2021 – Parental Politics, Part 2
(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on February 22, 2021)
In the same bag (above) as 4 of the 5 previous posts (and the one after this), I found Mom’s stash of political memorabilia – some of which supported/explained/fleshed-out some of the events featured in the previous post. And all of this ignores a big book of a stamp collection that my father put together in his younger days (and that I found WAY too tedious to post about. Sorry, Dad…………you should have collected guitars). 😉
Mom worked in three presidential campaigns: one win, two losses. Let’s start with the win – Richard Nixon in 1968.
Here’s something that was mailed to Mom in October, 1968:
In it is a whole article about the visit at the Neptune Inn in Paramus by VP-candidate Spiro Agnew, where Mom got one photo from not-close range.
Here’s the article:
I should mention here that some of the articles/writeups, etc., may be too small to read, so if any historians need to be able to read something, let me know.
The New Jersey Trumpeter of September 1968 tells of Nixon’s visit to South Jersey and some of the noted speakers who lent their support, including someone Mom photographed that I wondered about in the previous post: Texas Senator John Tower:
This brochure features the POTUS/VP candidates and their families (hard to believe that Tricia and Julie are now in their 70s):
This (well, what’s left of it) is a find! It’s the flyer for Nixon’s visit to Fort Lee, NJ, where Mom photographed him:
On the back, it appears that Mom was tallying the national and local races. “Burr” is probably Frank Burr, who was mayor of Teaneck from 1970-1974. I think we know who “Hump” is (Nixon beat him):
BUMPER STICKERS
BUTTONS (and matches)
(anyone notice the error button on top?)
POSTCARDS
Mom addressed this to herself (her handwriting is a dead giveaway) and mailed it on 10-14-68, received it the next day, and – for some reason – squeezed in her title and initials amongst all the candidate names………..probably as another Republican for responsible government (though she did not run for office):
Poor Hump. I recall my father once describing him as someone whose entire face was on the bottom half of his head:
ELECTION DAY DOOR HANGER/REMINDER:
Four years before that victory came this loss by Barry Goldwater in 1964.
The item with the earliest date is also the spookiest. It’s a letter concerning a campaign kickoff rally at the Bergen Mall in Paramus, NJ on………….November 22, 1963! (as my mother noted on top). It’s also weird to me because I was on a school bowling team that bowled at Ten Pin On The Mall…………..in the Bergen Mall THAT DAY! You’d think it would have been canceled since it was RIGHT after we heard the news in class, but it wasn’t, so at least one of our family members made it to the Bergen Mall that day (nothing to be proud of, but I wrote about it here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=11804) :
I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that the rally was probably canceled. I can find nothing about it online.
My mother received this envelope on 3-31-64. Inside were a couple of copies of Goldwater addressing issues. Although each copy shows a Teaneck P.O. Box number, the return address on the envelope was, “Bergen Republican Committee For Goldwater Headquarters, 93 Main St, Hackensack, NJ”:
Some or all of these items may have been in the above envelope:
Here’s the only item addressed to my father – of course, it’s an April 1964 request to the breadwinner for money:
How thoughtful! This time, they included a check to fill out AND provided space where you could fill in how much your NEXT contribution would be! Here are the fronts and backs of two items:
I wonder how much – if anything- you had to contribute to get this 8×10 of Barry:
I found this beat-up sign and didn’t know where it came from…………
………….until I flipped it over and read what my mother wrote on it:
She probably pulled this souvenir off a pole or wall somewhere.
Here’s a small blurb about the event (“Golduwater”?):
Here are two pages from the 10-25-64 New York Sunday News (I had to position them sideways so they’d line up with their ticket partner):
The postcard about the final meeting…………as you may have guessed by now, Mom wrote the message, but didn’t address it:
THE STASH!
Bumper stickers:
Buttons
Circus animals:
Two items that went well together – ESPECIALLY the Barry-fied elephant, which actually had two holes in its head to insert the back ends of the glasses:
The man himself:
Other Republicans in the Collection
This would explain the picture of Mom with James L. Buckley in the previous post:
“Peace with honor” was a phrase used by Richard Nixon in a speech on January 23, 1973 to describe the Paris Peace Accords to end the Vietnam War. I think the sticker below it was also from the Vietnam War period:
What caught my eye was what’s attached to the top one:
Guess where IMPKO was from:
I’m not sure where the elephant on the left came from, but I’m pretty sure the “Max” one came from fellow Teaneck Republican, Max Hasse, who was shown posing with Mom and the County Sheriff in the previous post:
A closeup of the pachyderm and its new shoes:
I recall the name “Henry Hoebel”, but not any of the others:
Now we’re going back to the ‘50s:
I’m assuming that all these items belonged to my mother. If so, these two buttons – and her political leanings – go back as far as the year after she graduated high school, possibly when she started working for IBM:
She DID try to indoctrinate me in 1960, but it didn’t work. I had my own large piece of Nixon memorabilia from that failed campaign and you can see/read all about it here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=265
NO MORE POLITICS! (I hope)
Welllllllll……….maybe just ONE more little (and late) addition I found on March 12, 2021:
“Nixon’s the one, Humphrey’s a bum!”
Now this is an impressive collection of 1960s political memorabilia!!! You really took a lot of time to organize and explain everything! I am just disappointed not to see any Soupy Sales For President campaign buttons! I would have thought you had one that you wore personally (and maybe while doing “The Mouse”)!
Mom was disappointed when the Kenneys sent me home with a bumper sticker saying ‘Nix On Nixon’. Oh well.