By Steve Marinucci
Published Sunday, June 5, 1988, San Jose (CA) Mercury News
MY mind still replays how I learned the bad news.
''Steve, Bobby Kennedy's been assassinated," my father told me as he stood over my bed. "Not again," I thought, barely awake. "Wasn't one Kennedy enough?" I walked out into the living room and glanced at the television to confirm what he'd said. But feeling pretty sleepy (and perhaps a little numb), I went back to bed.
Though I was 16, too young to vote, I had been working for Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. In his downtown San Jose headquarters on First Street, I spent time stuffing envelopes and performing other small tasks.
Looking back, I'm not sure if I was attracted to Kennedy as a candidate or liked him simply because the Kennedys were so closely identified with Massachusetts, my home state. I thought Kennedy had better leadership qualities than Hubert Humphrey, who I felt was too closely identified with the Vietnam policies of President Lyndon Johnson -- policies I'd begun to question. And I completely distrusted Richard Nixon, "Tricky Dick," because he seemed so reluctant to describe what he intended to do when he became president.
I'd been especially excited when my family and I saw Robert Kennedy in person in St. James Park on March 23. Despite living in Massachusetts for 13 years, I'd never seen a Kennedy in person. (I had once passed up a chance to see then-Sen. Jack Kennedy in a parade. I'd opted for a Three Stooges movie instead.)
That night in the park, I stood in the middle of a bush to try to get some small view of the podium where Kennedy would be. Finally, behind schedule (like most politicians), there he was, just like in photographs. He stood illuminated from behind by a spotlight. I don't remember what he said that night; I probably didn't pay that much attention. I was a kid, and I was just thrilled to be in the same square mile as a real Kennedy.
After the assassination, I shifted my allegiance to Humphrey, figuring him to be a better alternative than Nixon.
And despite my dislike for him, I took in the massive Republican rally at Santa Clara University's Buck Shaw Stadium that featured Nixon, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan, Sen. George Murphy and every local Republican they could muster, sharing the bill with celebrities like Burt (Robin) Ward, Tony Martin, and Les Brown and his entire Band of Renown.
But I couldn't help feeling that the November election had been really decided that fateful night in June.
