John F. Kennedy was elected president 50(!) years ago today

[dflprincess]

Just to make my fellow Boomers feel as old as I do.

[Bucky]

1. Also Nixon 42 years ago today. Hat tip to our last liberal president!

[Arkana]

14. Aaarroooo.

[DainBramaged]

2. I remember

:cry:

What would the world have been like without Nixxon to kick around.......

[durkermaker]

15. he looks like edward g robinson there

[demosincebirth]

3. He was my first vote for Pres.

[Gaedel]

8. Same here

I had just turned twenty-one and it was my first vote cast (had to be 21 in those days). I was a college senior and voted absentee.

JFK and Reagan were the only two presidents of my life time that were truly inspirational speakers (yes, disagreed with Reagan's politics, but loved to listen to him).

[demosincebirth]

20. He made a pit stop, while campaigning, in our neighborhood. That was

one of the highlights of my life...standing no more that fifty feet from him.

[Art_from_Ark]

27. I hated listening to Reagan

because more often than not, he just made up shit. Or brushed off people's valid concerns. Or denigrated liberals and the downtrodden. Or made stupid jokes about there being "lots of countries in South America" and "bombing the 'Evil Empire' in 5 minutes"

Hardly inspirational. :puke:

[jwirr]

10. Mine also. Sat up until 7:00 in the morning watching returns.

[demosincebirth]

21. I was working swing shift and had to wait till after my shift, and then they still didn't know

[dflprincess]

17. I was only 7

but I do remember that election well. Maybe it's because my family was Irish Catholic and I didn't get why some of the kids at school said a Catholic couldn't be president (some even specified an Irish one) and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with us. To be fair, the adults in my extended family would all have voted for whoever the Democrat was that year though my dad leaned toward JFK over Humphrey in the primaries because he was also a Pacific vet - (lucky we lived in New York then).

I remember going into the voting booth with my dad & he showed me how things were done & I remeber findind him bleary eyed in front of the TV on Wednesday morning. I asked him if "our side" won and he tried to explain to me that it really wasn't a question of sides like a baseball game was.

[demosincebirth]

18. That was really a momentous occasion for Catholics.

[dflprincess]

24. And if you were an Irish Catholic it was a really big deal

There was a local guy on talk radio here who had a show when John Jr. died. The talk show host also happened to be an IrishCatholicDemocrat (as Tip O'Neil said - it was one word) a young one called in to complain that his show had been "all Kennedy" and the host gave the the kid a great lecture about "For Irish Catholics of a certain age we all remember when we wanted to be Kennedys and if we couldn't be Kennedys we at least wanted to be their friends. And, after all these years, no matter what else has happened, when another tragedy hits them - we still want to be their friends & we want them to know we're their friends." After that a lot of people called in to agree with him.

[Bucky]

4. PS, check out these unreleased photos from JFK's 1960 campaign

http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/51881 These will wow you.

[dflprincess]

6. Great link!

I looked at a few of them & will finish checking them out when I get home tonight.

During the primary campaign - back before security was so tight - one of my friend's moms sat right behind JFK when he attended Mass in Minneapolis. She said she had been to Confession the day before & had planned to go to Communion but decided she couldn't because she was "thinking thoughts" and wishing she wasn't 8 months pregnant :evilgrin: She also swore us to secrecy because she had never told my friend's Dad the truth about why she didn't go to Communion that day and, as far as I know, she never did tell him that story.

[Vinca]

5. Between this and John Lennon's 70th birthday, I feel like a dinosaur.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. I know what ya mean. JFK seems but a moment ago.

My 65th is today.

[pinboy3niner]

11. Happy Birthday, dixiegrrrrl!

:party: :toast: :party: :toast:

I remember riding my bike down a CA street one day when a motorcade went by. It was JFK taking Nikita Khruschev to Disneyland.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. I knew the country was "gone" when Bobby was killed.

Somehow, inside, I felt it. Things would be going in a direction we were not gonna like.
It was like a door slamming shut in my mind.
Very real.

[Vinca]

19. I know exactly what you mean about Bobby. It has never been the same.

Congratulations on making it this far . . . Happy Birthday to you!:party: May we have many more.

[dixiegrrrrl]

23. ty.

"Carry one Sweet survivor"

[Art_from_Ark]

28. I got a similar feeling

It seemed as though things started to really go downhill once we hit the 1970s.

[mwdem]

26. Whoa! Happy Birthday!

I'm going into my 60th in March. My oh my, time really does fly!

[DesertFlower]

7. i couldn't vote. i was 19.

back then you had to be 21 to vote.

[spinbaby]

12. I have one memory of that election

I remember in kindergarten we were shown two pictures and asked which one we thought should be president.

[pacalo]

13. To think that I was seven & remember so well.

I watched the JFK/Nixon debate, sitting next to my mom & my dad sitting in his chair. Dad was for JFK, Mom was for Nixon. At 7 yrs. old, & as much as I loved my mom, it was apparently in my genes to make up my own mind & trust my own instincts, but in an innocent way for a little girl my age. JFK exuded a calm, cool presence with a warm, inviting sense of humor. He looked more like a leader with a calm head. Nixon looked uncomfortable & very nervous. Knowing what I do today, Nixon was an insecure personality who was surely intimidated by the handsome, well-adjusted, prominent JFK facing off with him before a televised audience. I believe I favored the Democrats with JFK, beginning with that debate.

[Individualist]

22. When I was 17, it was a very good year.

Remember the jumpers on the campaign trail? :)

[regnaD kciN]

25. Bob Dylan's Dream

While riding on a train goin' west
I feel asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had.

With half-damp eyes I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon
Where we together weathered many a storm
Laughin' and singing 'till the early hours of the morn'.

By the old wooden stove where our hats was hung
Our words was told, our songs was sung
Where we longed for nothin' and were satisfied
Joking and talking about the world outside.

With haunted hearts through the heat and cold
We never once thought we could ever get very old
We thought we could sit forever in fun
Our chances really was a million to one.

As easy it was to tell black from white
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right
And our choices they was few though the thought never hit
That the one road we traveled would ever shatter or split.

How many a year has passed and gone
Many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a first friend
And each one I've never seen again.

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that.

I was just hearing that song (written at about that time) earlier today, and it just seemed appropriate to the thread.