“Let’s Talk Books” Book Club read and discussed Nothing Daunted for their October meeting. This book was written by Dorothy Wickenden and was based on letters written by her grandmother and her grandmother’s close friend. These two society ladies from Auburn, NY, after graduating from Smith College and spending a year abroad, decided to answer an ad in their town’s paper asking for young ladies who would be interested in traveling to Colorado to teach children of the homesteaders.

Since the book was based on the letters that were exchanged between these adventurous women and their families, book club members began to lament the lack of letter writing in today’s society.

Recently published is a book titled, Kind Regards, the Lost Art of Letter Writing. Among its pages were some interesting quotes:

“To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.” (Phyllis Theroux)

“Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.” (Lord Byron)

“In our letters we are recollecting and conversing with the soul, through both our friends and ourselves.” (Thomas Moore)

“Life would split apart without letters.” (Virginia Woolf)

Would today be a good time to write a letter?

— Rita Klein

The 50th Anniversary of JFK’s death on 22nd November 1963 at the young age of 46 has recently been a time of recollection and appraisal of his short presidency that lasted less than three years (1961 – 1963). The nation’s media and bookshelves have been full of facts from the Kennedy era.

Highlighted here are two aspects. Firstly, a meeting (organized by Barbara Chierici) of some Pine Run Villagers with a reporter from the Intelligencer in which they were asked to recall the day when Kennedy was assassinated and to describe their lifestyles at that time. Secondly, there is a summary of an article by Alan Brinkley in the magazine Atlantic dealing with the Kennedy presidential legacy.
The Pine Run Villagers recalled vividly where they were when Kennedy was shot and the shock and sadness of the occasion. They each recalled the Kennedy presidential era as it influenced them personally. For example:

Ann Hadfield: Ann was in Doylestown Hospital right before the Kennedy election. She told Dr. John Gribb she wanted to be discharged so she could cast her vote for JFK…Ann recalls that JFK won the election by one vote in each precinct and she believes she cast the tipping vote for Bedminster West!
Jack and Mary Venner: Jack worked on air-to-air missiles for ACF Electronics and worked for a short time with Secretary of Defense Robert McNamarra’s staff. Jack later worked in flight simulation and proudly developed the shuttle mission training simulator for NASA prior to actual shuttle flights.
Jack and Marge Pettit: Jack is a Navy Veteran (1952-1980) and he was a test pilot flying over 50 different aircraft. Jack was serving in Japan, and on full alert, during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Marge was on a ship headed back to Hawaii as the crisis loomed and was concerned about possible problems at sea.
Sandy Fickes: Sandy is a fashion maven and Jackie Kennedy’s example shaped her style choices during the Camelot era. Sandy was 27 years old in 1963.
Bunny Swartz: Bunny was a junior at Bensalem High School in 1963. She remembers hearing the announcement of the shooting over the loudspeaker, and more vividly, the announcement of the Canteen being cancelled that evening!
Irv Thompson: Irv attended a military prep school in Tom’s River, NJ and he was 15 in 1963. He recalls the clamor of television news (new and exciting at that time) and listening to radio coverage of the JFK shooting, Jack Ruby, and the swearing-in of Lyndon Johnson as President.
Charlie and Ellen Burchill: Charlie was working at RCA and Ellen was working for a mortgage company and it seemed like everything stopped the day JFK was assassinated. They watched the news reports on television.
Chris Ball: Chris was a research student in England pursuing his PhD in genetics. JFK’s youthful appearance and enthusiasm was the embodiment of hope, he recalled. He galvanized the Western World. The space program was competition with the Soviets and bolstered the “can-do” image along with his famous speeches.

With regard to the presidential legacy article in the Atlantic, the author, Alan Brinkley, is a professor of American History at Columbia University and the author of John F. Kennedy (2012) and Liberalism and its Discontents (1998), which served as sources for the article, summarized here:

Half a century after his presidency, the endurance of Kennedy’s appeal is not simply the result of a crafted image and personal charm. It also reflects the historical moment in which he emerged. In the early 1960’s much of the American public was willing, even eager, to believe that he was the man who would “get the country moving again” at a time when much of the country was ready to move.

The capital city, somnolent in the Eisenhower years, had suddenly come alive… [with] the release of energy which occurs when men with ideas have a chance to put them into practice. Kennedy helped give urgency to the idea of pursuing a national purpose – a great American mission. In the 15 years since World War II, ideological momentum had been slowly building in the United States, fueled by anxieties about the rivalry with the Soviet Union and by optimism about the dynamic performance of the American economy.

Like all presidents, Kennedy had successes and failures. His administration was dominated by a remarkable number of problems and crises – in Berlin, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam; and in Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama. Some of these, he managed adroitly and, at times, courageously. Many, he could not resolve.

Many of the initiatives Kennedy proposed or enacted he didn’t live to see bear fruit, among them the Civil Rights Act, the Food Stamp Act, an improved free-school-lunch program for poor children; and abroad, the Peace Crops and the Alliance for Progress.

With regard to civil rights, in one speech Kennedy made the case that the denial of basic civil rights to Americans of color wasn’t a partisan issue, a regional issue, or even, as he said, a legal or legislative issue alone – rather, he asked all who watched to broaden their idea of a common humanity.

With regard to Cuba, most of his military advisors – and they were not alone – believed the United States should bomb the missile pads that the Soviet Union was stationing in Cuba. Kennedy, aware of the danger of escalating the crisis, instead ordered a blockade of Soviet ships and forced their retreat. This was a turning point in East/West relations.

In 1970 a prominent presidential scholar remarked, “He will be just a flicker, forever clouded by the record of his successors. I don’t think history will have much space for John Kennedy.” But 50 years after his death, Kennedy is far from “just a flicker.” He remains a powerful symbol of a lost moment, of a soaring idealism and hopefulness that subsequent generations still try to recover. His allure – the romantic, almost mystic, associations his name evokes – not only survives but flourishes.

Many people saw him – and still do – as an idealistic and passionate president who would have transformed the nation and the world, had he lived. His legacy has only grown in the 50 years since his death. That he still embodies a rare moment of public activism explains much of his continuing appeal. He reminds many Americans of an age when it was possible to believe that politics could speak to society’s moral yearnings and be harnessed to its highest aspirations. More than anything, perhaps, Kennedy reminds us of a time when the nation’s capacities looked limitless, when its future seemed unbounded, when Americans believed that they could solve hard problems and accomplish bold deeds.

Finally, Bill Clinton adds: “Though JFK’s death was a tragedy we still mourn, he left behind legions of his fellow Americans and people the world over who embraced his vision and picked up the torch he lit.”

— Chris Ball

I am a Quaker, a member of Wrightstown Monthly Meeting. Back in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I was on the Religious Education Committee. We were asked to provide a Christmas program for the children to present to the Meeting.

We decided to try and create a live crèche on the grounds of the Meeting House. On the Meeting grounds there was a very old carriage shed. It was over 200 years old and would provide an ideal setting for a crèche.

We asked Jim, a dairy farmer and an active member of the Bucks County 4-H Club, if he could provide animals for the scene. He said “yes,” and delivered five or six cows, several sheep, and bales of straw. Another member had two donkeys as pets and one of them, Meredith, was eager to participate.

We had plenty of volunteers from the Sunday School. They were to be angels and shepherds. A member, Ivins, who owned an authentic shepherd’s cloak from the Holy Land, was eager for the chance to wear it.

One of our teenagers was chosen to be Mary, and Paul was chosen to be Joseph because he had a wonderful black beard. Three of our older members were naturally to be the Wise Men. The baby Jesus would be a doll.

We had a rustic-looking manger that someone had previously made and angel and shepherd costumes. I made costumes for the Wise Men and Taylor, an artist, made crowns for the Wise Men. Members gathered in the Meeting House and came out at a prearranged time. We sang carols and the Christmas Story was read by Eric, an Englishman from Oxford, England. He spoke the English language perfectly and eloquently.

It was a success, and we repeated it for several years. One time there was a snow shower as we sang. Another year we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the lovely carol, Silent Night. We asked Don to play it on his guitar as we read that it was first played this way.

A lovely white dove was added one year to the crèche. She sat contentedly in her cage next to an angel in the rafters. After we sang carols and listened to the reading of the Christmas Story, we returned to the Meeting House to attend the Meeting for worship.

Everyone enjoyed this occasion very much and it was on its way to becoming a tradition when tragedy struck and brought it to an end. On a very windy Memorial Day, the shed burned down mysteriously. All the old nails were collected, and Jack welded groups of four together to make “W’s” (for “Wrightstown”) to keep as mementos. I have one hanging on my wall and I cherish it very much.

— Jean R. LaRue

The war was over.

It had actually ended for us in May 1945 when the first American troops rolled into our small Bavarian town, close to the Austrian border.

There had been no secret weapon, no miracle to give us victory. It was over now, almost six years of bombing, of losing loved ones, possessions, of food rationing and in the end of losing hope.

Our church was filled to overflowing. There were people from cities in the north where bombings had destroyed everything they owned; people from the eastern part who had fled the Russian occupation; children who had been sent south to protect them from the horror of nightly bombings. And there were American soldiers who joined us on this Christmas Eve.

The sermon was moving; about hope for the future, thankfulness for having survived this long nightmare.

And then the lights dimmed, the tree was lit and as the organ played “Silent Night,” there was sobbing and tears were streaming down peoples’ faces and even the soldiers wiped their eyes.

This one Christmas Eve is etched in my memory forever.

— Ursula Reinhold