Lindsay Campaigns on Beaches

July 4, 1965 - Rep. John Lindsay, Republican-Liberal designate for New York Mayor, carried his campaign to the voters at crowded Rockaway beaches. He built castles in the sand with his 5-year-old son, John, after speaking strongly in a half dozen impromptu talks of building “a better New York.”

Along the boardwalk, as he shook dozens of hands while moving through the crowds with young John and his oldest daughter, Katharine, 14, he downed a couple of beers and a Coke. He ate as much as he could of an 18-inch hero sandwich, then put away an Eskimo Pie.

The candidate’s trip to the beach was by helicopter, but he traveled by car between his major stops at 35th St. in Edgemere, 97th St. at Rockaway Playland, and 116th St. in Rockaway Beach. At each stop, he walked several blocks and spoke at least once, using a power bull horn to reach the assembled crowd.

He wished everyone a happy holiday and invariably closed with the good-natured injunction: “Now you can go back to sleep.”

At 35th St., Lindsay took young John for a ride at Bob’s Scooter Drive, a “dodge ‘em” ride that had the youngster clinging to his dad’s legs in fear.

Later, while father and son frolicked on the beach, Mrs. Lindsay told a Central Park gathering celebrating the Fourth of July that New Yorkers were less and less inclined to view the city’s problems as insoluble.

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