I wanted to do something for Green Mountain Daily that was in keeping with the web community philosophy that the more you know about the people behind a web site, the more interested you’ll be in what they have to say — unless, of course, the extra information includes some rather disturbing IM messages.

So, based on a similar idea by James Boyce on Huffington Post, I decided I’d do a kind of Meet the Bloggers feature of my own to let people know the writers of GMD a little better.

But, the idea came with a bad omen…

Cuz, following Boyce’s original entry, he profiled Peter Daou, who soon disappeared from the blogosphere to work for Hillary Clinton. And then, almost on the day he posted his profile of Jerome Armstrong, news began to spread about Armstrong’s past run-in with the SEC and his fondness for astrology-based, political fortune telling.

And, with that, the series ended.

So, in order to appease the Stars, who are perhaps a little miffed about the demotion of Pluto, I decided to just post the responses to my first interview question: What is your first political memory?

And, so here they are:

Jack McCullough…

My first political memory was the night JFK won the nomination for presidency in 1960. This was a big deal for my family, and that election is the first one I really remember.

Odum…

Vietnam Cease Fire. What was it…january of…’73? I think it made an impression ‘cuz my family was watching so intently, and I was able by that time to read enough to recognize the words "cease fire" in the wipe/box over the anchorman’s (Harry Reasoner, maybe?) shoulder.

Ed Garcia…

Goodness, I forgot all about this.

Mine is being taken by my grandparents to see George McGovern at a whistle stop in Stockton, CA in the summer of ‘72. My grandmother told me, "When you see Senator McGovern, mijo, you tell him you’re going to be the first Mexican-American President of the United States!" And I did. He laughed and said, "Good for you!" and shook my little hand.

DAMN, I wish I had a picture of that. I was seven and a half.

Anyway, i left there with a baloon, and one of those blue-on-white McGovern stickers. Which I applied to the back bumper of my mom’s ‘67 Firebird. BOY, was she pissed. Especially since she couldn’t get it off. She didn’t dare spank me, though - she didn’t want to hear it from my dad and grandfather; she was already hearing it enough for supporting Nixon.

My parents were divorced. Hell, if my wife went Republican, I’d divorce her too. And she knows it.

Actually, i think that was a couple years after the day i asked my grandma what all those little stick men behind Walter Cronkite were. I was sitting in her lap. She drew me closer and crossed me and whispered, "Those are boys who died in the war."

Later on, I went to play in the garden with my army men, but it wasn’t as much fun that day. For some reason.

Mataliandy…

Mine was sitting in the back seat of our big old green station wagon, waiting in line at the Jack-in-the Box drive-through. It was just getting dark out. The radio was on, but I wasn’t paying attention. Then my parents both started exlaiming their utter disbelief that “he” had been elected. My Dad said something along the lines of “How could this happen? Doesn’t anyone remember?” Then we got a lecture on “this guy’s” history, and how important it is to vote, so that a “liar like this guy” could never be elected again. It seemed like a very loooong drive home. As annoying as it was to a little kid hankering for her hamburger and fries, it did sink in.

I did not know at the time who "he" was (I was a bit too young to have any clue). It was Nixon.

And here’s mine…

A discussion of Nixon’s resignation happening around me on a porch while on vacation in Maine. Based on the August 9th, 1974 resignation date, it well could have been right as it was happening and I must have been 4 years old… Conversation like “Thank God, we’re getting rid of that bastard…” is what I remember…

What’s interesting, aside from the obvious fact that, except for Jack, we’re all pretty much the same age, is that clearly we all grew up in families with a perhaps pathological interest in politics.

So, I suppose, this is how junkie bloggers are born.

(And, of course, you’re certainly encouraged to answer the question in the comments, too… )