Personal Memories of Richard Nixon's Resignation

How the US, and we, have changed. Trying to gain historical perspective.

I frequently think of President Richard Nixon around August 9, the anniversary of his resignation in 1974, and reflect on how we, and America, have changed since then. It was a big event in my extended family, with everyone having strong and somewhat differing opinions, expressed with enviable civility.

My father initially thought the president should be respected and that I was being disrespectful calling him a crook and he certainly disdained my long shoulder-length hair. My uncle, who taught at the UNC Journalism School, had been a crusading civil rights publisher in South Carolina who adored Kennedy and Johnson but became disillusioned with both of them as well as campus protests by the "New Left," saying they had no sense of history. In reaction he supported Nixon, even voting for him against George McGovern in 1972 and defending him strongly until the end, saying his crimes were no worse than those of Democrats.

He, my mother, and my aunt were very close siblings. The women despised Nixon. We would all meet at the beach renting a big house for two weeks, and they would have intense debates and all 12 children (in their teens or older) would be expected to have an opinion and defend it, to be immediately praised or ridiculed by the others. My uncle, with his strong sense of history, would out-talk and out-reason everyone, I thought secretly. 

I taught my four-year-old nephew to say "Impeach Nixon," to the annoyance of my father, uncle, and brother-in-law. We'd go to Painters Ice Cream in North Myrtle Beach and my nephew wanted to order "Peach Nixon" ice cream. Fun memories. 

I carried around a cassette recorder, and still have the tape, which I later digitized and put on video along with pictures from newspapers, of our family in that era, and of the beach cottage we stayed at, which no longer exists, torn down to make way for high rises. The village of Crescent Beach has lost its identity, now transformed into the metropolis of North Myrtle Beach...

On this 1974 audio tape, in a squeaky very Southern voice, I offered an introduction.