Seeing Nixon – 1974
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The most iconic President of the 70′s had to be Richard M. Nixon. Politics have never been the same since. Watergate will go down as the biggest political story ever. As a little buck-a-roo, all of eleven years old, I saw President Nixon when he came to my hometown.
In 1974 President Nixon landed at Vance, AFB in Enid, Oklahoma. My great-grandma was a huge fan of Nixon. She wrote letters to him and collected his presidential plates. I’ve got a small collection of things from that Nixon visit to Enid. My family, including my great-grandma waited 3 hours in the sun to see him. Some of the pieces and photos are below.
I don’t remember anything he said but I do remember he spent a lot of time shaking hands. I think I tried to get close to the rope for a quick handshake but never pushed through the crowd. It seemed like it was a pretty big day for my hometown.
Since then, both President Bush’s have been in Enid and I was able to see GH Bush speak and GW Bush fly off to OSU for a speech.
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OMG! My dad was stationed at Vance when Nixon came through. My family was there that day. The little black kid in the second photo with the sunglasses on his forehead might be my baby brother! It looks like him and there weren’t many black people at Vance back then. BR/BR/My brother got separated from us in the crowd and was pushed to the front and he got to shake Nixon’s hand. He told me that Nixon seemed scared, that his hands shook and that he asked the Secret Service guys if they were sure it was ok that he get that close to the crowd. My brother said that Nixon’s hand was warm and damp. BR/BR/Nixon handed him an autographed business card that my mother kept it for 20 years in the same container where she stored her hair curlers. Go figure. She finally decided that the autograph was just a photocopy and threw the card away. It was also smudged with lipstick and hairspray by then.BR/BR/Wow. What a trip.