The Colour of Him!

Anne maddock

I went to see President Kennedy with my mother when I was 13 years old. We waited for him to pass City hall in Dublin for what seemed ages. I can still remember the atmosphere, the excitement in the crowd. Suddenly the car passed and he was waving and smiling at us all- from somewhere behind us came a Dublin woman’s voice ‘…….would you look at the colour of him!’ It seemed as if we had never seen anyone so handsome or so tanned in Dublin before. When he had passed us, my mother and myself headed off to the American embassy in the Phoenix Park to get another glimpse, this time he walked right beside us into the Embassy. The following morning, we made the trip to the Embassy again and said out goodbyes to him. My father wondered if my mother would ever come back to earth – the atmosphere in the country was electric and we never forgot his visit.