[pooncophy]

The Kennedys were part of my life since from forever.
My bookshelves hold 5 linear feet of Kennedy-related material, stuff I've collected over 45 years.
I even met Bobby and had dealings with him before and when he was New York's Senator.

My first memories of Kennedys are from JFK's time as Senator. My Dad, who was VERY political and who maintained a distaste for the Family, would berate anything that "The Damn Democrat" would do, so as a naturally curious New Frontiersman I learned as much about him as I could and I found that I admired him, then I took his side and got into some wonderful political shouting matches with Dad.
I followed his carreer,closely. He represents my political awakening, my personal political puberty.
I remember being busted in the dorm at my prep school after "lights out"-- that also meant no radios-- while listening to the Nixon/Kennedy debates on my transistor radio under the pillow, and I got busted again listening to election results a few months later, at 1 AM.
A note was sent home that I was "insolent". My radio was confiscated.

His Presidency was a wonderful time. Despite my admiration for him, there were some very serious problems--Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson, Civil Rights, Bay of Pigs, Marilyn Monroe, etc--that drifted in and out of his Administration and caused him trouble, LOTS of trouble, like Khruschev and his ICBMs and his Wall....
Still, I love the way he spoke and his laid-back manner, and the ideas that flowed from him were brilliant and would shape the generation to come, passing the torch to a pesky "...New Generation of Americans, born in this Century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace...".
He was gone too soon.

I was home from college for Thanksgiving and was taking a nap in my old bedroom over a rainy noontime when JFK got shot. It's a touchstone of my generation--: "Where were you when Kennedy got shot???", and that's where I was when I heard it, laying around at home, my Dad running up the stairs shouting the news. It was a true "Holy Shit!!!" moment and something that has a BC/AD of it's own. Lots of stuff came before, everything else came after...the first live televised murder, when Ruby shot Oswald, then-- Vietnam, hippies, drugs,anarchy, riots, The Beatles, Charles Manson, more political murder, inflation, and ultimately, Nixon.

Ted was the klutz of the brothers. He was intimately involved in accidental death and drunkenness and seemed to be the Clown Prince, compared to his brothers. He freaking CHEATED at Harvard. He was THERE, he was just kept hidden, like Ringo. The only time you'd see him was at funerals. Even after he got into the Senate, he kept his head down and played Junior Senator.

Well, there was always Bobby to admire. He straightened out Civil Rights and killed off The Mafia, then got thrust into false oblivia by LBJ, only to re-appear as a New Yorker and get within a volley of the Presidency; I really liked him and was planning already to vote for him. I had shaken his hand and had a long conversation with him in Rochester. To this day I have no doubt that Bobby would have lived in the White House, if only he would have survived the election process.
I was in my car when I heard about the murder of Robert Kennedy for the first time. I had to pull over to the side of the road. I had just left a place that was showing his "...Now it's on to Chicago and let's win there" speech, live. It couldn't have happened two minutes after I left, and he was gone and I was on the side of the road, weeping for another Lost Kennedy...

Then, and foreverafter, was Ted. He gave an elegant eulogy at Bobby's funeral that I adapted and used at my Mother's graveside--"...My Brother need not be idealized or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life...".
Klutz no more, I studied him as intently as I did his brothers and I forgave him his excesses. I watched him somehow get re-elected Senator, then saw him never get un-elected.
He remained out there for 45 years, passing landmark legislation and winning the admiration of his Senatorial peers and millions of citizens, even though he balooned up to Jabba The Hut proportions from his excessive alcohol intake and got as liberal as a right- handed amputee.

I guess that's the end. The Kennedy Dynasty is finally gone and won't come back. The younger ones don't seem to have the penchant for the Family Business, so, after nearly 50 years of All Things Kennedy, those stirring chords of Camelot, the orchestra that once played strongly to a generation of Boomers, have faded to background and are to become mere political Muzak.

Goodby Ted, and all you other Kennedys. It's been fun.