10.Life During the Kennedy Era

The election of 1960 had a huge impact how the rest of the sixties went. My grandmother remembers vividly watching the two candidates, Nixon and Kennedy, on television. These two candidates were always debated certain issues of the time. Kennedy was a young unknown senator to my grandparents and they really did not know much about his experience or what he wanted to do for our country. Nixon was older and much more experience. When it came to voting time both of my grandparents remember voting for Kennedy because after watching him campaign for many years after their first time watching him they both seemed to like his younger new style and ideas. Once Kennedy was president my grandparents remembered a lot of happiness in the country. It seemed like everyone loved the Kennedy Family in office. My grandma said directly that it was a “Very sad day when John F Kennedy was shot. I remember vividly working at Kodak Office on State St. hearing the news and spending the next day’s watching TV at a conference room, cafeteria settings.” When this happened everyone seemed to congregate together in disbelief. After going home from work my grandparents met up and talked about what had just happened to our country. My grandma said that for the next few months “it seemed as if this event changed the nation.” “Everyone seemed to come together”, she said, people all over were talking whether they knew each other or not. It was talked about on all newspapers, news stations, and all over the streets. In 1968 my grandpa, Jim, shook Bobby Kennedy's hand when he came thru Rochester campaigning for the democratic primary. When Jim was at his mother's house, Kennedy's car came parading down her street and he reached out and shook his hand. “He was so excited.” When I was talking to my grandpa about it he had a different tone in his voice, he said “Daniel, you could even believe it; he stuck his hand out the window and shacked my hand, unbelievable.” That summer Bobby Kennedy was killed during a primary rally. He too is buried at the Arlington Cemetery with a very simple white cross as a grave marker. My grandpa said this death had a bigger impact on his life than John F Kennedy’s. After this day my grandparents went out and bought their first American flag. The death of these two great men seemed to have that kind of impact on everyone in the United States. Ever since then my grandparents have not gone a day without hanging an American Flag from the front of their house.