Category Archives: Uncategorized

In Robert Caro’s multi-volume biography of LBJ, the rising senator, vice president, and president is frequently described as taking time to deal with his correspondence. I have no idea how many staff persons were assigned to helping him respond to … Continue reading →

Lyndon Johnson died 41 years ago this January 22. He was certainly one of the most extraordinary politicians of our era, and we might remember him as the greatest leader of the second half of the 20th century if he’d … Continue reading →

Winston Churchill’s death 49 years ago January 24 corresponded with my Air Force assignment to a three-year tour at RAF Bentwaters/Woodbridge in Suffolk. The cabbie took me past Buckingham Palace, where the Union Jack was lowered in Churchill’s honor but … Continue reading →

Harry Truman – another politician who corresponded with admirers long after he needed to win votes – was inaugurated 65 years ago January 20.

In January 1962 (or thereabouts) I wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to interview her for “Smoke Signals,” the mimeographed student newspaper of Morrisville-Eaton Central School. I sent her seven questions and she responded in due time with seven typewritten answers. Historians … Continue reading →

52-year-old New Years greetings from Eleanor Roosevelt, probably typed herself, 11 months before she died. It was a gracious endorsement of one of my more quixotic efforts. To get into the Congressional Page school, one needed passing grades in math … Continue reading →

Fifteen years ago Martha M. Cruz and I were sitting in the hall when Nelson Mandela entered to address the 8th assembly of the World Council of Churches in Harare. The delegates gave him a standing ovation. He was a … Continue reading →

November 22, 1963. I am 17 years old and I am walking into my high school homeroom. Several students with stricken faces are gathered around the teacher, Mr. Nickel, who quietly repeats the same sentence every time someone else joins … Continue reading →

Veterans Day 2013. It intimidated the Baader Meinhof Complex when we dressed as Greyhound Bus Drivers.

I found this decaying clipping in the attic this afternoon and quickly scanned it before the paper flaked away. The clip is from the Mid-York Weekly, circa January 1964. Brother Larry Jenks and I are shown introducing snow to a … Continue reading →