We know history, or the basic narrative we're taught in school. Or the mythology written by the winners. Or the history as agreed upon by the government or mainstream for desired political and ideological purposes.
But there are people, events, anecdotes of significant historical importance or of extreme novelty interest that's obscure for whatever reason. Or they were simply just "forgotten" and left to rot in the dustbins of history. I don't simply just want this thread to be a Reader's Digest or whatever where we go Did you know... but also a place where we can debate alternative thoughts, theories, perceptions about our past.
But for fun, here's the first entry in FORGOTTEN HISTORY:
A pro-Nazi U.S. Army unit in WWII
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Fred "Three Sticks" Borch has a fascinating article about PFC Dale Maple, a brilliant young man who was born in San Diego in 1920 and who graduated from Harvard with honors but then, because he was bad, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be hanged by the neck until dead.
Young Maple spoke many languages. But his favorite, alas, was German. At Harvard he got kicked out of ROTC for being vocally pro-German when that just wasn't cool, according to a separate article on him that I just read. Stymied in his hopes to do post-graduate work in Berlin, which was busy with other things at the time, he enlisted in the Army in 1942. The Army had just the place for him: the 620th Engineer General Service Company, which despite its innocuous name was actually a holding unit for about 200 GIs of suspect loyalty, many of them German-born. The unit, which was not given weapons, was located in Camp Hale, Colorado, which is far from any port, but happened to next to an detachment of German PoWs on a work party.
And thereby hangs this tale. In February 1944 Private Maple decided it would be a good idea to help some hard-boiled eggs from the Afrika Korps escape to Mexico. Southward he drove them though New Mexico-a lovely drive, I've done much of it. Just across the international border, Mexican authorities caught them all and tossed them back. (Is there a derogatory term for people who illegally cross from the U.S. into Mexico, besides "stupid gringos"?) Maple was tried and found guilty and secretly sentenced to death. President Roosevelt clemently commuted his sentence to life, and he was released in 1951. Maple's claim to notoriety is that he was the first American-born GI ever found to have committed treason.
In 1957, with the arms race in full swing, the Department of Defense had decided it was just a matter of time before an airplane transporting an atomic bomb would crash on American soil, unleashing a radioactive disaster the likes of which the world had never seen. This dirty bomb menace posed a growing threat to the internal security of the country, one the Pentagon wanted to make less severe by testing the nightmare scenario first. The organization needed to do this in a controlled environment, away from the urban masses, in total secrecy. No one outside the project, absolutely no one, could know.
Officials from the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project decided that the perfect place to do this was at Area 51.
On May 15, 1967, there was a fascinating debate between California’s new Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, and New York’s new Democratic senator, Robert F. Kennedy. The subject: the Vietnam War. The debate was titled “The Image of America and the Youth of the World,” and was billed by CBS as a “Town Meeting of the World.” It was broadcast from 10:00-11:00 P.M. EDT by CBS TV Network and CBS Radio Network. It was produced by later 60 Minutes brainchild Don Hewitt and hosted by CBS News correspondent Charles Collingwood. The debate was watched by a huge audience: 15 million Americans.
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Truthfully, this was not a debate between Ronald Reagan and Bobby Kennedy. Rather, it descended into a venomous America-bashing session by a panel of extremely rude international students, who seemed to bask in their big chance to unleash their torrent of anger on the two available representatives of the country they despised. Newsweek rightly described the leftist students as “interrogators.” Among them, there was one American student, Bill Bradley, the Princeton basketball star, future NBA all-star, and future U.S. senator, who at the time was studying at Oxford, and appeared troubled and overwhelmed by the level of bile directed at his country.
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There was total agreement, including among media sources who revered Bobby Kennedy, from the San Francisco Chronicle to Newsweek, that Reagan overwhelmingly won the debate. “To those unfamiliar with Reagan’s big-league savvy,” reported Newsweek, “the ease with which he fielded questions about Vietnam may have come as a revelation.” Newsweek judged that “political rookie Reagan … left old campaigner Kennedy blinking when the session ended.” Not having a crystal ball into the tragic year ahead for Kennedy, Newsweek pondered whether the debate might be a “dry run” for a future set of “Great Debates” between these two promising presidential aspirants.
Why was this fascinating peculiar encounter forgotten?
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Reagan performed so well that his presidential boosters sought to use clips from the debate during the 1968 Oregon presidential primary, and requested a copy from CBS. Kennedy, however, reportedly did not want the video to be made available; CBS, naturally, acceded to his request. Kennedy himself conceded defeat to Reagan, telling his aides after the debate to never again put him on the same stage with “that son-of-a-bitch.” Kennedy was heard to ask immediately after the debate, “Who the f— got me into this?” Frank Mankiewitz was that aide, as Kennedy was quick to remind him a few weeks later: “You’re the guy who got me into that Reagan thing.”
We have a member around here who actually went to one of these shows.
The Clash at Bond's Casino
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The Clash played a series of 17 concerts at Bond's International Casino in New York City in May and June 1981 in support of their album Sandinista!.
The site of the concerts was formerly Bonds department store which had been converted into a large second-floor hall. Promoters kept the name because there was a large Bonds sign on the outside of the building. As The Clash had not yet broken out into mass popularity, eight shows were originally scheduled: May 28, 29, 30, 31 and June 1, 2, 3, and 5, 1981. However, given the venue's legal capacity limit of 3500, the series was blatantly oversold right from the first night, leading fire marshals for the New York Fire Department to cancel the Saturday, May 30 performance.
In response, the band condemned the brazen greed of the promoters while demonstrating unprecedented integrity to each and every ticketholder by doubling the original booking with a total of 17 dates extending through June.
The concert captures The Clash on the cusp between being a cult band and their short-lived major market penetration. As always with The Clash, ticket prices were set relatively low.
After George Reeves' death put an abrupt end to his very lucrative ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN television program, producer Whitney Ellsworth commissioned a TV pilot to continue milking his cash cow, albeit in a very weird way.
The pilot SUPERPUP placed the Superman mythos into a fictional universe populated by dogs instead of human beings. The live-action actors were placed in dog-suits to portray the canine versions of the characters of Superman. The pilot was filmed on the same set as SUPERMAN, and the characters were portrayed by little people.
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The Clark Kent character was renamed "Bark Bent", who worked for the Daily Bugle (not to be confused with Peter Parker's workplace) under editor "Terry Bite" (instead of Perry White) and Lois Lane was renamed...get this..."Pamela Poodle". Ironicly, Superpup/Bark Bent himself was played by actor Billy Curtis, who had been in SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN with George Reeves
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Unsurprisingly, SUPERPUP wasn't picked up as a series. Neither was Ellsworth's other possible Man of Steel tube replacement, SUPERBOY.
In honor of yesterday's "Rapture," here is a list...
10 Failed Doomsday Predictions
My favorite:
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The Millerites, April 23, 1843
A New England farmer named William Miller, after several years of very careful study of his Bible, concluded that God's chosen time to destroy the world could be divined from a strict literal interpretation of scripture.
As he explained to anyone who would listen, the world would end some time between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844. He preached and published enough to eventually lead thousands of followers (known as Millerites) who decided that the actual date was April 23, 1843. Many sold or gave away their possessions, assuming they would not be needed; though when April 23 arrived (but Jesus didn't) the group eventually disbanded—some of them forming what is now the Seventh Day Adventists.
In 1957, with the arms race in full swing, the Department of Defense had decided it was just a matter of time before an airplane transporting an atomic bomb would crash on American soil, unleashing a radioactive disaster the likes of which the world had never seen. This dirty bomb menace posed a growing threat to the internal security of the country, one the Pentagon wanted to make less severe by testing the nightmare scenario first. The organization needed to do this in a controlled environment, away from the urban masses, in total secrecy. No one outside the project, absolutely no one, could know.
Officials from the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project decided that the perfect place to do this was at Area 51.
In 1957, the Atomic Energy Commission and the Department of Defense conducted 29 nuclear tests at the Nevada Proving Grounds in "Operation Plumbob." Plumbbob released some 58,300 kilocuries of radioiodine (I-131) into the atmosphere. This was more than twice as much as any other continental test series. This produced total civilian radiation exposures amounting to 120 million person-rads of thyroid tissue exposure (about 32% of all exposure due to continental nuclear tests). This can be expected to eventually cause about 38,000 cases of thyroid cancer, leading to some 1900 deaths.
One of the test devices, "Hood," at 74 kilotons, was the largest nuclear device ever exploded in the continental US. It was also a thermonuclear (hydrogen) bomb, violating a solemn promise by our government to our people that no thermonuclears would ever be tested in the continental US. Lying f***k.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
The Clint Eastwood/John Wayne Movie (We Never Got)
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[Clint Eastwood] wanted to work with John Wayne in a western, but the feeling wasn't mutual. "I gave him a piece of material that I thought had potential for us to do as a younger guy and an older guy. He wrote me back critical of it. He had seen High Plains Drifter, and he didn't think that represented Americana like She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and other John Ford westerns. I never answered him".
(Interestingly, the Duke and Clint both did share the same director: Don Siegel. He of course directed Eastwood in several movies, most notably DIRTY HARRY. Siegel also shot Wayne's last film, THE SHOOTIST.)
Cleveland's sex scandal was well buried, but I found the long-forgotten affidavit from Maria Halpin, about the violent sexual assault that resulted in the birth of Cleveland's illegitimate child.
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Their meal together was a pleasant one. Cleveland escorted Halpin back to her room at a downtown boarding house. What happened next, according to Halpin's affidavit, would in another era be classified as date rape. Cleveland sexually assaulted her "[b]y use of force and violence and without my consent," Halpin reported, adding that when she threatened to notify the authorities, Cleveland "told me he was determined to ruin me if it cost him $10,000, if he was hanged by the neck for it. I then and there told him that I never wanted to see him again [and] commanded him to leave my room, which he did."
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Cleveland won election as mayor of Buffalo on a clean-government platform in 1881. A year later, he became governor of New York. As "Grover the Good," he won the Democratic nomination for president in 1884. Once he was named to the national ticket, it didn't take long for the media to expose the existence of his illegitimate son. What followed next was a malicious smear campaign: Cleveland's people got the word out that Halpin was a sexual plaything who drank to excess and was intimate with at least three (and possibly four) married men, all of them cronies of Cleveland. Cleveland, it was said, took responsibility for the child's conception because he was the only bachelor among Maria Halpin's gentlemen callers. Cleveland saw the matter through in the most "courageous way," the PR spin went, explaining that his indifference to the boy was due to "doubts about his fatherhood."
The pirate queen known only as Cheng I Sao, or "wife of Cheng," started out as a prostitute in Canton. In 1801, she married the raider Cheng I, who was organizing a confederation of sea brigands to prey on fishing and cargo boats around the Southern edge of China. When Cheng died in 1807, Mrs. Cheng seized her chance and took full control of the operation. Eventually, she governed more than 50,000 pirates. She was notorious for her ruthless sentencing: Looters that disobeyed orders were summarily beheaded, and first-time deserters lost their ears. Mrs. Cheng also entered into a politic fling with a promising young lieutenant, Chang Pao, after appointing him captain of the Red Flag Fleet, her most powerful squadron. Trouble arrived when the Chinese government sought protection against the pirates from the British and Portuguese navy. To avoid an epic battle, Mrs. Cheng brought 17 women and children with her to the Governor-General's house and asked for pardon. She got it, along with permission to keep the wealth she'd acquired through plundering. Then, clearly craving respectability, she retired to open a gambling house in Canton.
How Nazi Scientists Tried to Create an Army of Talking Dogs
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In his new book Amazing Dogs: A Cabinet of Canine Curiosities, Cardiff University historian Jan Bondeson mines obscure German periodicals to reveal the Nazis' failed attempt to breed an army of educated dogs that could read, write and talk. "In the 1920s, Germany had numerous 'new animal psychologists' who believed dogs were nearly as intelligent as humans, and capable of abstract thinking and communication," he writes. "When the Nazi party took over, one might have thought they would be building concentration camps to lock these fanatics up, but instead they were actually very interested in their ideas."
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According to the book, scientists envisioned a day when dogs would serve alongside German troops, and perhaps free up SS officers by guarding concentration camps. So to unlock all that canine potential, Hitler set up a Tier-Sprechschule (Animal Talking School) near Hanover and recruited "educated dogs" from throughout the country. Teachers claimed a number of incredible findings. An Airedale terrier named Rolf became a mythic figure of the project after teachers said he could spell by tapping his paw on a board (the number of taps represented the various letters of the alphabet). With that skill in hand, he mused on religion, learned foreign languages and even asked a noblewoman, "Can you wag your tail?" Perhaps most outlandish is the claim by his German masters that he asked to serve in the German army because he disliked the French. Another mutt barked "Mein Fuhrer" when asked to describe Hitler. And Don, a German pointer, is said to have imitated a human voice to bark, "Hungry! Give me cakes!" in German.
Another mutt barked "Mein Fuhrer" when asked to describe Hitler. And Don, a German pointer, is said to have imitated a human voice to bark, "Hungry! Give me cakes!" in German.
What, no "Arf wiedersehen"?
Signor V.
"For me, there's only my wife..."
"Sure I cook with wine - sometimes I even add it to the food!"
"When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?"
"It was a grass harp... And we listened."
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? Every, every minute?"
In a new interview with Ain't It Cool News, Steven Spielberg recounts the time he was invited to show E.T. at the White House, which prompted Ronald Reagan to joke to the crowd afterwards, "There are a number of people in this room who know that everything on that screen is absolutely true." Still, if Reagan had gotten his way, he'd have made that joke a lot sooner. Says Spielberg: "The president said to me, 'I only have one criticism about your movie,' and I said 'What's that?' He said, 'How long were the end credits?' I said, 'Oh, I don't know. Maybe three, three and a half minutes?' He said, 'In my day, when I was an actor, our end credits were maybe 15 seconds long.'" Instead, Reagan proposed that Spielberg save the more extensive list of credits only for industry screenings, then snip them from the mass release. "Nancy Reagan turned to him and said, 'Oh, Ronny, they can't do that. You know that.' And he went, 'Oh, yes, yes. I suppose.'"
Cleveland's sex scandal was well buried, but I found the long-forgotten affidavit from Maria Halpin, about the violent sexual assault that resulted in the birth of Cleveland's illegitimate child.
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Their meal together was a pleasant one. Cleveland escorted Halpin back to her room at a downtown boarding house. What happened next, according to Halpin's affidavit, would in another era be classified as date rape. Cleveland sexually assaulted her "[b]y use of force and violence and without my consent," Halpin reported, adding that when she threatened to notify the authorities, Cleveland "told me he was determined to ruin me if it cost him $10,000, if he was hanged by the neck for it. I then and there told him that I never wanted to see him again [and] commanded him to leave my room, which he did."
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Cleveland won election as mayor of Buffalo on a clean-government platform in 1881. A year later, he became governor of New York. As "Grover the Good," he won the Democratic nomination for president in 1884. Once he was named to the national ticket, it didn't take long for the media to expose the existence of his illegitimate son. What followed next was a malicious smear campaign: Cleveland's people got the word out that Halpin was a sexual plaything who drank to excess and was intimate with at least three (and possibly four) married men, all of them cronies of Cleveland. Cleveland, it was said, took responsibility for the child's conception because he was the only bachelor among Maria Halpin's gentlemen callers. Cleveland saw the matter through in the most "courageous way," the PR spin went, explaining that his indifference to the boy was due to "doubts about his fatherhood."
The GOP chant of the 1884 election: "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa? Gone to the White House, ha-ha-ha." A real toe-tapper.
What was really hidden was Cleveland's secret operation for cancer of the jaw. After being diagnosed, he gathered a team of doctors plus a dentist and announced he was going fishing on Long Island Sound on a yacht borrowed from a millionaire friend. He was operated on successfully and fitted with a rubber prosthesis. Although hints of his bout with cancer were published during his presidency, he got away with it. The full details weren't revealed untin after his death.
The American Medical Association did a review of secret illnesses of presidents, and how they were treated. Cleveland's was the earliest case, and they concluded that he was the only president who had competent medical care. Other cases were shocking:
Wilson's physician, Cary Grayson, a Navy doctor, had only one year of medical school. He and Wilson's wife conspired to keep his debilitating stroke secret--in effect, she ran the presidency for more than a year.
Harding's physician was a naturopath of doubtful credentials. He diagnosed Harding's extreme cardiac illness as "indigestion," leading to his death.
FDR's physicians deliberately kept his atherosclerosis secret from everyone. His blood pressure regularly was 300/200. They treated him with digitalis. In his last months, he was unable to concentrate for more than an hour a day, and often zonked out in the middle of sentences.
Eisenhower's physician, Howard Snyder, a ENT, deliberately expunged a chapter of Ike's medical record while he was a general that reported a moderate heart attack. Grateful Ike made him the White House physician when he was elected. Ike had another, major, heart attack in Denver in 1955. Snyder showed up two hours after being warned by Mamie and found Ike in extremis. He waited 12 hours before contacting a local hospital, then allowed Ike to get dressed and walk under his own power to the car that drove him to the hospital.
As for JFK, who may have been our chronically sickest president, here is a relevant selection from Sally Bedell Smith's "Grace and Power":
JFK’s life necessarily revolved around the vast responsibilities of the office, but less obviously his schedule included unusual accommodations to his myriad ailments. His principal physicians, Janet Travell and Admiral George Burkley, worked in a room on the ground floor, and he had an array of specialists in regular contact by telephone that included an allergist, endocrinologist (for his Addison’s disease), gastroenterologist (for colitis), urologist (for urinary tract infections resulting from venereal disease), and orthopedist (for his degenerative spine). JFK’s regimen of strong medications requires strict oversight and constant calibration, especially the corticosteroids for his Addison’s. To treat his chronic back pain, Travell gave him daily injections of the local anesthetic procaine. Kennedy also routinely took Cytomel (for thyroid deficiency); Lomotil, Metamucil, paregoric, Phenobarbital, and Trasentine (to control the diarrhea from his colitis); testosterone (to increase energy and boost weight following bouts of colitis); penicillin (for urinary tract flare-ups); Fluroinef (to increase his ability to absorb salt, which Addison’s depleted); Tuinal (for insomnia, a side effect of the cortisone); antihistamines (for an array of allergies); vitamin C; and calcium supplements (to substitute for milk products, which exacerbated his colitis). As a precaution against triggering an Addisonian crisis, JFK’s doctors boosted his cortisone when he faced stressful situations such as speeches and press conferences. Dr. Max Jacobson, a Manhattan physician to the rich and famous, was called “Dr. Feelgood” for his mysterious injections laced with amphetamines. Several days before his first debate with Nixon, Kennedy had secretly visited Jacobson’s office for an injection to relieve symptoms of fatigue and muscle weakness. Afterwards, he told Jacobson he felt “cool calm and very alert.” On Tuesday, May 23 [196l], Kennedy sneaked Jacobson into the White House for four days of amphetamine shots “to relieve his local discomfort” and “provide him with additional strength to cope with stress,” recalled Jacobson. Concerned about the impact his [back] injury could have on his stamina in the Paris and Vienna meetings [meeting DeGaulle and Khrushchev], Kennedy asked Jacobson to join him for the trip. The Kennedys had barely a half hour to settle into the American ambassador’s residence (in Vienna) before JFK’s first meeting with Khrushchev. Almost immediately, Max Jacobson was directed to Kennedy’s room. “The meeting may last for a long time,” JFK told him. “See to it that my back won’t give me any trouble when I have to get up or move around.” Jacobson administered his injection, and a tanned and youthful Kennedy was next seen bounding out of the front door “like a bronco-buster sprung from his chute,” wrote Time.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
I never knew the extent of JFK's illnesses, especially since he was so young. I knew about the Addison's and the bad back (from the war, I think), but had no idea about all the rest.
And my mother swears that nobody knew about FDR's paralysis. She read later that the press knew, but completely accommodated him. She read that during a press conference, the photographers would willingly lower their cameras to the ground until his aides had him propped up behind the podium. Imagine the press going along with something like that today?????
Did you all know that China invaded Vietnam in 1979?
And lost?
Yeah you would think China, as big and populated with endless cannon fodder, would make mince meat of 'Nam. But with a disorganized army, lack of troop training, using 19th century maps, and picking to invade the one people in the world who had fought (with gruesome guerilla tactics) the Japanese, French, and Americans for the past 35+ years...China's invasion stalled and withdrawed back to its border, claiming "victory."
I never knew the extent of JFK's illnesses, especially since he was so young. I knew about the Addison's and the bad back (from the war, I think), but had no idea about all the rest.
JFK's back problems far predated the famous PT-109 incident. He suffered from scoliosis, starting as a youngster. He was legitimately heroic in the PT-109 incident, but that didn't cause his back problems. He used it as an excuse for his long record of illnesses and absences from Congress. Had the real cause of his absences--Addison's--been known, he probably never would have been elected president.
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And my mother swears that nobody knew about FDR's paralysis. She read later that the press knew, but completely accommodated him. She read that during a press conference, the photographers would willingly lower their cameras to the ground until his aides had him propped up behind the podium. Imagine the press going along with something like that today?????
Yes, the media in those days had an unwritten agreement not to show anything that revealed FDR's crippling as a result of polio. It's hard to find a photo of him wearing his leg braces, in a wheelchair, or being lifted in and out of a car. The media also had an unwritten agreement not to say anything about his philandering. Fifty reporters were on the train for his final trip from DC to Warm Springs, GA, where he later died. None reported that the train detoured for 12 hours in Flemington NJ so he could dally with his mistress, Lucy Mercer. She was with him when he died in Warm Springs. Media also never reported on JFK's spectacular philandering, which they were all aware of.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
Bill Bryson wrote about his visit to Warm Springs. He was amazed at the peek it gave into FDR's paralysis. He was also surprised at the lovely room Lucy had at The Little White House, while Eleanor's was little more than a cell at the opposite end of the house.
Eleanor originally caught FDR philandering, years earlier, with his secretary, Missie LeHand (her name may provide a clue as to how a man crippled by polio had sex). After that, FDR and Eleanor slept in separate bedrooms. She knew about Lucy Mercer, too.
Ntra la porta tua lu sangu � sparsu, E nun me mporta si ce muoru accisu... E s'iddu muoru e vaju mparadisu Si nun ce truovo a ttia, mancu ce trasu.
The Japanese started to form bands that adopted the same line-up – drums, bass, lead guitar and a John Lennon figure doubling up on rhythm guitar and keyboards – all squeezed into tight suits singing three-part vocal harmonies. The genre, known as group sounds, would inspire countless garage rock curios, with 45s by the Tigers and the Tempters now selling for three-figure sums.
Did you all know that China invaded Vietnam in 1979?
And lost?
Yeah you would think China, as big and populated with endless cannon fodder, would make mince meat of 'Nam. But with a disorganized army, lack of troop training, using 19th century maps, and picking to invade the one people in the world who had fought (with gruesome guerilla tactics) the Japanese, French, and Americans for the past 35+ years...China's invasion stalled and withdrawed back to its border, claiming "victory."
China and Vietnam (well actually China and just about everyone in the region) are scrapping again over rights to the South China Sea. Typically, China has claimed it all and has sent ships/boats into what are considered to be Vietnamese or Phillipino waters.
Vietnam just held a live fire drill and rather disingenuously told China not to worry about anything.
"When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives." Winter is Coming Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky; And the wolf that shall keep it may prosper, but the wolf that shall break it must die. As the creeper that girdles the tree-trunk, the Law runneth forward and back; For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.
I know I've told this before, but I can't resist. I was only 12 when JFK was running for President and can't say I knew a lot about politics (tho I credit JFK for sparking my interest). I can only say, I was at a Italian/Catholic school and the nuns, priest were thrilled to death to have a Catholic running for President.
You can imagine when we heard JFK would be passing right by the school in his motorcade how jazzed we all were. The entire school (which was only about 100 kids) walked to the corner to greet/cheer JFK. I'll NEVER forget it. We got pretty much up close since it was not a stop, but rather the motorcade driving by, with JFK sitting on top of back seat of an open convertible waving. I was pretty small (and determined) and wormed my way to the front of a not so huge crowd, to get a good look and a wave. That memory is so ingrained in my mind. I'll never forget it.
I don't dispute RRs article, just sharing my experience. To this day I truly wish I had a picture of that event. I can't believe nobody had a camera.
TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
That's a great memory, TIS. I was born several months after the Kennedy assassination. Growing up in a predominantly Catholic area, I was used to seeing pictures of Kennedy hanging in every Irish, Italian and Polish home, usually next to a picture of Jesus or a crucifix.
I remember as a young boy, thinking it very strange and peculiar if a house didn't have his picture hanging. It was like not having indoor plumbing.
Re: Forgotten History
[Re: klydon1]
#678966 11/25/1212:49 PM11/25/1212:49 PM
Looking back NOW I remember how excited the nuns were. We were ALL cheering "Kennedy Kennedy he's our man, if he can't do it nobody can" EVEN the nuns.
People (campaign ppl I imagine) were selling campaign items. I bought a pin which, if you moved it, flashed a pic of JFK and the guy running for gov of MI (Swainson). I paid a dollar which probably was two weeks allowance for it. Did I get yelled at when I showed my mom. She called it a waste of money. I didn't care tho, I was still glad I got it. LOL
TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
Sadly NO, I don't know what happened to it. Here's the pin (showing only JFK side) which I see you can buy for $7.00.
During that time, if you remember, when bubble gum had baseball cards in them, for a while they put pics of JFK & family in the gum packages. I have quite a few of those in a scrapbook from the time period along with some worn/torn newspaper articles.
TIS
"Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind. War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." JFK
After that, FDR and Eleanor slept in separate bedrooms. She knew about Lucy Mercer, too.
I was only 12 when JFK was running for President and can't say I knew a lot about politics (tho I credit JFK for sparking my interest). I can only say, I was at a Italian/Catholic school and the nuns, priest were thrilled to death to have a Catholic running for President. 
That memory is so ingrained in my mind. I'll never forget it. 
During that time, if you remember, when bubble gum had baseball cards in them, for a while they put pics of JFK & family in the gum packages. I have quite a few of those in a scrapbook from the time period along with some worn/torn newspaper articles.