Part: 1234         Session: 123         Page 120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144145146147148149150151 of 512

There was a very interesting contrast between that reception and the one President Kennedy gave the year before. This is just interacting as an unimportant vignette, but a quite striking difference in the whole tone. When Kennedy gave the reception of the ASNE members-and I believe this is a regular thing; the president's reception at the time of the American Society of Newspaper Editors' meeting in Washington-we all went to the White House, went into the beautifully floral decorated rooms, magnificent flower pieces. My wife commented immediately on how exquisite the flower arrangements were. We all had punch at a couple of tables in the State Dining Room and in the East Room, and went out, and there was the president at the door or in the main hall of the White House as you left. The receiving line was really in reverse. As you left, there was a receiving line in which the president stood by himself and chatted with the various editors and their wives as they went by. We had a very nice, relatively long little talk with him-my wife and I-before we went out. This was the way it was done, a really typical reception-type operation, very dignified, in contrast to this year.

When we got there we were ushered into the Rose Garden of the White House. I'm ashamed to say that my wife and I were a bit late, and we got there after the president had begun making a speech to the assembled editors and their wives in the Rose Garden. And this went on for quite a while. It really was almost in the nature of a sermon, and I must say I think a lot of us could have done without it, really. And this was pretty grim. He finally stopped this lengthy sermon, to everyone's relief, and then we filed into the White House. And there the first thing my wife noticed was the absence of flowers. There were a few little stray wisps, but the difference was quite noticeable. There were virtually no flowers of the type for which Jackie had arranged.