Boomers by Victor D. Brooks

Author:Victor D. Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
Published: 2009-08-17T16:00:00+00:00

6

CAMELOT KIDS

FRIDAY MORNING, January 20, 1961, dawned cold and blustery in Washington, D.C., as the nation’s capital joined most of the Northeast in digging out from the third major snowstorm in as many weeks. Yet by noon the White House and the Capitol were bathed in radiant sunshine that produced an almost blinding intensity as it reflected off the new frozen mantle. Residential areas in the city and suburbs teemed with children taking advantage of a snow day to engage in sledding and snowball fights that were relatively unusual in the region. Not far from these frolicking youngsters, a dramatic national event was unfolding. Dwight Eisenhower, at that time the oldest man to serve as president, was about to turn over the reins of government to John F. Kennedy, the youngest man elected to that office.

The newly inaugurated president was a parent of Boomer children and the first occupant of the White House who had been born in the twentieth century. His exceptionally youthful good looks were enhanced by his even younger wife, Jacqueline. The new first couple could have fit comfortably into any gathering of young husbands and wives engaged in managing their exuberant young children while socializing with other adults. As the president delivered his rousing, often-to-be-quoted inaugural speech that was noticeably pitched toward young Americans, the oldest Boomers were midway through their first year of high school while the youngest members of their generation would not be born for nearly another four years. Yet when Kennedy issued his clarion call for young citizens to consider what they could do for their country, not what their country could do for them, the message resonated through an entire generation, however many years they were from voting age.

John and Jacqueline Kennedy’s thousand days in the White House would soon be compared to Camelot, the smash Broadway musical that chronicled the mythological world of King Arthur and his wife, Guinevere, and their attempts to secure decency and freedom in a barbaric and warlike world. Much like King Arthur’s reign, the Kennedy years would emerge as a potent mixture of factual events, speculative theories, and near myth, in which the line between reality and fantasy seemed permanently blurred. For Boomer children this was an appropriate combination, for the first years of the 1960s would offer nostalgic memories and a seductive spectrum of possible alternate realities if destiny had not intruded on a Dallas motorcade.

Boomer families and the Kennedy family were entwined almost immediately. Images of John Jr. crawling under the Oval Office desk, Caroline hunting for Easter eggs on the White House lawn, the grim family vigil as newborn Patrick wavered between life and death—all resonated with young families in the early sixties. For Boomer children, the Kennedy mystique was furthered by photos of touch football on the Hyannis Port beach, presidential promotion of physical fitness in schools, and Kennedy lookalike comedian Vaughn Meader’s uncanny duplication of the president’s vocal exhortations. Jacqueline Kennedy engaged millions of young mothers as she announced proudly

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