Reply #23: I'm proud to say that...

[Peter Frank]

...I was born in May of '51. I remember Ike, Churchill, MacArthur & Howdy Doody (I actually had a Howdy Doody puppet). As a kid, I loved Lucy before the reruns.

I remember the vitality that JFK brought to Washington. I never before thought of the White House as a family place. When I learned that Kennedy was the first president born in the 20th century, I understood why.

I would have been far been more shaken by the Cuban missile crisis at age 11 in the fall of '62 if I hadn't already gone through countless drills when I was younger -- when I was told to sit under my desk in the event of a nuclear blast (knowing full well that if the A-bomb exploded close enough for me to see it, my desk wouldn't keep me from becoming instant nuclear toast.

I watched in black & white the many reruns of Oswald being shot, as well as the live coverage of JFK's funeral -- his casket lying in state in the Rotunda. At age 12 I was old enough to recognize the death of a younger era.

I saw news footage showing the impact that a group called the Beatles was making in Europe. I wished against hope that they would come to the U.S. When I saw them on the Ed Sullivan Show (which I watched religiously every Sunday) I was indescribably ecstatic. It was as if the Beatles had resurrected so many of the youthful hopes that died with Kennedy; while I thought of how brilliant it would be if JFK were in office now.

LBJ was the sympathetic front-runner in '64 (Goldwater didn't have a chance). But Johnson had no charisma whatsoever. He came across as a pedantic old fart.

...to be continued.