Where in Maine?
December 2015
Each month, Down East editors select our favorite response to “Where in Maine?” Here is our favorite letter from December.
On November 6, 1960, I was a 17-year-old from Gardiner who joined thousands in this park for hours to await the very late arrival of presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, about to make one of his last campaign stops before election day. Maine Senator Edmund Muskie led the crowd in song, distracting us from the numbing Maine chill, as the waning hours made many of us wonder if Kennedy would show. When he finally arrived, close to midnight, the gathering burst into the loudest and most enthusiastic cheer I’d ever heard. Obviously savoring the moment, he began his speech with a quip, assuring us that he hadn’t been playing golf — a reference to President Eisenhower’s appetite for the links.
Myles Martel
Gulf Stream, Florida
Photo by Benjamin Williamson