Where were you on November 14, 1972? I don’t recall much, as I was only 4 years old, but I do have a memory of it. We had one black & white TV in our home that was always tuned to Walter Cronkite at 5:30 PM on the local CBS affiliate (it was one of only four choices if you counted PBS).
My earliest memories are of watching Apollo rocket launches and splashdowns on that TV. While I don’t remember exactly why I was paying such close attention on this day, I suspect that my mom had mentioned that they may show the astronauts or the rocket pad at Cape Kennedy, as the Apollo 17 mission was scheduled around that time. While this tactic may have kept me out of her hair while she was cooking dinner, it also led to me to asking questions. A LOT of questions.
“What is Vietnam,” I would ask?
“A country,” would be the reply.
“What is a Watergate?”
“A hotel.”
But sometimes, the answer would just be, “Ask your father when he gets home.”
On this day, Mr. Cronkite had led the news with a headline that announced that the Dow Jones Industrial Average had just exceeded 1,000 points for the first time in history.
“Mom, what is the Dow?”
“It is where you can invest in companies,” she said.
“What does it mean to be at 1,000 points?’
“Ask your father.”
