- I remember John F. Kennedy. I was only twelve years
old when he shook my hand. It was Palm Sunday, 1963, in Palm Beach, Florida,
how ironic to be in Palm Beach on Palm Sunday!
-
- My Dad, Mom, and Grandmother were shopping in a sporting
goods store on Worth Avenue. Dad was buying me a new snorkel and mask
to take to the beach. We were walking out the door and bumped into a man
coming in. It was the President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy!
-
- President Kennedy held the door open for my mother and
grandmother. I bumped right into him, and said, "excuse me."
He said, "no, excuse me." He put his hand out and shook my
hand. He was out shopping to get his wife, Jackie, an Easter present.
He was with the then Secretary of the Navy. It was just the two of them.
(No Secret Service!) Jack was driving a yellow Lincoln convertible, which
he had parked out front of the store.
-
- I will never forget those blue eyes. I will never forget
the warmth that came from them. He was a true gentleman.
-
- A little more than six months later he was shot dead.
The world has not been the same since. We have yet to recover from November
22, 1963. May his soul rest in peace.
-
- Christopher Ree Steadman
|
