Hillary and Me--- When We Were Young

EARLY INTEREST IN POLITICS

<sup>Both Hillary and I started out in conservative families. She lived in Chicago, I was just over the border in Indiana--da Region--but part of the greater Chicago area. Although we are a few years apart in age, we both were quite young when we began to follow and participate in politics.

I turned fourteen in August, 1968. I remember watching in disbelief when President Lyndon Johnson announced that he wouldn't run for re-election. Despite my conservative roots, I was rooting for Robert F. Kennedy. I collected articles about him, kept a scrapbook, and even wrote him a letter of support. I watched his victory speech moments before he was shot. I watched the rest of the political year unfold but didn't have the heart for any active involvement.

In 1960, Hillary was thirteen. After John F. Kennedy defeated Richard M. Nixon in a very close election, Chicago was rocked with rumors and accusations of vote fraud. Hillary volunteered to assist the Republican cause. She helped canvass neighborhoods in South Chicago to help search for evidence that votes intended for Nixon were switched to Kennedy.

Four years later she still wasn't old enough to vote. Yet she worked as a volunteer for Republican Barry Goldwater's Presidential bid.

I turned eighteen a few months before the 1972 election. It was the first national election that allowed eighteen-year-olds to vote. That summer I joined the Young Republicans and worked hard registering voters for Richard M. Nixon. I passed out fliers and worked at the polls.</sup>

^{Me at 18}