text: I was a Democrat, born on the south-side of Chicago in a Catholic family with 5 kids, and an uncle, a Notre Dame priest who became an archbishop canon lawyer in Rome.  My 2nd oldest brother was the Vice President of the Will County Young Democrats were we moved to when I was 10, next door to Cook Country (Chicago).  He introduced John F. Kennedy, the Democrat nominee for President, to the crowd at a town center out-door rally where my brother gave me my first political 'job" - "get the Nixon signs down."  I got a couple other guys and we got all the Nixon signs down - we took them right out of the peoples' hands.  We were Democrats, we had that moral authority.  I also got to meet JFK  after the rally, just him and me, as his driver was pulling into a hotel parking garage  for "grownup" meeting.  I was the only one on a corner waiting for his car. He was sitting on the top of the back seat, saw me and started grinning as I reached up, and he leaned down to shake my hand. What a memory!