A Memorable Day

Certain days are memorable.

Fifty years ago today, the sun shone off a blanket of fresh snow. School was called off and I had the chance to earn the princely sum of $0.75 by helping my buddy Richie shovel the parking lot and sidewalks at his Dad's funeral home. That $0.75 was the equivalent of five McDonald's hamburgers in those days. Life was good.

We set up Richie's radio so we could listen to President Kennedy's Inauguration as we shoveled away. It was like we were removing the old gray layers of the past and exposing our future personified by the bright young President. "The torch has been passed to a new generation..." Actually, JFK meant his (and our parents') generation, but surely he was speaking to 13 year olds like us as well. "We will make any sacrifice..." Yes! No more fear of nuclear warfare. No more "duck and cover" drills at school. Here was the young, vigorous leadership that we needed to beat out the Soviets. "Ask not what your country can do for you. Rather ask what you can do for your country." It won't be easy (just like shoveling this snow isn't easy) but if we all pitch in, a bright future is ours.

Ten years later, I was freezing a few miles south of the DMZ in Korea and Richie was sweltering a few miles south of the DMZ in Viet Nam. We did our bit for our country and, just as JFK promised, the future was, if not bright, certainly less fearful than it was in 1961. At least there aren't Fallout Shelters in school basements anymore. President Kennedy, if alive today, would be happy about that.

What would disappoint him, I think, is that in 2011 everyone asks what their country can do for them. We demand security from terrorism, free medical care, and disaster relief, with, oh by the way, lower taxes. And, God forbid, that little Josh and Tiffany should pass up big salaries at Goldman Sachs for public service, the Peace Corps, or the military.

January 20, 1961 was a memorable day anyway.