Where Were You In 1976?

Me

[bjcoop]

It was Carter Vs. Ford, so where were you during the course of that election and when Carter claimed his victory(unfortunately). It was a pretty close race.

[nhoward14]

I was in a womb without a view.

[oyez]

That was the third Presidential election that I voted and I thought, "What a lousy choice."

There was a lot of "Watergate Damage" at the time.

[x1stcav]

It was the year of 'Fernando', 'Blinded by the Light', and 'Beth'. It was the worst of times and those were about to get worser.

I remember standing in the Wagon Wheel in Carmel Valley and arguing with some youngsters who said they were going to vote for Carter. I asked them WTF were they were thinking? They responded that he wasn't so bad. Maybe it was time to give the Democarts a chance. They couldn't do any worse than Nixon and the Republicans.

What simple sh!ts!

So, you see, not a lot has changed in 28 years. The demonrats can't be trusted with the Republic and the Baby-Boomers can't die off fast enough.

[LNewman]

I was working for the gummint in DC, and I voted for Carter.

Was working in the Watergate building for a lawyer who came back from lunch one day and said "I just met the next President of the United States."

Yup, Carter. And boss-man ended up working in his administration.

[Nov3]

I was 14. I sat up and watched with my parents. Very little was said. It was a somber house.

[Moonman62]

So yeah, I have some responsibilty for the peanut farmer. Ford earned some of it with his WIN (wip inflation now) buttons. He was way over his head.

Ford did a very good job with inflation. He executed 39 vetoes and 27 were successful in his first 14 months. Most of the vetoes were to combat government overspending. I believe inflation was in the 5% range when he left office. I guess people don't remember that because inflation got really bad under Jimmuh, the worst president ever.

BTW, about all I can remember about 1976 was the bicentennial fireworks.

[thathamiltonwoman]

I was sitting on the floor playing with my Barbie dream house set.

[formercalifornian]

I cast my first vote in that election, too. I voted for some no-name independent candidate.

[oyez]

And back then Tennessee had a case of Ray Blanton induced depression.

[Think free or die]

In 1976 I was a junior at the University of Michigan. I remember one of my political science professors just loved to say "coup d'etat". He seemed to sprinkle it into his lectures whether it was germane or not. He just delighted in the thought of overthrowing a government.

I spent the summer of '76 (and Independence Day of our bicentennial year) visiting my family in Czechoslovakia. It was sobering to spend our bicentennial behind the iron curtain.

By the time I graduated college, the economy was in a shambles, and I was grateful for a desperately underpaid job in Virginia. Gas lines and 18% mortgage rates - those were the days . . .

[FredZarguna]

As all you FReepers reflect here on how much your lives have changed (or in some cases come into existence) since the election of 1976, it might be a good idea to recall how the brief years of the Carter Presidency cast such a long shadow over the lives we now live. Had it not been for Carter, Reagan might not have been elected, it's true. But I rather think that Reagan was a man for his times, and somehow would have found a way to become President even if Ford had prevailed. But we would not now be contending with a nuclear Iran, and absent the ayatollahs, Islamic militancy might have remained (largely) confined to the Palestinians. This is to say nothing of the professional nuisance the prestige of the office has allowed Carter to become.

Not to be a downer, but the point is that a poor choice for President--even a President who lasts only four years--can harm the country for a generation, or more. Let's do everything we can, and just a little bit more, to make sure we're looking back twenty eight years from now on the 2nd Bush administration.

[puroresu]

Yep, I remember old "Pardon Me Ray"! :-)

My first presidential vote was in 1980 but my first big time vote was 1978 when I helped put Lamar Alexander in the Tennessee governorship. He defeated Jake Butcher, yet another Democrat who ended up on the wrong side of the law!

[MattAMiller]

I was waiting out the last couple weeks in my mother's womb.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

I did NOT vote for that nutcase, so ya can't blame me : )

I was watching Return to the Planet of the Apes in 1976. Does anyone else remember that show? Crappy Filmation animation, but the stories were good.

I actually try to put most of the Carter Error out of my mind. Bad music (Ramones excluded) and even worse clothing. Stereotypical versions of the South on TV and the movies were everywhere ("Dukes of Hazzard," anyone?)I was so glad when Reagan got elected, and I haven't looked back since.

[macsmind76]

I was a 18 year old private in the Army, newly married. After Carter won I went out and got drunk and stayed that way until 1980.

I have been told that the Carter years were sort of like that.

[texasbluebell]

I choose not to think about the 70s.

I always remember what Nancy Reagan once said about the 70s:

"The 70s -- a slum of a decade."

(Lately I kind of miss it though...)

[EmilyGeiger]

First grade. Now four years later I remember that Ronald Reagan won by a landslide in my fifth grade election. :) Only 3 pitiful kids voted for carter in my class...poor upbringing I guess. And this was great because it started a revolution in Alabama, people turned away from the yellow dog democrat belief to being a Reagan democrat, and then most just changed to Republican.

[lizma]

Yikes, I was in college and, sorry to say, I based my vote on campaign ads.

Fortunately I had been a William F. Buckley fan since the age of 12 (use watch Firing Line on a 12 inch round screen T.V.) and voted Ford.

Remember cursing Carter waiting in the gas lines.

[ArmyBratproud]

I can tell ya where I was in the years following that.

Sitting in the back seat of the family car as we waited in lines....MILES LONG...for gas!

[Taxman]

Graduate School of Business, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ.

Also was an active (Weekend Warrior) Naval Reserve Officer, flying E-2B Hawkeyes out of (then) NAS Miramar, CA.

Voted for Ford, natch. Carter was a disaster-in-the-making, but not enough Real Americans knew that, then.

When Ford pardoned Nixon, the die was cast. Plus, add in the usual DemocRAT shenanigans, and Mr. Carter went to Washington.

My Georgia aunts/uncles/cousins and FRiends were happy to have him out of Georgia, but the rest of us were not so pleased.

Carter was a disaster -- Kerry, if he is elected, will be far worse!