JFK

Rather than attend the designer run through last Thursday, Linda and I instead visited the JFK Library at Columbia Point, with its beautiful setting overlooking Boston. As with every visit,  the first indication showing that we are in a different era comes from the initial movie leading up to JFK accepting the nomination from the Democratic party. It is not just the TV interviewer casually lighting up a cigarette, but the answer that Kennedy - not yet a politician gives to the question of "Why do the countries in the Middle East oppose the USA". We have become used to trite, asinine, answers along the lines of "because they hate freedom", but the young Kennedy gives an answer that is both concise and erudite.

In 1960 my friends and I were divided into camps of  supporters for Kennedy or Nixon. This was surprising, not only because we were all eight years old, but also because we were in England and not one of us had ever visited, or had any connections with the USA. I would like to think that my vehement support of Kennedy was from a careful analysis of his domestic policies, but suspect that it was due more to his relative youthful appearance on that first ever presidential TV debate as opposed to Nixon's jowly and sweaty demeanor. In fact I have no idea why any of my friends at the time could have backed Nixon.

The next recollection comes from that Friday, November 22, 1963 when I returned from school to find my mother very upset. I cannot remember how I felt - I expect that it was all rather abstract to an eleven year old five thousand miles away.