top of page
Search

RFK Visits Childhood Home with JFK Jr.

Oct. 7, 1964 - Robert F. Kennedy paid a brief visit today to the Riverdale home he once lived in as a child.

The Democratic candidate, who has been accused of being a carpetbagger, went on to two college campuses and took the occasions to note with good humor that he had lived in New York most of the first 20 years of his life.

His day began at 10:30 when he visited the home of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Sills at 5040 Independence Ave., Riverdale. The Kennedy family lived there when Mr. Kennedy was five years old, and from that house he used to walk each day to Riverdale Country School.

When he came out of the house, he confessed that he remembered nothing about it, though he did remember the nearby school.

He was accompanied at the beginning of the day by 3-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr., who wore red short pants, a white sweater, and a circle of chocolate candy around his mouth. The youngster also clutched a stuffed dolphin.

From his old home, Mr. Kennedy rode to Mount St. Vincent College, where he addressed 2,000 students from there and nearby Manhattan College.

The former Attorney General said Vietnam and NATO were major problems of the day.

“The problem is not my accent,” he asserted. “If the criterion for electing a Senator is the length of time a man has lived here, then you should elect my opponent.”

He spoke of Senator Barry Goldwater, “who would like to see us employ a small nuclear bomb.” But, he added, “we don’t happen to have a small nuclear bomb.”

His next stop was the NYU football field, where he spoke extemporaneously and solicited questions from students.

Once, at the end of a remark that the crowd considered solemn, he gently clapped for himself. The crowd laughed. Mr. Kennedy grinned and said:

“A little encouragement makes a big difference. Mr. Khrushchev always claps for himself. I’m going to introduce that here.”

He was asked when he had decided to run for the Senate.

Mr. Kennedy replied that when he learned he wasn’t going to be Vice President, “I decided that my job opportunities were becoming limited.”

“I could have retired and lived off my father,” he declared. “When I left the Justice Department, they gave me a flag. I could have run my flag up somewhere and spent the next 60 years telling people about how I saved the country. Or I could run for the Senate here.

“I’m putting a lot on the line. I want to be a part of the Government. There is nothing more sinister to it than that.”



Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s

Comments


bottom of page