The "A Candidate Comes To Town" Story

Senator speaking to the crowd at Penn Square, Lancaster, PA
Photos from Lancaster Newspaper

It was an ordinary day.  I should say it was an ordinary day …. until I was standing next to the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the center of downtown Lancaster, PA and Senator John F. Kennedy's cream colored convertible was coming up West King Street.  The excitement grew the closer his motorcade came towards the square and the applause grew as his car stopped and he left his car, heading toward the wooden platform that had been built in front of the Greist Building.  The date was September 16, 1960 and I was a junior at Manheim Township High School in Lancaster.  My mom and dad thought it would be good for me to see a presidential candidate in person so my dad took me to work with him in the morning.  He worked in the first block of West Chestnut Street at a jewelry store that was two blocks from center square.  About a half hour before the scheduled time of Kennedy's arrival, I walked to the square and squeezed through the crowd to get the best view I could.  I was a skinny kid and had very little trouble getting through the thousands of people that day.  The crowd was estimated by the police department at 5,000 to 7,500, but the Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster's Democratic daily, estimated the crowd at 15,000.  Didn't matter to me because I was pretty close to the platform and that's all that was important today.  The police and many men dressed in suits with hats tried to keep the people away from the car, but it was an almost impossible task.  

Senator Kennedy checking on Helen Fritsch
to make sure she was OK.  Police officers
Calvin Duncan (with hat) and Luther Henry
also got to meet the Senator in person.

Senator Kennedy was ushered through the crowd and onto the platform with various politicians from Lancaster.  Exciting?  Wow, was it ever!  At the time I didn't know much about Senator Kennedy except for the fact that he was a Democrat running for President.  Years later I wondered why mom and dad wanted me to see him and listen to his speech, knowing that they were life-long Republicans as were the majority of people who lived in Lancaster and surrounding communities.  I often thought they somehow knew he was something special that was going to happen to our country.  JFK's speech lasted eight or nine minutes in Penn Square that day and it was said in the newspaper that he emphasized that the "great challenge" facing the nation was to "maintain its vitality."  He also said he had the "greatest confidence" in the United States and that if elected, "we will try to mobilize resources" so that the U.S. would remain the strongest country in the world.  I had no idea at all what that meant at the time or if he even said that, but that's what was reported in the newspaper.  After a few others spoke and everyone clapped, the Senator was escorted across the street to the Fulton Bank.  I found out later that his car had somehow knocked down 64 year old Helen Fritsch and the crowd must have trampled her.  Senator Kennedy found out about it and wanted to check on her condition.  She got to meet him first hand inside the bank.  Why didn't I think of that, I thought after reading about it in the paper.  

Senator Kennedy heading north on Queen Street.

He then jumped back in the car, sitting on top of the rear seat and headed north on Queen Street towards his next stop in nearby Columbia, PA.  My day in the city was amazing and after Senator Kennedy was elected President, I realized that I came within inches of shaking hands with the President.  That evening I spent time telling my parents about the event and how neat it was to see someone as famous as JFK.  Little did I know at the time that he would be assassinated a little over three years later and the country would be without one of the finest Presidents of all time.  Tomorrow's story will tell of his assassination and the remembrances of many who experienced his death.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.