This photo, from the files of the Los Angeles Times, is more than fifty years old. It was taken in Washington, D.C., on January 20, 1961. If you click on the photo, it will get bigger. Do you recognize the people in the front row of the reviewing stand?
I will identify them for you without referring to an encyclopedia of any kind.
From right to left, rather than from the traditional left to right, they are Ladybird Johnson, Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson, President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Kennedy, Joseph P. Kennedy (JFK’s father), and (seated) Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK’s mother). The military men passing in review to honor the newly inaugurated commander-in-chief are not truly military men, not yet. They are cadets from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
I have no reason for posting this photo. I just felt like it.
I'm glad you posted. It's a nice glimpse into our past.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Glenda. I see you hail from Van Wyck, South Carolina, about which more can be found right here. Georgia has a Van Wert (we used to drive through it on old U.S. 278 just before reaching Rockmart on our way to Jacksonville, Alabama) but it is so small it does not have a Wikipedia article of its own. It is not even mentioned as a town in Wikipedia's articles on either Polk County or Rockmart, but someone immortalized it ina photo of a sign that mentions it.
ReplyDeleteThe lines were not straight. If that photo had been taken in North Korea or Russia the cadet soldiers would have been in truly straight lines.
ReplyDeleteYP, I noticed the same thing and thought the same thing. I wondered if anyone else would. Once again we demonstrate our similarities.
ReplyDeleteThe verification word is valiget, which is sort of like valley girl, whose thought processes are nothing like YP's or mine.