[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Earliest Memories of the World Outside (was Forcing Kids To Watch History Made)

[Sushi]

	Jumping on the bandwagon, here...

	The earliest memory I've got of a politically-inclined nature is: when I 
was two, I was out shopping with my mom.  We were going to Carter's - 
children's wear - and I asked her, "Does the president own the 
store?"  Took her a little while to convince me that not everyone with the 
surname "Carter" was related to the president.

	I also remember when Reagan was shot - I was about five by then, so I 
remember a lot from that period - and when the U2 was shot down over 
Moscow.  By that time, I had developed the firm belief that, despite what 
the people on the news said, not everyone in Russia was evil.  I mean, hey, 
they made those cool little stacking dolls - nobody who made those could be 
evil, right?  Got some strange looks from my preschool teacher when I told 
her to her face that there wasn't anything wrong with Russians; I think she 
thought I was some Junior Communist Party Representative, not that I'd have 
known what that meant (or cared).  I mean, really, snow, stacking dolls, 
kids having snowball fights on the news, looked like my idea of paradise at 
that age.

	I also remember *loathing* "Trapper John, MD", because it came on at 8:30, 
which was my bedtime.  It was a huge deal to even get through the 
credits.  That show still carries the most twisted "forbidden fruit" tinge 
for me.  'Course, as soon as bedtime hit, I'd wait until my parents were 
downstairs, sneak down the hall, and pilfer as many volumes of the World 
Book as possible in order to read under the covers until I passed out, 
drooling on dinosaurs and volcanoes.

	I was a weird little kid.

Sushi