TAKING 'GENUINE INTEREST'
In 1971 when I was a senior in high school former Rep. and Judge David Harrison invited me to attend the city Democratic Committee’s breakfast at the Tavern restaurant where Sen. Kennedy was to attend. In the prior months, I had just tried to help Mr. Harrison win his campaign for re-election to no avail. I vividly remember sitting at the head table with Sen. Kennedy and him inquiring about my life and aspirations.
As much as anything, it was his genuine interest in this student that impressed me the most. I guess I was still of the impression that kids were at those functions to be seen and not heard, but he made me feel just the opposite. On another occasion, 10 days after Sept. 11, 2001 I was flying from Washington D.C. to Boston and sitting next to me were Sen. Kennedy and his wife Vicki. I congratulated him on his victory during the Mayor’s Cup here in Gloucester -- and immediately his wife interjected that it was she that did the sailing to which we all had a good chuckle.
Again, it was he that was talking to me asking about myself with a true interest and telling me to say hello to Dave when I saw him. I was not flying first class by any means and, going through airports with military personnel, weapons and dogs, I was wondering why he would not have had a private shuttle. I am sure he was just trying to make a point.
We have truly lost a great statesman but I will always have these very strong memories.
Ken Jenkins, Highland Street, Gloucester.
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"SENATORS ONLY...."
is what the sign above the elevator read. Bells would go off when one arrived or was headed for a vote on the
Senate Floor.
I am 22, dressed in my big girl's suit, sensible pumps, panty hose,
and lipstick. the girl voted Least Likely to end up in Washington, D.C. from rural
roots, learning disabled student.
Early morning dash to the Russell Senate Office Building, grab coffee
from the commissary, head for the elevators. The bells begin to ring, Dreamy Ted appears, I step aside.
He calls my name, and holds those Otis doors open for me. I smile and climb on board. Just he and I, heading to the third floor. e decry the humidity and express our mutual wish to be near the beach.
The doors open, he waves me ahead, still talking, still smiling.
Waits while I unlock the office door, wishes my day well.
It always was when he was at the beginning of it.
I've never forgotten the beauty of learning exactly what the word
"oration" meant. From a perch in the gallery, his words and delivery always made my
heart race, my eyes water.
Empathetic to the core. Sympathetic to the plight of all.
My beloved writes "the common man has lost a gladiator". True. So true. St. Peter, gather the crowd, polish the gates, swab the decks, get he sails ready, bright colored Spinnaker on standby.
Jack and Bobby, Rose and Joe, Jacqueline and JFK, Jr., and all those
who have gone before, soothe his embattled soul.
Mary Jo, let his tears flow, forgive, peace for you both.
Teddy, thank you for leaving this world a better place, because of you.
Oona O'Neill
Revere Street, Gloucester
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'I TAKE HOPE FROM HIM...'
I was a college senior and producing a small and strange version of
"South Pacific" with 10 ten-year-old girls at the Chelsea YMHA when
Ted Kennedy first ran for the Senate.
He dropped by our evening performance and gave a short speech to the adults who packed the gym.
It was the worst political speech I'd ever heard. He seemed to me a callow and mediocre candidate, riding the coattails of his brothers to an unearned victory, the same young man who had hired someone else to
take his Harvard Spanish exam.
Through the years I watched him, read about him, and was astonished at
his growing seriousness, his deep understanding of issues, his
tenacity. I came to respect him mightily and when his personal
behavior fell short and seemed, at Chappaquiddick even criminal, I
grieved for him as well as for those he hurt.
To me he will always be an example of a complex human being who kept
on trying to become what he wished to be despite his flaws. His has
been a life of transcendence, a career of using power to advance the
needs of others, a story of a man who understood how hard sometimes it
is to be good, an example of how we can all learn from our misfortune
and limitations to keep pressing on. I take hope from him and am so
grateful to him.
Ellen Solomon,
Haskell Street, Gloucester
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FISHERMEN'S 'BEST FRIEND'
In the spring of 1980 Sen. Kennedy came to Gloucester for a luncheon with the Gloucester Fisheries Association (It does not exist anymore) and in his speech he said “The Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association allowed the U.S. Congress to know who are the fishermen who go down to the sea in ships.”
I'll always remember him saying that. The fishing industry has lost its best friend. We all have.
Angela Sanfilippo
President, Gloucester Fishermen's Wives Association
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MAKING IT THROUGH THE STORM
I was a sophomore at St. Ann high School when I first met Ted Kennedy. I believe it was April 1962, when Ted Kennedy was campaigning for President John Kennedy’s senate seat. He was invited to speak at a PTA function at St. Ann.
My mother, Margaret White Caissie (after my dad died, she married Frank Ulanowski), asked me to come with her and to bring my camera, which was a Brownie Starflash. I remember arriving at the school hall and a lot of people were there. I also remember the late Charlie Lowe was there with his Speed Graphic Camera covering the event for the Times.
There was a bad storm that night and the PTA Committee got a call that Ted Kennedy would not make it because of he storm.
I remember some people left, including Charlie Lowe. My mother and I were about to leave when another call was received that Ted Kennedy was coming.
When Ted Kennedy arrived, I was taking picture with my Brownie Starflash. I asked Mr. Kennedy if I could get a picture of my mother and him, which he was happy to do.
When Ted Kennedy left the school hall, the people that were still there asked me to bring the film to the Times. I kept telling people that I didn’t have anything because I was just shooting crazy, but they insisted.
The next morning, I went to the Times office, talked to the editor and told him that I had film of Ted Kennedy at St. Ann School. He informed me that Charlie Lowe was there to cover to cover it for the newspaper. I informed the editor that Charlie Lowe and some people left when Ted Kennedy called to say he would not make it because of the storm. Then the editor told me that he would look at the film to see what I have for pictures.
After this, I went to school. All day I could not wait for school to end. I thought about it all day and could not concentrate and messed up on some of my tests.
As soon as school ended, I raced over to O’Conner’s Pharmacy to get a paper. There on the front page, was a picture of Ted Kennedy with some local citizens and my name under the picture.
It was my first photo in the Gloucester Times.
The picture of Ted Kennedy with my mother became a fixture on our TV.
In my junior year of high school I decided I wanted to be a newspaper photographer. I asked Charlie Lowe how I could get into photography work at the Gloucester Times. I had a Twin Reflex Camera. Charlie Lowe gave me a roll of Kodak 120 film and told me to go out and shoot.
When I got through, I brought the film back; Charlie Lowe developed it and sat down with me to go over everything I did.
I would like to end this with another remembrance to Charlie Lowe, who got me started in Newspaper Photography. He was very good in helping someone who was interested in newspaper work.
Jack Caissie
Huntsville, Alabama
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'HE HAD THE TOUCH' -- EVEN IN 1956
This is a story with a bit of Gloucester Daily Times flavor to it.
I believe it was 1956 and I was a GHS student and a "cub" reporter for the GDT on the Summer Sun supplement.
Returning from assignment, I arrived in the newsroom, filled with desks and typewriters (remember them?). There was a bit of commotion on the other side of the room and I approached.
Standing in the midst of a number of my colleagues was this handsome beyond belief young man. He was clad in a polo shirt khakis and had a demeanor like no one I had ever met in my 16 years on the planet. Paul Kenyon, my editor and mentor, was interviewing the man I determined was Ted Kennedy about his brother John Kennedy's Senate campaign, which Ted was running.
Although the Kennedys had not then the stature they have now, I knew who he was. He shook my hand, gave great eye contact and chatted briefly. As we spoke, I felt as though I was the most important person in the world to him. He had the touch -- even then.
Ron Cole
Dover NH
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LEGACY OF DELIVERING HEALTH CARE
My first "memory" of Senator Edward Kennedy dates back to March, 1969, at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Lawrence to be exact.
The year before I had written a heartfelt note, at barely ten , to Ethel Kennedy after her husband Robert was assassinated. A few months later, I received, and still have, a hand written note from Mrs. Kennedy telling me how moved she was by my letter.
A little less than a year later, at the Lawrence St. Paddy's Day Parade, somebody told the senator I was the kid who'd written the letter to his sister in law. The next thing I knew, I was sitting and talking with the senator and his former wife Joan.
Now, to be eleven years old, an Irish Catholic kid from the Merrimack Valley, and to have the chance to spend a half hour with Senator Ted Kennedy, the brother of the President and Bobby, was one big deal indeed. But I also have a memory as an adult, and it is a memory involving the kind of commitment Senator Kennedy had to not only his own constituents, but to all Americans. It is a memory of how his work did so much to help many people in Gloucester proper, on Cape Ann, around the North Shore, and across the country.
What I am referring to is Senator Kennedy's leadership role, in concert with his dear friend and conservative counterpart, Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, in getting the landmark Ryan White Emergency Care Act passed. That act was critical in helping individuals, families, and entire communities cope with the ravages of AIDS, especially in the darkest days of the epidemic in the very late eighties and early 1990's.
Locally and regionally, that Ryan White funding, via a consortium of agencies the late Sam Berman of Gloucester dubbed OASIS, Organized AIDS Services Integrating Support, provided untold numbers of hours of support, services and comfort to Gloucester individuals and families trying to cope with the challenges of living with HIV disease.
Included in those services and support were access to mental health services for both individuals with HIV/AIDS, their spouses/partners, and kids if needed; holistic treatments like acupuncture to compliment and, in some cases, alleviate the often harsh side effects of anti-retroviral medications, summer camp scholarships for both children infected with and affected by HIV, and a long list of other things that enhanced the lives of people living with a life threatening and often widely misunderstood and feared disease. nd, all of it could be traced directly back to the wisdom, commitment, vision, and leadership of our own senior senator, Ted Kennedy, and his equally visionary and committed colleague, Orrin Hatch.
Unlike what we're seeing today in the rancorous and ugly health care debate, Senators Kennedy and Hatch, because of the mutual respect they had for one another, were able to reach across the aisle in response to a crisis rocking the country and stand up and do the right thing. And man, did they ever do the right things when they passed the Ryan White Emergency Care Act.
If only we might see that kind of leadership and mutual respect among our elected officials today, as the country reels from another crisis; health care, that is growing worse by the day as costs spiral into the stratosphere and more and Americans become uninsured every month. Sadly, I don't thinnk there's much hope of that happening any time soon.
Anyway, God speed and God bless, 'Teddy'. We all owe you much more than many people realize or some want to admit.
-- Michael Cook, formerly pf Lanesville and Newburyport; now of Puerto Viejo de Limon, Costa Rica
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TO ALL CAPE ANN READERS,
How do you best remember Sen. Kennedyr and his work?
What personal memories do you have of perhaps meeting him, hearing him speak, or recalling his work on local, state and national issues? Is there a story you'd like to share?
Send your comments, your recollections, your stories. Just include your name and city or town, and a way for us to contact you.
Send comments to me at rlamont@gloucestertimes.com.
— Ray Lamont, Editor, Gloucester Daily Times
