Dangerous Campaigning

In doing some personal research I was scanning through news from the end of the 1960 Presidential election campaign and cam across the following bits:

Oct 23: A woman in Milwaukee splashed Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy with whiskey while he was riding in an open convertible, then tossed the drinking glass into the car. According to an AP report, "Kennedy wiped his face, picked up the tumbler, said calmly 'here's your glass' and handed it back." No arrests were made.

Oct 27: With less than two weeks left in the U.S. presidential campaign, eggs and tomatoes were thrown at Republican candidate Richard Nixon at various campaign stops in Michigan. At Muskegon, an egg struck Nixon's coat and hit a Secret Service man, while other items were thrown at Grand Rapids and at Jackson.

Nov 4: As John F. Kennedy arrived at the Chicago Stadium for a pre-election rally, Jaime Cruz Alejandro forced his way through the crowd to get as close as he could to Kennedy's open convertible, then fought with police after running from them. He was found to be carrying a loaded .25 caliber pistol. Moments later, Reverend Israel Dabney was caught attempting to carry a .38 revolver into the coliseum. Both men said that they were carrying the weapons for self-defense and were later released.

It didn't end with the election. Perhaps the most significant non-event of that post-election was the almost assassination of the President-elect.

Dec 11: Richard Paul Pavlick, a 73-year-old postal clerk from Maine, loaded his car with dynamite and then parked outside the Kennedy family estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and prepared to kill President-elect John F. Kennedy, waiting for Kennedy to depart for Sunday mass. Pavlick changed his mind after seeing that Kennedy was accompanied by his wife and two small children. Pavlick was arrested four days later by Palm Beach city police.

Quite something to ponder.

Sunday After Christmas ~ Family

The Twelve Days of Christmas
Sunday after Christmas Day: Family
Feast of the Holy Family

A 50-Year Memory: A Star Begins His Career

October 29 – In Louisville, Kentucky, Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) wins his first professional fight.

A 50-Year Memory: Intervention

October 26 – Robert F. Kennedy calls Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, and secures his release from jail on a traffic violation in Atlanta, Georgia.

While it was a political move on the Kennedys' part, it was right on target. Eight years later Bobby would again show his grace and commitment in Indianapolis the night when King was killed.

A 50-Year Memory: An Idea is Born

October 14 – U.S. presidential candidate John F. Kennedy first suggests the idea for the Peace Corps.

A 50-Year Memory: The Kid Retires

1960 - Ted Williams plays his last major league baseball game after 19 seasons, 2,292 games and 7,706 at bats. Williams was

a two-time American League Most Valuable Player (MVP) winner, led the league in batting six times, and won the Triple Crown twice. He had a career batting average of .344, with 521 home runs, and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1966. He is the last player in Major League Baseball to bat over .400 in a single season (.406 in 1941). --Wikipedia

Some Ted Williams quotes:

"No one could throw a fastball past me. God could come down from Heaven and he couldn't throw it past me."

"Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer."

"Baseball's future? Bigger and bigger, better and better! No question about it, it's the greatest game there is!"

"I hope somebody hits .400 soon. Then people can start pestering that guy with questions about the last guy to hit .400."

"If there was ever a man born to be a hitter it was me."

"Hitting is fifty percent above the shoulders."
--Wikipedia

And don't miss....

A 50-Year Memory: Debates

September 26 – The 2 leading U.S. presidential candidates, Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy, participate in the first televised presidential debate.

As a 7th grade political geek at the tender age of 12, I remember lying on the floor by my bedroom door to listen to this from the TV down the hall in the living room. I didn't hear everything, but it was an intriguing time. My parents wouldn't let me stay up, so I had to sneak the listen.

A 50-Year Memory: The New Frontier is Nominated

July 13 – U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy is nominated for President at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, California.

A 50-Year Memory: A Classic is Born

July 11- The Great American Novel, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, was published. It won the Pulitzer Prize and was turned into a classic, Oscar-winning American film in 1962 starring Gregory Peck and the movie debut of Robert Duvall.

According to Wikipedia:

It was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explained the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."

After 50 years it is still a great book and movie.

A 50-Year Memory: Up to Fifty

July 4 – Following the admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state the previous year, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

A 50-Year Memory: Captured

May 11 – In Buenos Aires, 4 Mossad agents abduct fugitive Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who was using the alias "Ricardo Klement". Announced 12 days later by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion

For the first time I learned of The Holocaust. Just a shade under 12 with a Jewish mother and her whole family. Here came this shivering news of something that had only been whispered about for fear perhaps that to say it out loud would unleash it all again.

Now, with all this time behind us, I fear we may forget. May that not happen.

A 50-Year Memory: Fewer Weddings

May 9 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces that it will approve birth control as an additional indication for Searle's Enovid, making it the world's first approved oral contraceptive pill.

I once asked an organist after a wedding about playing the Wedding March so much in all her years as an organist. She smiled and said, "Less now since the Pill."

A 50-Year Memory: Ancient Winner

April 4 - Academy Awards

Best Picture: Ben-Hur
Best Actor- Male: Charlton Heston (Ben-Hur)
Best Actor- Female: Simone Signoret (Room at the Top)

A 50-Year Memory: The Sixties Begin

February 1 – In Greensboro, North Carolina, four black students from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University begin a sit-in at a segregated Woolworth's lunch counter. Although they are refused service, they are allowed to stay at the counter. The event triggers many similar nonviolent protests throughout the Southern United States, and 6 months later the original 4 protesters are served lunch at the same counter.