Reply #13: It was

[OldLeftieLawyer]

I remember it. Then JFK stepped up without an overcoat, and delivered his speech, and he made history.

Robert Frost couldn't see his sheets in the bright glare caused by the amazing sunshine, so Lyndon Johnson stepped up behind him and used his top hat to shield the pages. Frost then recited it from memory.

A completely amazing event. I am so glad I watched it - on a black and white TV - and can remember it all so clearly.

That night, at the inaugural balls, the ineffable glamour of the Kennedys - Jackie, in particular - as they went from one party to the other, in frigid temperatures, with her having given birth only a couple of months earlier. They were so beautiful, and we were sure then, even as the Cold War preoccupied so many, that there was hope.

Today, there is no sense of hope. Just gorging and gloating and an ever-increasing feeling that the United States is sliding off the face of the earth to the place where there be dragons.