| The election of 1960 was a big deal when I was in Fifth Grade. I think what made it especially significant was the abundance of Roman Catholics in our neighborhood. All my friends at Clark School seemed to wear Kennedy buttons. My dad had come out of catholicism and was against Kennedy. I remember him talking about Kennedy having to kiss the ring of the Pope, and of him installing a pipe line from Rome to Washington, D.C., to pump holy water. I stood out on the playground, because I was the only one wearing Nixon campaign buttons. One big button read "Pat for first Lady". Alas, Kennedy won the election. I remember watching the inauguration on TV with Robert Frost reading poetry. I can recall a few politcal events of Kennedy's term, the Cuban Missle Crisis and race riots in the South. I was standing in line at a drinking fountain when a fellow 7th grader, Arthur Christ, told me that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. We all returned to our classrooms and the principal made an official announcement over the speaker system. We students were sent home early. I wasn't touched emotionally by his death. I was young and supported Nixon anyway. I watched the news and funeral on TV. ~ Our family had just purchased an LP comedy album called "the First Family". We stopped playing it and bought a memorial LP for John F. Kennedy.
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Go the next president, Lyndon Johnson. |