41 years ago, about this time, was quite exciting!
I was under two months away from turning 10 years old… I was ready to being the 4th grade with Diana Lane who I always thought was so neat… My mother was expecting my baby brother, Destin, the end of October… My neighbors, Betsy and Dick Herndon, were also expecting their son, Carter, the beginning of November, and actually flip-flopped due-dates with my brother… and I got to watch the Watergate Hearings on television after school.
Say what you will about my television viewing options, but I was stoked!
I went on vacation with my grandparents to visit my uncle in Norfolk VA where he was stationed in the US Navy. We stopped at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello on the way, and before returning to Indiana, we stopped in Washington, DC to meet our congressman, Elwood “Bud” Hillis.
We had a grand tour of the Capitol Building, saw Chief Justice Earl Warren lying in state in the Supreme Court, met briefly with Vice-President Gerald Ford on the steps of the Senate.
Two weeks later, while on vacation with my parents in Myrtle Beach, we watched President Nixon’s administration fully collapse.