| Besides, I still wore the wrong jeans
One night at the Y, I strolled into the poolroom next to the gym, where the Coke machine was, to get something to drinkSome older high school boys were shooting pool or standing around watchingOne of them was Henry Hill, whose family owned the old bowling alley downtown, the Lucky Strike LanesHenry started in on me about my jeans, which, that night, were especially raunchyThey were carpenters jeans, with a right side loop to hang a hammer inI was insecure enough without Henry grinding on me, so I sassed him backHe slugged me in the jaw as hard as he couldNow, I was big for my age, about five nine, 185 poundsBut Henry Hill was six foot six with an enormous reachNo way was I going to hit backBesides, to my amazement, it didnt hurt too badlySo I just stood my ground and stared at himI think Henry was surprised I didnt go down or run off, because he laughed, slapped me tiffany heart charm toggle necklace on the back, and said I was okayWe were always friendly after thatI had learned again that I could take a hit and that theres more than one way to stand against aggression
By the time I started ninth grade, in September 1960, the presidential campaign was in full swingMy homeroom and English teacher, Ruth Atkins, was also from Hope and, like me, a stomp-down DemocratShe had us read and discuss Dickenss Great Expectations, but left lots of time for political debateHot Springs had more Republicans than most of the rest of Arkansas back then, but their roots were far less conservative than the current cropSome of the older families had been there since the Civil War and became Republicans because they were against secession and slaverySome families had Republican roots in Teddy Roosevelts progressivismOthers supported Eisenhowers moderate conservatism
The Arkansas Democrats were an even more diverse mens cartier watch groupThose in the Civil War tradition were Democrats because their forebears had supported secession and slaveryA larger group swelled the ranks of the party in the Depression, when so many unemployed workers and poor farmers saw FDR as a savior and later loved our neighbor from Missouri, Harry TrumanA smaller group were immigrant Democrats, mostly from EuropeMost blacks were Democrats because of Roosevelt, and Trumans stand for civil rights, and their sense that Kennedy would be more aggressive than Nixon on the issueA small group of whites felt that way too
In Miss Atkinss class most of the kids were for NixonI remember David Leopoulos defending him on the grounds that he had far more experience than Kennedy, especially in foreign affairs, and that his civil rights record was pretty good, which was trueI didnt really have anything against Nixon at this pointI didnt know then about his Red-baiting campaigns cartier watches for women for the House and Senate in California against Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gahagan Douglas, respectivelyI liked the way he stood up to Nikita KhrushchevIn 1956, I had admired both Eisenhower and Stevenson, but by 1960, I was a partisanI had been for LBJ in the primaries because of his Senate leadership, especially in passing a civil rights bill in 1957, and his poor southern rootsI also liked Hubert Humphrey, because he was the most passionate advocate for civil rights, and Kennedy, because of his youth, strength, and commitment to getting the country moving againWith Kennedy the nominee, I made the best case I could to my classmates
I badly wanted him to win, especially after he called Coretta King to express his concern when her husband was jailed, and after he spoke to the Southern Baptists in Houston, defending his faith and the right of Catholic Americans to run for PresidentMost of my classmates, and imitation louis vuitton wallets their parents, disagreedI was getting used to itA few months earlier, I had lost the student council presidents race to Mike Thomas, a good guy, who would be one of four classmates to be killed in VietnamNixon carried our county, but Kennedy squeaked by in Arkansas with 50 percent of the vote, despite the best efforts of Protestant fundamentalists to convince Baptist Democrats that he would be taking orders from the pope
Of course, the fact that he was a Catholic was one of the reasons I wanted Kennedy to be PresidentFrom my own experiences at StJohns School and my encounters with the nuns who worked with Mother at StJosephs Hospital, I liked and admired Catholicstheir values, devotion, and social conscienceI was also proud that the only Arkansan ever to run for national office, Senator Joe TRobinson, was the running mate of the first Catholic candidate for President, Governor Al Smith of New York, in dolce and gabbana uk 1928 |