Kitty Dunn

Today is the 100th birth anniversary of the birth of Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States.  Since Nixon was president during much of my childhood, I've formed some pretty clear cut, if not accurate, opinions on the man my family loved to hate.

Ours was a staunchly Democratic household, and we had no love for Nixon. Personally, I did not like the man for two reasons: first, the sweat on his upper lip, and second, the fact that hearings into the Watergate scandal regularly interrupted important television programming.

This fact raised my ire particularly on Saturday mornings, when boring men in boring suits talking non-stop was on TV in place of fantastic shows like The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour, Inch High Private Eye, and Hong Kong Phooey.

With a brother in Vietnam during part of Nixon's six years in the White House, I had more serious reasons to dislike the man. But my critique of him scarcely went to school with me. Most of my friends parents voted for him, so of course they thought he was a wonderful president....at the time.

After Nixon resigned, all the kids liked to mock Nixon, especially when we were at the city pool. A favorite thing to do was wave two peace signs in the air, say "President Nixon going down," and fall under the water as we shouted "I am not a crook!"  Hilarious!

I'm not sure if I paid attention to it at the time, but I do have to give kudos to Mr. Nixon for appearing on Laugh-In to try and win votes in 1968.  Sock it to me, Tricky Dicky.