Whose Baby Are You?

[poliphilo]

Do you know who was President/Prime Minister the year you were born- without looking it up? Apparently Matt Drudge doesn't. I was scornful until I tried to answer the question myself.

I guessed Eisenhower/Churchill. Wrong. I was a toddler when Eisenhower and Churchill came in. The answer is Truman/Attlee.

I'm pleasantly surprised. I idolise the post-war Labour Government (which gave us the Welfare State) and I don't like Churchill (whose post-war administration was the vanity project of a senile old man.) I'd far rather be a post-war Labour baby than a Churchill baby.

Yay- Attlee!

Comments

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

As with driving, there's a sort of blind spot just behind you - too long ago to remember, too recent to be taught as history.

I didn't know this, either - the earliest Prime Minister I can remember is Macmillan, but by definition that's too late to be the answer to your question (like you, I'm Truman / Attlee, though Attlee only by a matter of months). I was born on the National Health, and always assumed I'd die on it...

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I guessed Heath and Reagan, and it was Callaghan and Carter. I'd forgotten either of them even existed.

[idahoswede.livejournal.com]

We're probably very close to the same age then, I was born 1950 and Eisenhower didn't make it in till 1952.

[catvalente.livejournal.com]

Well, I know I'm Carter Kid--we used to theorize that our generation went to shit in 1980, when Reagan was elected. My guess would be Thatcher, but I don't know what year she started up.

*checks*

Yep, Thatcher baby here.

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

Eeeek. The presidential election took place around the time I was born, so I'm guessing either Patrick Hillary or Erskine Childers. Probably Childers. Prime Minister of the UK... erm... who came before Thatcher? Callaghan? And US president... Carter? Nixon? When the fuck was Watergate? I'm going with Carter. And now, I will check and get back to you.

1947

[mummm.livejournal.com]

According to my research... because I cheat... your Prime Minister was Lord Attlee about whom I know very little, I'm sorry for that! I already knew that the president then was "Give 'em Hell* Harry Truman as he is my all time favorite president.

I know you think that he is forgettable but I loved Jimmy Carter, and I still do. He's a good man without being so damned PUSHY or a b****** who pretends to be perfect. ;-)

[four-thorns.livejournal.com]

er... well, Reagan. Reagan was in almost until I was 7, I remember casting a ballot in the "election" at elementary school. I voted for Dukakis, and he was soundedly defeated by Bush. It's too bad; Dukakis was a good man.

and Thatcher? would Thatcher have been PM in 1982?

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I made the same sort of mistake you did -- I thought it was Olof Palme, when in fact it was Tage Erlander. Palme is who I remember as a tot, but in fact Erlander would have been a better bet -- longest term as Prime Minister in the history of Sweden.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Typical Ammurican. I know it was Truman -- I was born in 1948 and I actually remember Election Night 1952, sitting on a hassock listening to the election results on the radio because there wasn't any TV in our area yet.

But I haven't got a clue who was Prime Minister in 1948. The first one whose name I recall from the news is MacMillan, although Churchill was always around as the grand but irascible old man.

*google*google*google* Oh, it's Atlee. Who the heck was Atlee? Oh, I'm soooo provincial...

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I know I was born days after Roosevelt (not Teddy!) died...I missed him entirely.

Oh, dear. I haven't a clue who was next.

Eisenhower? Then Truman?

That can't be right...

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Reagan and Thatcher. Yuk yuk yuk.

[zen-punk.livejournal.com]

Reagan, I beleive. '86. I gather that Thatcher was Prime Minister at the time, although I wouldn't have known if you hadn't said so. Even though my mother hates our current President Bush, she still thinks Reagan was our worst president.