Massachusetts - Day 22 - Boston & JFK

Sippewissett Campground
Saturday, 22 September 2018

today's route

I assumed people would want to come to Cape Cod on a weekend and that traffic would likely be much heavier here than usual.  And I assumed traffic in Boston would be lighter today than on a weekday.  Which is why I picked today to go into town to Brookline to visit the house where JFK was born.

I don't even want to think about what this house would cost today, but back in the early 1900s when Joseph P. and Rose bought the house as newlyweds, it was completely middle-class.  John was only 6 when they moved to a larger house, the family having outgrown this one (it only has 3 bedrooms and they had 4 kids here, and we all know now that many more were on the way).  But after JFK was assassinated, this street was completely packed with people who wanted someplace to go to grieve and to honor him.

spontaneous gathering post-assassination

The house was owned by another family then, but from then on people would come knock on the door and ask if they could just see inside to see where he'd lived, and not surprisingly the family soon put the house on the market.   Rose Kennedy bought it and contributed family items and memories to recreate the house as it looked in 1917 when Jack was born.

The tree in the left foreground of this 1963 photo is the same one that's in my 2018 photo above.  Those trees line the streets, with their roots bulging out as you can see in my photo.  It must be hard for those trees being surrounded by all that pavement, but they do make parking tricky.  Those trees are London Plane trees, a cross between a sycamore and a plane tree, bred to thrive in an urban environment.  (I asked the park ranger.)

Much has been made of the JFK/Nixon televised debate, but his ties to television go farther back.  JFK won his first Senate election through paid political programs in 1952 called "Coffee with the Kennedys."  Jack joined his mother and sisters in their living room and interested people would come and they'd have coffee and talk about Jack and the family and his positions on things and so forth.  Apparently they were very popular programs: JFK beat Henry Cabot Lodge, the incumbent, by 70,000 votes, largely female votes.

During his presidency, JFK held 64 press conferences, usually every other Wednesday or so, and took questions from the press.  He was good at it and the press and public loved it.  FDR mastered the radio, but JFK mastered television.

From Brookline I aimed for the birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, which are next door to each other in Quincy.  I never found them.  In trying to maneuver through Boston's streets, I missed a turn, then stumbled on the right road but was in the wrong lane to make the turn, then couldn't find a place to turn around - and drove and drove still not finding a place to turn around - and by then was completely lost and pulled into a if-you-park-here-we'll-annihilate-you space in front of a school which must have had some kind of function because lots of kids and parents were around - and in desperation I jumped out with the engine still running and accosted a parent and asked for help.  She of course pulled out a GPS and gave me very good directions to get on the highway.

I was sure there was a sign on the highway to the birthplaces (a national historic site) but never could find it (turns out the sign was on a different highway).  So I pulled off the highway at an exit that had a familiar sounding road name and turned in the direction I thought I should be going in - and drove and drove and finally in desperation I stopped at a fire station and the guy gave me directions to get down to the Cape.

It was late afternoon by the time I got back to the campground.  I know the houses are there because I've seen signs and pictures.  I'll try again tomorrow.  Surely on a Sunday I can beat the traffic.