Dear William, Daniel, Catherine, Michael (and Baby Girl Y) (and your parents), (and any future descendants and their parents),

Today is November 22, the anniversary of one of the three of the darkest and most somber days in recent American history — Pearl Harbor, the Assassination of President Kennedy, and 9-11.

I already spoke to you about Pearl Harbor and about 9-11; today, let me tell you about the Assassination of President Kennedy.

New York Times, November 23, 1963

In the afternoon, on Friday, November 22, 1963, I was in Bookkeeping class, waiting for class to start — I was a 14-year-old Freshman in Mater Christi Diocesan High School, in Astoria, Queens, New York — you can see my Yearbook picture HERE [bottom left corner of page 84] (I was in the 1967 graduating class; Babcia Krysia was in the 1970 graduation class — you can see Babcia Krysia’s Yearbook picture HERE [middle of the page on page 111]).

Anyway — I was sitting at my desk in Bookkeeping class, waiting for our teacher to come in (although most of my teachers were De La Salle Christian Brothers, my Bookkeeping teacher was a lay male teacher). Class was already scheduled to start, and our teacher was not there yet — a few minutes later, he came in, very serious, and told us to sit in our places, and wait — and he left the room. When he returned a few minutes later, he told us that the President had been shot. A few minutes later, the whole school was summoned to the Auditorium, where we were officially told that there had been an assassination attempt on President Kennedy; and that the school would close early — we were told to go to our lockers, take our things, and go home.

From school, in Astoria, I would walk (green) a few blocks to the Ditmars Boulevard train station; take the elevated train (red) to Queensboro Plaza; switch to elevated express train (green) going to Flushing, change to the local train at Woodside, and get off in Jackson Heights; walk to the underground local train (red) to Forest Hills, and get off at my station, 67th Avenue; then walk (green) a few blocks to my apartment.

To go home required me to take the subway, from Astoria to Forrest Hills — this would involve several different trains, and the journey, normally lasted about an hour and a half each way. I remember the train was crowded, and I overheard people talking — the President had been killed.

My Dad purchased a 21 inch Zenith black & white television set when my Mom and my brother and sisters moved to America in June 1959

I think that I got home about 4 pm. My Mom was there, and I think that my brother and sisters were home also; my Dad joined us when he got home from work, later in the evening. We watched the news on television all weekend. Shortly after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was captured and arrested for the murder; however, two days later, Lee Harvey Oswald was assassinated himself, on live television. These assassinations were followed by President Kennedy’s funeral, all of which we all watched on television.

I was ten years old when I came to America on June 2, 1959. At that time, Dwight Eisenhower was President. Democracy and free elections were new concepts for me — in January 1960, Senator John Kennedy initiated his campaign to be elected president.

In September and October, Kennedy appeared with Republican candidate Richard Nixon, then vice president, in the first televised U.S. presidential debates in U.S. history. Although I did not watch the debate, I remember my Dad watching; and in the days that followed, there was much discussion about the debate on radio, television, and the newspapers.

On Saturday, November 5, 1960, I went to see Senator Kennedy, who was going to give a speech in the vicinity of 62nd Drive and Queens Boulevard (in Rego Park, Queens, NYC). This was my first political rally — I saw him, and I heard him speak; I was impressed, and it was very exciting.

Senator Kennedy was very controversial; because, at age 43, he was considered by many to be too young to be President; AND, he was a Roman Catholic. Nevertheless, on November 8, Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections of the 20th century. Because I was only eleven years old, I did not vote for him; and my parents did not vote for him either, because they were not U.S. Citizens yet (we were Resident Aliens).

John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president at noon on January 20, 1961. In his inaugural address he spoke of the need for all Americans to be active citizens, famously saying, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” He also asked the nations of the world to join together to fight what he called the “common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself”.

At the time that President Kennedy took office, in 1961, the US and the USSR were in a “Space Race.” At that time, the USSR was winning — on October 4, 1957 they achieved the orbiting of Sputnik 1; and later, they beat the US to the first human in space, cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. Eventually, the US won this Space Race, by landing the first man on the moon.

In addition to the Space Race, at the time that President Kennedy took office in 1961, there was much political tension between the US and Cuba — in 1958, Fidel Castro overthrew the US aligned government in Cuba, and let the country towards a Marxist-Leninist form of government.

As a consequence of this change in government, many people fled Cuba. Some of these people became my friends; and classmates at Our Lady of the Angelus grammar school. [You may want to read my letter to you about West Side Story; and also the bottom of Page 78 and top of Page 79 from my Book.]

In April 1961, some Cuban refugees attacked the Castro government in what became known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Those refugees had been led to believe by their CIA contacts that if they attacked Cuba, the US would support them militarily. In the midst of the Invasion, President Kennedy, however, decided NOT to provide military support — this betrayal made me very skeptical of US government “promises.”

In August 1961, tensions between the US and the USSR escalated when the Berlin Wall was built, completely cutting off (by land) West Berlin from surrounding East Germany, including East Berlin. This Wall generated a steady stream of news reports, on television and in the newspapers, about people trying to escape to freedom, and sometimes dying in the process. [Some day I will have to tell you the story of my cousin Lilka, and how she and her husband escaped from Poland.]

The tensions between the US and the USSR reached a fever-pitch during a 13-day (October 16–28, 1962) confrontation over Soviet ballistic missiles deployed in Cuba — this became known as the Cuban Missile Crisis. In anticipation of a nuclear war, in school and in society in general, we practiced going to Fallout Shelters, and otherwise hiding from nuclear blasts.

So, this was the political and social climate [all part of the Cold War] during President Kennedy’s tenure as President of the United States, from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963.

Politically, those were not fun times; and yet, I survived, and I did have fun — I grew up; I finished high school, and went to college; I was involved with Polish Scouting — through which I got to know your Babcia Krysia, which eventually made all of YOU possible.

Love,

Dziadziuś Paweł.

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