Reagan Memories

Schoolyard at a Mississippi elementary school. Our class is in a ring doing jumping jacks in preparation for kickball when someone runs up and says "President Reagan's been shot." A girl yells "Yippee" and then clasps her mouth apologetically. Her parents were hardcore Dixiecrats, I guess.

Baylor university, 1990 I think. Former President Reagan is on campus stumping for a local Republican Congressional candidate. I'm uninterested so don't bother standing in line for the free tickets, which are snapped up quickly. But later a friend happened to be passing by the Student Activities Center just when a second small batch of tickets became available, so he or she got us some. All I remember was the Texas Republican kids going wild, as at a rock concert, whenever Reagan chided the Democratic candidate for being a "liberal" (which he did very, very often.)