Published by Fredrik Bodin
Fred Bodin is a photographer who owns a gallery on Main Street in downtown Gloucester, MA. The gallery features Fred's land and seascapes, as well as historic images printed from the old negatives.
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What a day that was. I was 10 years old and lived in Somerville, MA,President Kennedy’s district when he was a congressman. Walking home from school as Fred stated, people were crying and cars just stopped. The TV never went off that horrible weekend in November of 1963. It feels like not 50 years but only a couple. Thanks for the post.
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On November 22,1963 I was a 21 year old first year law student, at NYU, struggling with courses such as civil procedure, torts and contract law, and looking forward to my marriage to my high school sweetheart, Barbara, in a few months. The preceding three or four years had been a time of excitement and personal growth and change.
In 1960, as president of the Long Island University Young Democrats I had worked hard for the election of JFK and actually got to meet him (very briefly) during a memorable campaign motorcade through Brooklyn on a chilly October evening. The crowds were enormous and the atmosphere was electric.
After the election I closely followed his presidency through its great successes as well as its failures and disappointments. In 1961, 62 and 63 I helped write and publish “The New Frontier,” a monthly report on the Kennedy administration and was proud that the Democratic National Chairman had noticed our efforts, although he did note that one of my articles critical of a Kennedy policy was perhaps misdirected.
But, no matter what, I was a Kennedy guy. He had instilled in me, as in so many others, a sense that public service was a noble and worthy calling. From the moment my hand grasped his during that Brooklyn motorcade, I knew that I would have to spend at least a portion of my life in public office.
The news of JFK’s assassination was, of course, devastating. Barbara and I travelled to D.C. on the Sunday following the shooting to witness the cortege from the White House to the Capitol, where the president was to lie in state. To this day, I am haunted by the dirge-like drumbeats that accompanied the rider less horse, the boots reversed in the stirrups and the soft sobs of the crowd of ordinary Americans who felt compelled to pay their respect on that sad day.
In about the year 2000, while I was serving as a New York State Assemblyman, I was visited in Albany by President Kennedy’s nephew, Anthony Kennedy Shriver. He looked around my office and noted the portrait of his uncle on my wall. He told me he was very touched by that and thanked me for remembering JFK in that way. I told him that if not for his uncle, we would not have been meeting there that day.
These days, when my faith in our political system and our politicians is challenged by the daily headlines, when I wonder what has gone wrong, I think of John F. Kennedy remember those days and have my hope renewed.
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Beautifully written Marty.
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Thank you for honoring President Kennedy Fred and thank you Marty and Donna for sharing your stories.
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I think that is Evelyn Murphy not Martha Coakley.
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Evelyn Murphy (born May 14, 1940) was the 67th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1987 to 1991, being the first woman in the history of the state to hold a constitutional office.Wiki. Zefra, you are correct! I was only off by a quarter century.
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Thanks Marty. I enjoyed reading that and am glad he can still keep some of us hopeful going forward even now.
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so true
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Thank you Fred for your post that brought us back to that day. Thank you Marty for reminding us to hold fast to the notion that “a sense of public service is a noble and worthy calling” ~
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Fred Thank You!
Cape Ann -I remember watching on a Black & White TV school classroom and Walter Cronkite – Announce, that JFK had died, somber and lots of tears in school classroom and at home!
Abraham, Martin & John – Lyrics – Dion DiMucci of Dion and of Belmonts
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