Living history interview!

1.can you explain the first television in your house? how did it what programs were on? Do you remember the Kennedy/Nixon debates?
1. It was called an RCA Victor it was an 8 inch round screen, that sat in a big wooden cabinet. It was powered by tubes and was only in black and white. It sounded similar to the radio. You had to have an antenna on the roof. My father’s family watched it together about 2- 3 times a week “when it worked”. They use to watch the Andy Divine show, our gang comedies, the Ed Sullivan show and the wonderful world of Disney was the first to show in color
They remember that Kennedy was young & handsome and everybody knew about the Kennedy family. Nixon was vice president to Eisenhower.


2.How did technology change when you were growing up? How was your life changed by it?
2. Everybody had a Dial phone then it went to a push button. Record players called Victrolas. 8 track players. Underwood typewriters, the first cell phone were Huge carried around in a big suitcase.


3.what do you remember about the launching of sputnik 1 and NASA? Including president Eisenhower’s actions.
3. John glen went up in friendship 7 and orbited the earth then became a senator. They didn’t remember much about sputnik 1 except it was a Russian spaceship. They remember the race to the moon with Russia . Even though they had the first man in space the United States had the first man land and survives on the moon.


4.How did it affect you when Brown vs. The board of education’s decision to integrate school became final? How were African Americans treated differently? Or equally?
4. Mom thinks it was the best thing the government did to help integrate. In New Jersey they were treated equally and it didn’t affect their lives much because they had a lot of African American friends already. African Americans didn’t go to my mother’s school because she lived in a very rich neighborhood. My father’s School was mostly integrated kindergarten through High School and the African Americans were treated equally.


5.How did the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights of 1965 effect the country?
5. My parents were too young to really care; they believed that everybody should be able to vote. My father hated how in some restaurants his African American friends couldn’t eat with him “all should be equal”.



6.Did the assassination of president John F. Kennedy impact you? How did you hear about it?
6. My mother was in the third grade and heard that he had been shot after lunch in her English class later mom in science class the broadcast came on that he had died. “It was heart wrenching and extremely sad” “the world seemed to go in mourning”. My father was in a pool hall shooting pool and it came on the television. He was angry because he thinks he was one of the best and most liked presidents we ever had. “He was a young man with a young family and it changed the white house”


7.How did Lyndon Johnson’s ideas of a great society effect you? Do you think they helped or hurt society?
7. My parents believed it hurt society. My mother never liked him and thinks he was a “skuz bucket and a whore mongle” He escalated the Vietnam War and he reinstated the draft. But his wife “ladybird” Claudia Johnson was a very sweet and well liked woman.” A real lady”.


8.Did you witness any of the southern Christian Leadership Conferences tactics? The Sit-ins, freedom rides, or marches?
Did you watch it or hear it on the radio? How did it make you feel?
8. MY parents watched them on television. Believed they had guts and that they were driven for a purpose that they believed in., and they also had good leader ship like Martin Luther King junior. Didn’t agree with the Black Panther party, never understood Stokley Carmichael or his standings. Believed they were all militants. And the day Martin Luther King junior died was a very dark day.


9.How did you feel about the Anti-Vietnam war movement?
9. My father felt like they were very Un-American and treated troops like criminals when they came back. Both my parents lost lots of friends and family in the war and say it was not to protect the United states, But because of Johnson was an idiot that though communist were going to take over.


10.Explain your thoughts about former president Bill Clinton as president. His involvement with the NAFTA agreement. His impeachment and acquittal.
10. Excellent president. Bad morals but helped the country to be in its best shape ever.
My father believes NAFTA was a bad Idea because “we got the losing end of the stick”
Because, companies moved their business to Mexico , and Canada to save money.
My mother said she was neutral on the subject but the United States should have used better judgment. My dad said he “should not have been impeached over that.”
My mom said “I did not have sex with that woman” “all presidents she liked were Democrats and she’s a registered republican”.


11.what are your thoughts about George w. bush’s actions following the attacks of September 11, 2001? The war on terrorism and the interventions of Afghanistan.
11. Mom – “a coward will run and hide every time”. He ran from Florida to a hidden bunker. He’s an idiot! Dad- “Bush United country in a common goal against terrorism”.
My parents don’t believe we should have gone to Iraq because it was “finishing his daddy’s war”. All the reasons in going in tom Iraq were lies; terrorists were being trained in Afghanistan my father said at least we did something the Russians couldn’t do. We are holding our own ground in Afghanistan and the Russians got there butts kicked.