Saturday, November 8, 2008

Grudgingly from the Pensieve

By special request from an English teacher (I think)

August 10, 1974 I was at Gilroy for a four day convention. That morning at breakfast as I was pouring her a cup of tea, Elizabeth Jamison told me that President Nixon had resigned. That was a surprise to me in that same way that Edith Hansen at the 5&10 surprised me. I didn't expect her to have read the paper before breakfast! Well, Elizabeth was an informed lady. And I remember she was cool and calm about this news.
Now, I knew about the Watergate thing, and there was plenty of turmoil and strife over the Vietnam war, also the gas crunch which all had taken place during the Nixon era. So this is some of what likely set the stage for Nixon's imminent impeachment or resignation.
Poor Gerald, the first thing I remember him doing was pardoning Richard, which was a fairly decent gesture, perhaps absolved himself in the process?
Ok, without resorting to wikipedia, this is all I can come up with. I was busy in High School: first for six weeks in Castro Valley, before we moved to Livermore. I tried to get my mom to sign me up at the continuation school down the street, but they wouldn't take me, so I had to go to Granada High. By then I'd had plenty of education and would have gladly done high school by correspondence, but it didn't seem to be an option.
What do I think of Gerald's presidency? He never asked for the job, but somebody had to do it. Just like I had to finish high school.

1 comment:

Anita said...

Interesting what we associate with events like a presidency... the school down the street. For the most part, our day-to-day is closer to us, in the long run, than most things political.