Childhood

29th of May 1917 in Brookline, Massachusetts John F. Kennedy were born. He was the second child of Rose Fitzergald Kennedy and Joseph Patrick Kennedy. He had an older brother named Joe. And he got 7 more. The first years of his life, he lived in Brookline. John’s father was a wellknown businessman and diplomat. So John got the politic through the breastmilk. Everyone in the Kennedy family was busy of politic, and often, politic was the discussionobject beside the dinner. John’s grandfather, John F. Fitzergald, also was an politician. When John was 9 years old, he and his family moved to Riverdale-on-houston in New York. They just lived there temporary, until they found a new house. The place was Bronxville, right outside New York. John F. Kennedy had a lot of interests. He was a scout, and he often wrote letters to his mother from the scout trips.

In the summer, the family went to Cape Cod. In 1929 when John was 12 years old, his father had bought a new, big house in Hyannis Port. The children played in the water all day long. John was the best swimmer of the oldest children. His mother and father loved him, and his siblings. They spend much of their time together with their children in the summer time. When John was 13 years old, he had to think over what kind of school he would go further. He’s father determined a big part of this, but he was also listening to his sons wishes.

John as a schoolboy and athlete The Autumn 1930, John was sent to Canterbury. For the first time John wasn’t on the same school as Joe. He thought this was a little bit stupid, because John learned very much of his brother. Now John had to made it himself. But after a period John liked the school and his new friends. John wrote letters home, were he told that the food was good and the swimming-pool was nice. The football-team was not so good. Their first match ended 0-32…. Beside the sports, he also had a lot of other subjects. He made it very well in history, and he remembered everything the teacher told him. He was the best pupil in mathematics, but the Latin was not very well. But John tightened himself and got a good character in this subject too.

Just before Easter 1931, John got an appendicitis, and he was sent right to the hospital. His parents came at once, and this wasn’t the first time john’s health had failed. He had been much sick since he was a little boy. He had to stay at Hyannis Port over the summer, and when he should start at school in the autumn, John wanted to start at the Canterbury school, and he mentioned a lot of good reasons for continue there. But his father meant that he should start at Coate, and whatever john said, he had to start there. His brother was also studying at Coate, and he watched for his brother, and what he did. If something was wrong, Joe helped him, but maybe too much.

John thought Joe was chiefing too much. There before John and some friends of him, made a club. Their purpose was to make rebellion against all kind of authority, have it fun in their way and oppose the school-system. John shared room with Ralph Horton and K. Lemoyne Billings. Every time they said something, the schoolinspector came in and commented what they said. The inspector held an eye to everything they did, and once he came after a “clubmeet”. The room looked like battlefield. After this the schoolinspector had got enough of their behavior. The boys got a punish sermon in front of the whole school. After this it was over and out with their club.

The inspector wrote a letter home to John’s father: your son is doing the homework in last minute, and he have no system in his schoolcases(…). John’s father wrote at once a letter to John. Here he wrote that he had to tighten and make use of his possibilities. After this, John tightened, and everything went better to him. The inspector wrote a new letter to John’s father: now your son is doing very well, and he get very good marks(…). His father was so glad that he bought John a new boat. John named it “Victura”. Now everything was great. When John was 18, he’d finished the school. Now he was about to start at the Princeton-university…

But that summer John’s health failed again. This time it was jaundice. This happened when he was in England, and he missed the first semester at Princeton. He was now a year behind his friends. There before he started at Harvard instead. This was the autumn 1936. In the beginning it was just like Coate. On Harvard john Played a lot of sports: football, swimming, golf, baseball, hockey and tennis. The first year john was at Harvard, president Roosevelt appointed his father to ambassador in Great Britain. Now John learned a lot politic from the letters and telephonecalls from his father. On the school, Adolf Hitler and his way to the power was discussed.

When John was 19 years old, he got a backache after a footballmatch. The other players was about 20-30 kilos heavier than John. 2 minutes out in the match, the players chrashed into a big hill. John was laying at the bottom… This damage bothered him forever. In 1938 john made big era to his university. John and an other student won a big regatta in Wianno close to Hyannis Port. They finished before 9 different boats from other universities in USA. John’s father had come over from London to see this race, and he was full of pride. In the summerholiday John was in London, and in the autumn, John started at Harvard. This was his second year. At Harvard John ended this school right after Christmas, and started working in the ambassador of London together with his father. But when the world war started in 1939, he went back to the USA, meanwhile his father had to work in London. Now John was interested in the development of the war, and he wanted to make a good act….

Kennedy in the war

John had now begin to interest himself for South-America. He would see how their defense was in the different countries. In February 1941, John traveled to South-America. He visited: Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela. He was fascinated over what he saw. When the summer was there again, John went to Hyannis Port as normally. Joe should now start in the army as a pilot. John was inspected by his brother and he tried to enlist in the army too. But John was refused because of his old back injury from Harvard.

After five months of exercise to strengthen his back, he was accepted for service by the navy. His first job was paperwork in Washington. December 7th 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Habour, the American base on Hawaii. This was the start of the war between USA and Japan. Now John was appointed to lieutenant. In March 1943 he was sent to San Francisco, in the southerly part of the pacific ocean. He started on a boat called MTB109. John and his crew practiced on an island called Kendova. They also looked after that no Japanese ship came through the Blackett-lane. August 1st the Japanese’s tried to attack the base, by sending 25 bombplanes against the island. The mission was failed. Just 2 American boats sank. After this, the MTB’s got an order from the mainquarter. They should patrol that night. Suddenly the cannonshooter discovered a Japanese ship, and it was to late to turn around. They were bombed, and the ship sank at once. Everything went bad. John and the rest of the crew swam to the closest island. 2 days went and nobody had seen them yet….until some natives came by boat. John and the rest of the crew were paddled to the mainland. Everybody was glad to see them again.

John F. Kennedy was awarded the Purple Heart for his brave appearence. After this he got the commando on MTB59 together with a new crew. But John got worse and worse in his back. Early 1945 he was dimitted by the navy. He’d done a very good effort who was respectfully. He was now 28 and was looking for a new job. Then a tragic message came to John and the rest of the family: Joe was dead. The family was broke.