Remembering the New Hampshire Primary: Memories of Presidential Politics from 1964 Through 1980 & Today

I was born in New Hampshire. Politics has always been an element of life in the Granite State, part of the air breathed in from toddlerhood. I can remember the heroic John F. Kennedy as president, and I can remember his funeral. What I can't remember is that fabled day that marks the memories of the Baby Boom generation: Where were you the day JFK was shot. It's blacked out in my mind.

My high school English teacher, Joe Sullivan (now a sports columnist for the Manchester Union-Leader, the only state-wide newspaper in New Hampshire) was a bag-boy at Sully's supermarket, which is now a CVS drugstore. On November 23, 1963, the word came to Sully's that JFK was shot, and a man in the checkout line said, "Its Johnson. Johnson had him killed" Mr. Sullivan, at the time before he was a Mister, told my freshman English class a decade later that he felt anger at the man for making such a stupid remark.

I bring this up as my first memory of the New Hampshire primary was seeing that same Lyndon Johnson come to my hometown of Manchester in 1964. I did not know that there was a presidential primary: I did know that there was a President and he was coming to Manchester. My mother and father gathered up us kids and went down to Elm St. and positioned ourselves near the entrance to the underground public toilets at Victory Park. Four years earlier, JFK had made his last speech of the 1960 Presidential campaign election night in Manchester, at this very spot. I was four and perched securely on my father's shoulders so I could see over the crowd.