Conversations With my Father

By richard enders (1941-2021)

EXCERPT FROM PATENTPENDING–CONVERSATIONSWITHMYFATHER

Chapter 9

There was something I wanted to say and it was really important but It seems to have escaped me. Sometimes I feel like my zip drives are all full and that my main frame’s about to crash. They’re saying -whoever “they” are - that we’ve all got too much on our minds and have too much informa tion bombarding us from all sides. That’s the problem. Not that we neces sarily have Alzheimer’s.

“They” are also saying that there’s a new simple self-diagnostic test to let you know if you’re in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. If you can count backwards by sevens then everything’s fine.

100-93-86-79-72-65-58-51-44-37-30-23-16-9-2-minus 5.

I remember now.

Remember when I would ask you what the difference was between a Democrat and a Republican and you would say that the Republicans were for the rich guys and the Democrats were for the poor guys?

So, when I went off to college, I joined the Young Democrats Club. I have to confess to at least one venial sin and one mortal sin during my college sojourn.

First, the venial. As a young Democrat in Washington, I worked on John Kennedy’s campaign. No, that wasn’t the sin. Be patient. Let me finish. I stuffed envelopes. Thousands of envelopes. When election day finally rolled around, a friend of mine and I hopped a bus to the Mayflower Hotel and announced that we had been sent there to work on the tote board - remember those? - the huge scoreboards the election results were post ed, by hand, as they came in from around the country. We couldn’t even vote for him, but - with the exception of those election nights when my own job was on the line - it was the most exciting election night of my life. Ah, it was a long night. You and mom saw me on nationwide TV at around 4:30 am. Nixon, of course, wouldn’t concede. So we went home at eight in the morning, exhausted but exhilarated, not knowing if our idol had been elected president. The sin? No one had “officially” “sent” us to work on anything. We had “sent” ourselves. A harmless little fib.

Both my buddy and I received a letter from Senator John F. Kennedy thanking us for working on his campaign. We also received an engraved invitation to his inauguration.

The Inaugural Committee requests the honor of your presence to attend and participate in the Inauguration of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as President of the United States of America and Lyndon Baines Johnson as Vice President of the United States of America on Friday the twentieth of January one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one in the City of Washington

Edward H. Foley Chairman

Friday, January 20th, 1961

Crisp words. Timeless words.

(Recites part of President Kennedy’s inaugural)

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.”

The mortal sin? I had started the weekend partying early - on Thursday night. And opted to sleep in late and not venture downtown that cold, wintry morning, Friday, January 20th, Nineteen Hundred and Sixty. College left me with another mem ory. For the first time in my life, at the beginning of my freshman year, I saw you cry as you put the car in gear and drove away from my dormitory. •

On the farm with Suzie