In Sacramento, Ca. I was a 9 year old 5th grade student at Our Savior Lutheran School in S. Sacramento. My brother was an 11 year old 7th grade student there. We had written a letter to Bobby Kennedy sometime after JFK was murdered asking Bobby to help get his brothers birthday made a holiday, so we could all celebrate his life. My parents were dyed in the wool Republicans then, but they did not object to what we were doing. I remember my excitement when we got a letter back. The letter, in a big manila envelope, (which I have not seen in a very long time) said that this may never happen. We were both sad, but a the same time happy to have had the chance to connect with Bobby.

When Bobby stepped up to run after Pres. Johnson said, "If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve." we were elated, Bobby was in the race to be president. Our guy! Later, when we found out he was coming to our town, we were excited. Then we found out he was going to speak at Florin Center, a new shopping mall. We new right away we were going no matter what. Only death itself could have kept either of us from being there.
As luck would have it, the 23rd was a Saturday, so we did not need permission to miss school. And we went. I think the modern term for all our rides, that would be used today, would be free range. We were kids out on our own, doing what we chose to do. We rode our bikes across town to see our hero. I on my blue Schwinn Three Speed Racer, and my brother on his green Schiwinn Collegiate Varsity 5 speed.

I can't remember much about the ride to the mall. Much like so many other rides we did to downtown Sacramento. We'd gone to see the State Capitol, Sutters Fort, the office buildings, the river, and all over downtown in the past. And like all our many other rides past, the destination was our only focus. We got to the mall and tried to figure out were we needed to be. This mall was different than all the stores along K st. downtown. They had store fronts at the streetside. This suburban mall had large indoor open spaces to walk protected between stores. The place we figured to be the spot was between JC Penney's and Sears.

We waited and were so excited to be there to see what we knew would be the next President of the United States. And more than that, the man who could help fix some things that were scary to a kid only then 9 years old then. Among the many were JFK's murder in 1963, the Watts riots in '65, the Detroit riots in'67.

Bobby shows up and by then there was a fairly large crowd gathered. It was packed inside the open space to the point where people could not move. And being so young meant being shorter than most of the crowd.

Bobby made a very short speech. I do remember he had just begun speaking when he paused in mid sentence to admonish some kids who had climbed up on top of a sort of wall structure for a better view, "...be careful up there..." He all too quickly finished to great cheers and shook hands with folks, and then he was gone. I could not remember much of anything he said. But he was our hero just the same.

Martin Luther King would be murdered, April 4th, just 12 days after we saw Bobby speak. Cities and emotions were aflame. I did not understand what caused all this. I remember watching Bobby's speech after MLK was murdered. And I knew Bobby was very close to him. But I did not understand anything about civil rights issues. I thought - run, get elected, and just fix it Bobby - that was all I knew.

Skip ahead to 2007. Here we were in America, up to our eyes in excrement and a slowly sinking economy. w was re-elected and I thought how could this have happened? Don't people see what is happening? And then I thought back to those days in '68. About those great memories of the hope that someone could just fix it.
(side note: we just saw Elvis Costello in Davis a couple of weeks ago. He mentioned unhappily, "Nobody can f*cking fix anything.")
Man I wanted to relive that time.

As I thought about what was happening in '07, Kerry vs swift boaters and all that, I was also remembering about the hopeful naivety of my youth. Just waiting and wishing a hero would come for us now, just as I had hoped way back in 1968. Then it dawned on me that I did not remember what my hero had said, but, it's 2007. Tap, tap tap. I started searching online. Nothing. I checked the newspaper archive at the Sacramento Bee and found article about Bobby, but nothing of the visit to Florin Center or the speech we heard there.

I went to the Kennedy archives and found an email address, sent this...

>>> Douglas XXXXX 10/28/2007 5:20 PM >>>
Hello,
My name is Doug XXXXX. I am looking for the transcripts of a
presidential campaign speech Senator Kennedy made. I believe it was
given in the spring of 1968, at Florin Center Mall in Sacramento, Ca. I
was nine years old then, and my brother and I rode our bicycles across
town to be there for his speech. I would love to relive this day by
being able to read a copy of the Senators' speech.

Thanks in advance for any help you may provide in this search,

Doug

Dear Mr. XXXXX:

There is no file for Robert Kennedy's brief remarks at the Florin
Shopping Center, but a transcript of the speech was published in the
following unreleased publication:

Kennedy, Robert F. _The Struggle: Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 Presidential
Campaign and Speeches. Aguirre, Michael J. comp. [San Diego]: s.n.;
[ca1986].

Since an unpublished book doesn't help you much, I've typed the speech
for you below.

Sincerely,

Stephen Plotkin
Reference Archivis
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library

"It is good to be here in Sacramento today. You live in a unique town.
Most of your fellow citizens are politicians. My friend Jess Unruh
told me the other day that his friends who were visiting him from out of
town found it hard to get directions around town... it seemed no one
wanted to commit themselves to anything specific.

Let me just say - be careful up there - let me say that I believe in
what this campaign is about. For this is no ordinary election year.
This is a year where the effort for which we strive to succeed, must
succeed. For at stake is nothing less than our national soul and I
believe the American people realize that and seek a change as well.

I believe the men and women of America will win new leadership, for
themselves and for their country. And out of this effort will come the
spirit of discussion and debate, of confrontation and cooperation which
will begin to bridge the gaps - of age, of belief, of religion, of race
and of all the disintegrating matters which have, in the past, so
divided this country. I think these are things the American people wish
to confront. I do not believe the American people are willing to
accept anything less than the truth, which is what this administration
has given them over and over again.

I think the American people deserve better. And I think the American
people can do better. That is why I run for President of the United
States and that is why I ask your help here in Sacramento. Thank you."

Well I am sorry, but my Mom just got here so I will have to follow up with the rest of this story later...I hope you found this first part interesting.

Doug

Great story! Takes me back to those heady and uncertain times, back when the world was still new to my eyes and anything was possible. Right and wrong, good and bad, smart and stupid.......at first the lines which seperated these things (back then) were so "obvious," seem (now in retrospect) much sharper and clearer to me than they now seem........I wasn't aware enough of the ways of the world to understand how principles like "right," "good," and "smart" weren't always sure winners. We had "won" WW's I & II, and there was lots of reassurring noise about ending the war in Vietnam, equal rights and cleaning up the planet. The momentum felt un-stop-able to me. I almost feel that way now, which to me is amazing considering the extent my pure sense of naivete and innocence have aged along with my flesh. Tuesday night, like a Tuesday night 4 years ago, those old yet magical feelings rose up in me again......and it felt so good! So hopeful! So patriotic! So proud! So thankful...........

Interesting story.