I do not remember the Lindbergh kidnapping as it happened in 1932. I was not born yet. The Hindenburg crash was in 1937 and at that time I was two years old, so don't remember that either. At least those are the dates I looked up online.

Sue

Yes, I remember them both. The kidnapping was a frightening thing to a child. But I don't recall being frightened for my own well-being, but that it happened at all.

The earliest things I really remember, news-wise, are the Patty Hearst kidnapping and Nixon's resignation. I do have vague memories of reports on the Vietnam war - but I lived on an air base, so that was "normal" to me.

I remember watching the funeral procession of President Kennedy, sitting my mother's bedroom. We sat together and watched it on her tiny little 11-inch B/W admiral TV.

It was November 1963, so I would have been 4-1/2 years old.

My earliest memories of any kind of 'news' was the Cuban missile crisis, Nikita Kruschev threatening to "bury" the US, and of course the assassination and funeral of JFK. All these were sort of scary to a little girl. I probably paid more attention to these things than some kids because I've always had a keen interest in world events.

I was 8 years old when the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped. I remember it well, because there was so much talk about it in my family. It was so unbelievable to think that somebody would do that. There were pictures in the newspaper of the ladder up to the window.

Only a vague memory about the zeppelin crash. I was almost 13 than and I guess it wasn't very interesting to me. Not like a baby being kidnapped and murdered.

Sue

Those that remembered the baby and the crash how long have you been working the computer?Was it hard and how did you learn? I learned by trial and error and am still learning.Don't ever say "you can't teach a dog new tricks.Loving every moment.

I was born in 1952. I vaguely remember President Eisenhower. I do rememner the night of the Kennedy-Nixon election. My parents stayed up all night to wait for the results. Counting was slower in those days, it wasn't official till the next morning.

I was born in 1937 and remember ration stamps or cards and using molasses in our cereal in place of sugar.

I was born in 1947 but I remember hearing/reading about
the Lindbergh baby later.

In my childhood we were afraid of men named Hitler, Tojo, and Mussolini.

Our mothers were afraid of polio and diptheria.

soxxxx, my DH got polio the year before the vaccine came out. He was 4 and the next year I got the vaccine at school
at 5.

I was born in 1924. Long enough ago that there are a lot of things I don't remember.:((

As to the computer, I had my first experience in 1942, age 18, when I went to work for the US Government in DC. Computers then were not like computers today.

My first experience with a PC was in 1982 or 83, so I would have been about 60. That was all business work. Got my own PC about 15 years ago. I think, so would have been 72ish.

I found the Computer Help Forum and that has been my "teacher" ever since.

I am pleasantly surprised at the number of seniors who have and use computers.

Sue

I too have learned to repair some of my goofs on my computer thanks to the Computer forum and others on this website. Other than that, DH fixes it as he built it for me. He has his own. He learned all that after he retired so it can be done. Now he is putting together a ham radio, but he has had a license for years. A person is never too old to learn. We both do alot of hidden object games
M

I used a computer at my job as secretary at the high school, but it was all programmed in for us, so didn't really learn too much that way. I retired in '98, and got my first PC in '99. Thank the Lord for the Computer Help forum, particularly Paulmyoung, who taught me the mantra "Never show fear to a computer--they can smell it. Boldly go to the Start, Settings, Add/Remove Programs and shout, 'For god and country!' while commanding it to do whatever you want it to. If your heart is pure and your quest rightous, all will be well" In later years, it has been rajuncajun who has saved my mind from going bonkers.

My first national memory was of the Kennedy/Nixon debate. My GGM was bedridden by that time, but a huge Kennedy fan. I remember sitting on the bench at the foot of her bed, watching the debate with my DGM and mom. I was about 5 at the time. DGGM lived to see him elected and died shortly thereafter. It's one of the few memories I have of her.

I bought my first PC in 1996, wanted one before that but couldn't justify the expense just to do word processing. I didn't realize what it could do until I went online a year later. I also found out I was a very curious person and could find the answers to all of my questions online.

The Compaq techs taught me how to use it, needless to say they were a different breed than what you have today. Then my knowledge expanded when I found the computer help forum. Great guys and gals over there. I think seniors have to really, really want to learn, I was driven and kept telling myself, "if my 10 year old grandson can do this, I can".

Phyllis__mn, and never forget: YMMV.

Sue

I remember Truman and Eisenhower as President. I remember Harry getting mad at reporters who made fun of his daughter's singing, and of his falling through the White House bathroom floor in the tub. I don't think he fell all the way through, but the floor was rotten. I remember the polio scares of the late 40s and early 50s and our parents not wanting us to go in a creek by the library because of polio or go to the Saturday afternoon movie for the same reason. I remember when a bad batch of live polio vaccine infected many of those who were vaccinated.

This has been one of my best days at the kitchen table just remembering some of the days gone pass.Can't say they were all good but they should never be forgotten.Pearl Harbor Day is comeing up that was our 911.Pass some of this info onto your grands they need to know about our history and we lived it.

Here is a flash from the past that some of you may remember.....

I entered grade school in 1952 at the early stages of the cold war and I can vividly remember we had what they called "Duck & Cover" drills, which of course were instructing us in what to do in case of an enemy air attack.

In our school the sounded a special klaxon horn over the PA system, and as soon as you heard it you were to duck down under your desk, or if in a hallway or out on the play yard get in close to a wall and duck down, placing your head low between your knees and covering the back of your neck with your hands. In theory it would protect you from the initial energy radiation from a thermonuclear blast.

Later, after I graduated high school and entered the Air Force and was assigned to a B-52 Bomber Base, they also taught us to perform the duck & cover maneuver, only the Air Force added a twist to it.

On a Stategic Air Command bomber base, when the alert horn went off all the B-52's on the alert pad had to get fired up and take off, wheels up, within 8 minutes from the first horn. Then a squadron of KC-135 tanker refuelers had to take off and be wheels up and flying within 15 minutes from the first horn.

The air force taught us that they determined the 15 minute time frame because we could be certain that our base had been targeted by the Russians, and a missle launched from Russia could reach us within 15 minutes. Our sole existence was to insure that the alert aircraft were launched on time, after that we were considered totally expendable, so the procedure was, the moment you see the last KC-135 tanker lift off, duck in place, hunkering down as low as possible and put your head between your knees, then place both hands on your neck behind your head. Once in that position pull down on the back of your neck as hard as possible and kiss your butt goodbye.....LOL

Lazypup, I remember "duck and cover" in elementary school.
Even as a child I wondered how much good that would do if a bomb was dropped..

In the late 50's or early 60's my DH decided to make an underground survival structure in the back yard.

He began by digging a square hole 12x12 and had gotten down a few feet. Our DS who was about 4 understood that he was doing it to survive a possible bombing. DS began to cry and have nightmares, so I insisted that he refill the hole.

As a reminde there is still a slight indention there and the grass is a different color.

I recall the start of WW2 and the changes it wrought on the country side - rationing, no new cars, national speed limits set low, governors put on merchant's trucks to enforce the speed limit, and metal scrap drives. Stringing power lines to rural areas was stopped. Replacement tires was severly limited. Professions who got increased tire allotments were school teachers, mail carriers, doctors, and school bus opperators.

Farm folks who were making/procassing much of their own food had grave difficulties in getting enough sugar for canning during the summer months.

'Roll your own' cigarettes became popular. The supply of pepper and spices could be sporadic at times. Personal travel for pleasure was curtailed. Travel by Greyhound bus flourished. Hitch hiking service-men were a common sight. As time went by, the danger of picking up a hitchhiker increased dramatically. Prices esculated during the last half of the war. The number of young brides who delivered babies in their parents' homes with the father absent increased. And then, there was that terrible atom bomb that changed the world forever.

I remember that mom saved the fat from cooking meats in a can she kept on the stove. When it was full, she sent me to the butcher shop with it and started filling another can. The fats were sent to a collection center for making soap, as I recall.

I also remember a little pair of black oxford shoes that I wore as a tyke. Shoes were hard to get during the war. These shoes wore like iron and surprised my parents with out sturdy they were.

I remember years later going home from elementary school to play with a girlfriend. Her mother served us mock apple pie made from Ritz Crackers, not apples. I do wonder if that was a WWII recipe. It tasted just like apple pie, but the "apple slices" were "pinked" along the rounded edges.

I believe the kitchen fat was used to produce glycerine, that was in turn used for explosives - not soap!

Amazing things they did back then.

I was born in '65 and remember when the astronauts' space capsule(s) would land in the sea and be fished out. When I was about 13, my friend Joyce began babysitting for a family who had this thing called a microwave oven. She said the two young boys that she babysat assured her that she could put plastic bowls of food in that oven to heat them up. I KNEW she was confused about something as there was NO WAY you could put plastic bowls into any kind of oven....

Sheilajoyce - I have my grandma's (born 1904) gingersnap recipe which calls for bacon fat as one of the ingredients. You didn't waste ANYTHING in the old days! Holy moly are those cookies delicious!

Jemdandy - I have letters between my engaged grandparents from during WWI. My grandfather mentions how he can only visit my grandmother for 1-2 days because of the war travel rules. It wasn't as though anyone would check up on his travel plans or anything, but everyone knew the rules and they lived by them. It's astonishing to read their letters and realize how little they actually knew about each other and how little time they spent together before they were married.

Glycerine is not used to make explosives...

Animal fat was collected primarily to make soap and super high grade soap based lubricants.

Lazypup, I grew up on a SAC base in northeast Arkansas. Loved the EWO takeoffs - so exciting! :)

Chloecat,,,you must be talking about Blytheville AFB. That was my first duty assignment & I was there for almost two years before I went to Germany.

Yep - exactly! When were you there?

Truman is first president I was aware of. I remember watching Eisenhower's inauguration in my elementary school on little black and white TVs.