It's the biggest crossover event of the year, folks. I mean like a TRIPLE crossover. Very exciting, I know. I am VERY behind in the Fenderson going ons this week, I'll catch you up tomorrow on the rest of the week, but JFK, like any president gets his own blog. The good, the bad, the ugly (here's looking at you Milliard Fillmore & John Tyler), they all get one. So, here we are with number 35, JFK.
Here's the thing about JFK, you all probably know a decent amount about him. Couple that with the fact that I want to get this blog done before Asa gets home from work, and I am going to speed right through this one. (Oh, and Peyton took occasional pictures since he was on camera duty.)
So here we have Joe and Rose Kennedy, Irish-Catholic, UBER rich, SUPER popular, and a huge desire for power. You know, the Kennedy's.
And they have 9 kids- 5 girls, and the 4 boys (Joe Jr., Jack, Bobby & Ted).
Joe Sr. had Kennedy standards those boys were meant to live by. Basically, if you're going to play football you better be captain of the team, if you're going to be on the debate club, you better be president. You know, basically no use in doing things if you aren't the best at it. Also, don't cry and whine about anything, ever.
And Jack, despite his illnesses (and as a child there was A LOT of them), abided by these rules. Jaundice, a leukemia scare (which ended up as some colon thing), Addison's disease, being born with one leg shorter than the other causing massive pain- don't whine about any of that. Seriously, he was given last rights at least FOUR times in his life. He was not a well guy.
Joe Sr. thought maybe he'd be president someday. He was ambassador of Great Britian under FDR. But, a disagreement about Germany in WWII, put him on the outs. He wasn't ever going to be president after that, and he was old anyway. The Kennedy who was born to be president...
...Why that was Joe Jr. Jack was always living under Joe's shadow, at school, at home. Whatever, Joe was BORN to be president. Jack wasn't. So, Joe Jr. gets the 'future president' sash.
So Jack goes off to fly airplanes during the war, because that's what you do when you're going to be president someday.
And Jack, who could never have gotten in the military because of all his health issues, had his dad get him in anyway. He went off to the Navy, and eventually was in charge on his boat the PT-109.
But a Japanese boat came and took him and his crew out.
Jack was never ever scared of death. I mean, given last rites that many time, you probably are pretty fearless. Anyway, he was like 'hey you guys have families, what do you want to do?', and they all decided to swim for it. So, JFK pulls one of his injured men by his lifejacket strap, USING HIS TEETH, and gets his men to safety.
Long story short (and it is a long story, have you ever read Killing Kennedy? Holy geez, it's craziness), JFK swims to various islands through possible or possibly not shark infested waters, writes a message on a coconut, and gets saved.
Oh, and that cocount would later be returned to him. It used to sit in a glass case on his oval office desk. I wonder where it is now. I printed out a picture of it for our JFK to hold.
So, Jack got out of WWII alive. The same cannot be said for Joe. Not long after the PT-109 incident, Joe's plane was shot down over the English Channel and he died. Someone had to be the new 'future president' now according to Joe Sr. Next man up, it was Jack's turn. (Don't mind his back brace he's wearing, poor guy would have some serious back troubles).
We talked a little about the Kennedy Curse. Jack Jr. was maybe the first.
But we also talked about Rosemary. She was born with metal health issues, or something, nobody knows too much about her. But, a lobotomy left her an invalid, and I've read some things that the Kennedy's never even talked about her after that.
Then another of the Kennedy kids were killed when Kathleen died in a plane crash.
By now Jack was off to the house of Representatives. There he met Jackie, and she was UBER rich too. She rode horses (and she was REALLY good at it), and was a photographer. She married Jack, he cheated on her a whole lot, you guys know the story.
Then Jack went on to the Senate, and Caroline was born.
He ran against Nixon and narrowly beat him.
And Jackie gave birth to son number two: JFK Jr. (the only child born to a president-elect).
And Jackie was cool, everyone loved her. (like ALL over the world)
She brought painters and artists and poets into the White House.
And she restored it, too.
Everyone knows those things- but did you know she brought the Mona Lisa here?
I had no idea.
And you know, Camelot. (Even if the term wasn't really coined until after the White House)
But trouble was brewing in Cuba with good old Fidel Castro.
And there was the whole Bay of Pigs thing. If you don't know, you should. But, just know we thought we could train some Cuban exiles to overthrow Castro, it didn't work, and JFK ended up looking like an idiot.
Plus over in Berlin, you know.. Khrushchev was all "yay communism! Lets build some walls!" and stuff.
And JFK, along with his brother Bobby who was his very unexperienced Attorney General, looked pretty bad. (I just wanted a whole 8 part history channel miniseries on Kennedy on Netflix, it was pretty good, check it out if you want to see lots of Jack & Bobby working together- they seemed to be a little bit of a disaster sometimes).
Oh, and Joe Sr. has a stroke, leaving him unable to talk and walk- Kennedy curse strikes again.
Then, U-2 planes spot Fidel with some missiles.
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And more on the way courtesy of our buddy Khrushchev over in the Soviet Union.
But, since there's no WWIII in our history text books, you know Kennedy seemed to handle this, and eventually the crazy 13 day-on the brink of a nuclear war- craziness was over. So, Yay Kennedy. Everyone loves him again (fickle, fickle Americans).
Besides that their were all kinds of Civil Rights issues in the South, and Jack mostly stayed out of it. He did send in federal troops when the police didn't seem to be handling it very well.
But he even declined to speak during the whole March on Washington thing. (Part of that was his not wanting to be attached to MLK Jr who possible had ties to the mob.)
Oh, and Ted gets elected to Congress. So, now you've got all kinds of Kennedy's in Washington.
And Jackie has another baby, Patrick...
But he only lives to be two days old.
And then comes the trip to Texas, and you know the rest..
Lee Harvey Oswald shoots and kills President Kennedy, making him the fourth president to be assassinated.
Lyndon Johnson is sworn in.
Lee Harvey Oswald runs from the scene of the crime, kills a police officer and was captured.
Jack Ruby shoots and kills Lee Harvey Oswald on national TV..
And JFK is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
So now, Bobby gets the title of future president.
But, five years after Jack, during the primaries, Bobby is assassinated too.
Ted stayed in Congress for a very long time. He actually tried to run for president in 1980. But, obviously, that didn't work out.
We did a sort of 'Where are they now' series, and so we also talked about how JFK Jr. died in a plane crash. Caroline, meanwhile, is our current ambassador to Japan.
I had made a JFK like my Harry Truman.
He has the coconut in one hand, and Tylenol in the other for his back pain and all.
We added some quotes..
And fun facts..
Along with a bunch of our props from the day.
The boys had owl mail this morning all about JFK.
We made our usual birthday cards.
We watched our president in 60 seconds video, and then we checked our Fenderson mail. I know I said I'd get you caught up, but you should know this Fenderson is in North America, and he's been travling the 50 states.
It appears he has plans to meet up with anotehr famous criminal, Nita Direction (it's the criminal from my friend Kristi's project- her kids have been tracking Nita across all the 50 states.) The home office was lucky enough to intercept a letter from Nita to Coby, along with a code to figure out. (Thanks Kristi, the boys had fun!)
Apparently, Coby and Nita are planning to meet up at Dealey Plaza. A few days ago, this would mean nothing to the boys. But today, they know that's where JFK was assassinated. So, they know it's Dallas, Texas.
But apparently it's ALSO Coby's birthday, and his brother Casey (who managed to escape from the boys in Africa) was sending Coby a gift.
A very special JFK puzzle. Casey is a sucker for puzzles as we all know, and Coby loves presidents. It's perfect!
So perfect in fact, it looks as though someone took the time to make it themselves and order it from Walgreens... or somewhere...
So we put that together as our activity today.
And while looking at it Calib noticed it had a picture of Coby's last to-do list on it (you'll see, he had quite a few to-do lists this week). Everything was checked off, except visit the sixth floor of the school book depository.
So Calib showed his brothers, and now they are fairly certain they know where they can catch Coby tomorrow when the arrest warrant is sent.
It's super cool by the way. I kind of love this puzzle.
Our historical hashtag for JFK..
And dinner was all of JFK's favorites. We had clam chowder, corn muffins, baked beans and steak.
So that's it for JFK, I feel like I kind of phoned this blog in.. but everyone knows a whole lot about JFK already. I mean, I know WAY more than I could ever put in a blog. I watched all kinds of stuff, and read all kinds of books for this one.
Next up: More Finding the Fendersons, Summer Reading Club Kickoff, and a certain someone's 15th birthday!
(But, I'll probably be back tomorrow to catch you up with this weeks events.. so until then!)
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