by Joel Ventresca
When I was eight years old, my parents took me to see John F. Kennedy on October 4, 1960. The experience changed the direction of my life forever.
After the 43-year-old Democratic presidential nominee and Massachusetts U.S. Senator touched down at the Indianapolis Weir Cook Airport at 5:00 p.m. on a balmy Tuesday afternoon and spoke for 10 minutes to a crowd of 1,000, Kennedy sat on the top rear of an open convertible that moved along a 16-mile motorcade route. Ten thousand people lined the streets.
In downtown Indianapolis, Kennedy arrived at the Claypool Hotel at approximately 6:30 p.m. where 1,500, including my family, jammed the street in front of the hotel.
At the very moment I saw him, I knew something important was happening. It took years to understand the impact this event had on my life.
Every member of my immediate family was there. We had driven 15 miles from Brownsburg, a small rural community, where we lived. My dad had decided to take the family to see Kennedy when my oldest sister came home from St. Agnes High School with news of where Kennedy would be that evening.
After Kennedy arrived at the Claypool, he exited the car and went into the hotel for a few minutes. He returned, got back into the car, and started moving away. We were behind him and to the right. There were lights centered on him by the media. The crowd was excited, jovial, and focused.
The next stop was the State Fairgrounds Coliseum for the taping of a 30-minute program that was shown over a 10-station state hookup, a $100-a-plate dinner attended by 1,750, and a rally at 9:00 p.m. where Kennedy delivered a 21-minute major speech to an enthusiastic capacity crowd of 11,000.
“The struggle in which we are engaged,” Kennedy said that night, “requires not only our maximum effort but also the most prudent use of all our resources.”
His speech also included the following memorable lines:
After the address, Kennedy spent the night at the Claypool Hotel that occupied the site of the former Bates House where Abraham Lincoln spent the night on his way to Washington, D.C. to assume the presidency in 1861.
The next morning Kennedy left the Claypool at 9:20 a.m. on a tour of other Indiana cities.
On January 20, 1961, 108 days after I first saw him, I heard Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, surrounded once again by family, that inspired a whole generation of young people to go into public service with the challenge “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
These two vivid early memories of Kennedy left an indelible mark. Public service became the primary focus of my life.
Kennedy’s commitment, self-sacrifice, and perseverance made constructive change for our cities, nation, and world possible.
His legacy lives on in many of you and me.
“[John F. Kennedy] is a man who wants to leave a record of not only helping his country but of having helped humanity as a whole.”
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1961
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Photo credit:Richard Kellem |
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“I
believe in the government doing only those tasks that cannot otherwise
be done.” John F. Kennedy
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Photo caption: Kennedy greets an Indianapolis airport crowd on October 4, 1960 - |
