Butch Meets A Candidate For U.S. President

As a high school student in the 1960s, I never took much interest in politics. Neither did any of my classmates. After all, we were too busy studying, participating in various clubs, playing sports, dating, and just having fun! It was an exciting time in our lives. We listened to the Beatles, the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones. We looked forward to going to the Country Diner each weekend to eat and watch all the hopped-up cars drive around and up and down US 136. And there were trips to the nearby Ben Hur Drive-In theater, hopefully with a date, and if not, with several friends…some of whom were hiding in the trunk of the car to avoid paying for a ticket! The questions we had were…”Who’s dating whom?” “Which boy has the fastest car?” and “Which team will win the County Tourney this year?” We could have cared less about national politics. Yes, we were shocked and saddened by the assassination of JFK in 1963, and most of us, to this day, remember where we were when we heard about that tragic event. But to teenagers, life goes on. Although we thought about the future…what we would do after graduation…we lived for the moment.

After starting college in 1966, I took a little more interest in national politics, mainly because a few professors mentioned it in class. But I was married, working full time, trying to make ends meet, and looking forward to earning my degree. As a sophomore in 1968, going to the movies was still cheap entertainment, and I watched such classics as The Graduate, To Sir With Love, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Planet of the Apes. I had heard that Elvis was going to make a comeback later that year. The Presidential election of 1968 was not a big concern for me. Besides, I was only 19 years old, and at that time the voting age was 21. However, I got word that one of the candidates was coming to Lafayette to campaign. I thought that perhaps this might be my only chance to ever see a Presidential candidate in person.

A classmate told me that this candidate was going to arrive at the Purdue airport and then make a few stops around town, but he didn’t know which locations. There would be a large crowd at the airport, and my chances of getting up close would be slim. Perhaps the courthouse? Columbian Park? The fairgrounds? Then it dawned on me that this famous candidate might just stop by his party’s headquarters, which was located downtown on Main Street. I parked my ’65 Chevy a block away, and walked to the headquarters, which appeared to be vacant. I stood in the doorway for about an hour, wondering if I had made the wrong decision. But then people started showing up, and in the next half hour, a crowd of approximately 75 to 100 people had assembled. I then watched as a long line of cars headed west on Main Street, until finally a limousine stopped in front. The candidate had arrived! He smiled, waved to the cheering crowd, and headed to the front door, where I had claimed my permanent spot. As he passed by, I stuck out my hand…hoping for a handshake, which he kindly obliged…and then thanked me for being there. I could not believe that I had actually met a famous national politician! The entourage, followed by reporters and photographers, went inside…and since I was late for a class, I headed to my car to make it back to Purdue in time. What a story I could tell my wife that evening!

My meeting with a Presidential candidate occurred on May 1, 1968, just before the primary election on May 7th. The candidate proceeded to win 9 out of the 11 Indiana Congressional districts, and continued campaigning around the country. Most people concluded that he would likely be the next President of the United States….

…Until June 5, 1968, when he was shot and killed by an assassin in Los Angeles, California. You see, the man I shook hands with that afternoon in front of the Democratic headquarters in Lafayette was JFK’s younger brother…Robert F. “Bobby” Kennedy. That was a day and a handshake I will never forget.

John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.