Laura Armstrong Monica
I just found out Dennis Quaid made a movie about my favorite president and I can’t wait to see it.
When I viewed the trailer online the other day, it made me cry, and I’ll wager I’m not the only boomer whose emotions welled up as the memories took me back.
Forty-four years ago this November, I walked into Myers Hall at UGA after a late dinner at the dining hall, surprised to see dozens of fellow Bulldogs gathered around 36-inch televisions in both corners of the large room.
“REAGAN in a LANDSLIDE!!!” they were all yelling as the polls had barely closed. The whoops and hollers and clapping are fresh in my mind almost a half century later.
There was no stopping of the count that night, no truckloads of ballots counted days later. We knew we had a new president, a sea of change from former Georgia governor Carter who’d led us from The Great Malaise straight to his Crisis of Confidence. But now the world was new again.
Magically, Reagan’s election soon secured the release of the 52 American hostages being held in Iran. After 444 days of excruciating captivity and American humiliation under Carter, they were home in no time, the Ayatollah taking no chances with the Gipper’s tough reputation.
Reagan’s election and the hostages in Iran were two events that really shaped my generation. American students weren’t divided back then, as I recall. We were all MAGA, with the exception of a few bottom feeders in the basement of the sociology building. And perhaps Barrack Obama, who never mentions these formative experiences, even though we’re the same age.
Back then, kids cared about our country, about each other. We had respect. Football was important, but Ted Koppel’s Nightline and Carter’s botched desert rescue mission were right up there with Herschel as topics of much discussion on the UGA campus.
And then Reagan, what a president. Bad people hated him. Most Americans loved him. Our economy got stronger. Our voice in the world became more clear and respected. We were no longer looking at 21% interest rates on home loans and we had Peace Through Strength.
After I married, Reagan kept my husband, a U.S. Marine, out of combat for years. It was good times.
He told Gorbachev to “Tear Down This Wall” and on my baby’s first birthday, that Wall came down. AMAZING!!! I can’t wait to see it in the movie.
And this election day, my only son is a freshman at UGA, planning to road trip home to cast his vote for Donald Trump, a strong leader like Reagan. Assuming the plumbing doesn’t falsely break again an hour after the polls close, we’ll watch the Trump landslide as it happens and we’ll talk about the similarities and differences between our gen and his. And we’ll look forward to watching as the Trump/Vance team Make America Great Again and save us from the sheer lunacy of the left.
