting sworn in.

It strikes me that it makes more sense for my "election" memory to actually have been a Vietnam war memory, with the white and black balls being casualties. I liked my fake memory better.

Call for papers for a collection of Firefly/Serenity essays

Thought maybe Nilly or Gus would be interested.

I *think* I remember either RFK's or MLK jr.'s funeral. I would have been one year old, but I remember knowing someone important died and it being on TV. I have vague memories of Vietnam on the news, but usually my mother couldn't bear watching Vietnam coverage.

I specifically remember the Watergate story and hearings, and next the Patricia Hearst kidnapping, and when she went on trial. I think from this and Watergate, I got a warped view of the news (and maybe the world). Okay, maybe not so warped. Maybe I ended up jaded/realistic, early.

The first and only Republican my (maternal) grandmother ever voted for was RR. She was an FDR Democrat in the extreme, and had voted for Carter in '76.