Posted on 06/05/2004 6:55:30 PM PDT by al baby
I was in my office at work and heard the news on the radio.
I took my son out to celebrate his seventh birthday at Magic Mountain. Glad I heard the news later or I wouldn'd have been in a very good mood.
I was leaving a fundraiser with my wife and turned on the radio.
In my recliner watching FOX.
I was helping a friend transport a couch from his bro-in-law's house to his.
We were waiting in the bro-in-law's driveway and I decided to turn on the radio to hear if there were any news about Reagan (I had read earlier on FR that he was on the brink of death).
As soon as I turned on the radio, I heard the news.
A sad day. God bless Ronald Reagan.
I just got into a car that I was planning to buy and was surfing for my favorite jazz staion when the dial fell on someone talking about Reagan. I knew then he had passed and prayed for God to keep his soul at rest. I felt teary but didn't cry.
I was visiting another forum after returning on a weekend trip to the beach. I had not listened to the news all day.
I was watching the Belmont Stakes when the announcer broke in with the news. I wasn't stunned, he was 93 after all, but was very, very saddened.
I was logged onto FR on the Belmont thread.
I was in tears and I am only 44 I remember when I became a Republican to vote for Ronald Reagan. I have been glued to the TV
My hubby and I were eating a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant when we got a call from my son telling us of our beloved presidnent Reagan's passing! Heart broken we immediately headed home to see the news. God Bless our beloved Reagan and his family!
I arrived at my work tent in Al Udeid AB in Qatar
Not surprised when I heard he finally past away but a little sad.. he was the president when I joined the military.
I just poseted on the other thread - I was at the Belmont Stakes race. 100,000+ people there, they put the notice up on the large screen TVs and public address system. All rose, you could here a pin drop as we stood for the moment of silence, the flag at the track was lowered to half staff.
That's awesome.
On a Saturday in October of 1964 my very opinionated father tossed me the phonebook. "We've got to help Goldwater. Here's the message. You take the K's."
I was thirteen years old and already rather opinionated myself.
"Ronald Reagan will discuss the issues tonight on Channel 6 at 7 p.m. Please tell your friends," I told all the listed K's, except for John Kosinski who wouldn't have voted for the Lord if He was running as a Republican.
That night we gathered around the old tv. I had only a vague idea of who this guy even was. But that was THE SPEECH, and it changed his life, the country, the world, and me. Two years later he became Governor of California. By 1968 I was rooting for him for president. In February of 1976 I followed him around New Hampshire where he delivered the tried and true message in junior high school auditoriums, in old mills, and, most memorably, on the running board of a fire engine in a volunteer house in a tiny village tucked away somewhere in the central part of the state.
He took questions, including one last one from an eight year old boy: "Why do you want to be president?" Remarkably, he looked startled, and said later that he had never really been asked that question so directly before. He gave a good answer, nonetheless, and a few weeks later related that anecdote in a nationally televised address, giving this time a great answer.But great seemed to come easily to him.
Security wasn't so tight then, and over a couple of days I got my picture taken with him, shook his hand several times, and even chatted a bit about New York politics. At the time his campaign had decided not to challenge the "uncommitted" slate of New York delegates, which later proved to be a critical miscalculation when he lost at the convention by only a handful of votes.
Which is why on a frigid way-below-zero day in January of 1980 I found myself going door to door in Latham gathering signatures for a Reagan slate on the New York primary ballot, a slate which happened to include me. The next month Reagan came to Colonie and I got to sit with him on the platform, and had him autograph a Newsweek cover with him and Nancy on it and the caption "Back in the Saddle Again" after his New Hampshire primary victory. Pretty heady stuff. Also rather funny, since I had swiped the magazine from my boss who was a big Albany Democrat.
The hard work payed off and that summer I stepped through a door onto the floor of the biggest Red-White-and-Blue Convention there ever was. Reagan came by to see us and Mary, now pregnant with our first child, kissed him right in front of his wife. So I kissed Nancy and said, "Bless you, Mrs. Reagan!" which no doubt she remembers.
We were invited to the inauguration, of course, but Anna was born on January 6, 1981, so it was not a good time for a long car trip. Four years later we were invited again, but Number Two son Jamie popped in on January 14, so again we stayed home. Much as I would have loved to be in the Reagan Revolution, things in the home town kept us away from the center of the free world.
So I rooted from the sidelines. And cheered my heart out.
All of which explains how when Mary came home from volleyball at 11:00 on the night of January 19, 1989, she found me filling a thermos with hot coffee. I said goodbye and drove through the night, arriving in Washington as dawn came over the White House.
I found myself a spot where the motorcade turned a corner before heading up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol. I carried a big sign for the old guy. I had forgotten the protocol, however, and realized too late that George Bush 41 was on my side of the car. Not to worry. He saw my sign, grabbed Reagan's arm, pointed to me and they both gave me a hearty wave while I tried to snap a picture over my head without dropping the poster.
Later I walked the long road to the Capitol, perched myself on top of a portapoddy, and watched the inaugural ceremonies, then saw Reagan fly away in the helicopter, making one last grand circle.
A year later I finally got around to sending him a picture of me with the sign and a week after that he sent me a picture of him, inscribed "To Robert Going, with appreciation for your support. Warm wishes and regards, Ronald Reagan."
I thought of him often over the years, but never more poignantly than in November of 1999 when I raised a glass to our foreign exchange student from East Germany on the tenth anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall, the wall Ronald Reagan had challenged Gorbachev to tear down.
"Yes, I remember this night," he said. "I was seven years old, and my mother woke me up and said, 'Christian, look at the television! Your father is dancing on the Berlin Wall!'"
The sign I held in 1989 I pulled down from the attic when I heard the news. It is as good today as it was then. It said simply, "Thanks, Ron! For securing the blessings of liberty."
I had been on FR most of the morning, but it wasn't raining, so I decided to go for a ride on my Harley. After getting ready for the ride, I checked FR to see if there had been any update on his condition..that is when and where I learned of his passing.
My Bride was mowing the yards (she likes doing that chore). I called her in and we lowered our flag to half mast. We said a few prayers and began with the tears. I put my bike gear away and spent the rest of the day on FR and the Web reading everything I could in memory of this great and wonderful man.
I was coming home from a high school baseball game this evening and I saw one of neighbors flags at half staff. Knowing what I saw on the TV about President Reagan's condition, I feared the worst so I rushed into the house and turned on Fox and there was the news of his passing.
My heart sank. The President I grew up with as teenager and admired had passed.
The post, a review of the three key immigration policy decisions over the last 20 years and their unintended consequences, contained critical references to Reagan's contribution in 1986.
When the news broke, I requested that the moderator pull the thread out of respect for his passing. The moderator promptly acquiesced to my wishes.
At work. The television in the breakroom was tuned to FOX News.
Will let you know the reactions of the Finns when I see them tomorrow.
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