The summer of 1982.

Good morning.

This is today.

It's Tuesday, August 17th.

I'm Bryant Gumbull.

Year two of the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

That was President Reagan in a nationally televised speech last night from the White House,

making a sober plea to Americans to support.

The number one song in the country is Eye of the Tiger.

The summer's smash hit movie is E.T.

E.T. Phone home.

And in Washington, Democrats and Republicans are at each other's throats over a big, controversial

bill to raise taxes.

What we need now is an end of the bickering.

In that summer of 1982, there's a researcher posted up inside the National Archives,

which is just a few blocks from the White House.

This researcher has been coming to the archives for years,

it's basically her second home.

On a typical day, she's at the archives right up until closing time.

She's maybe five feet tall, she's got big glasses,

she's usually got a brown bag lunch with her, and also her own

personal copy machine that she lugs to and from the archives every day. But she's not a professor

...