Millions Join Hands for "Hands Across America" (May 25, 1986)

"Hands Across America" took place on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in 1986.  It was a "kumbaya" type event in which participants nationwide held hands to form a human chain extending across the U.S. (although it bypassed large chunks of real estate, such as New England and Florida).  Taking its cue from the "Feed the World", "We Are the World" and "Live Aid" humanitarian events of the previous two years, "Hands" raised money for hungry and homeless Americans.  Rather than collect money from sponsors as walkathons did, each "Hands" participant paid a $10 tax-deductible fee/contribution. 

 

By nature I'm not a "joiner" so I didn't participate, but I was curious nonetheless to be an observer, so after spending the early part of the afternoon getting some sun in my tiny garden/patio I walked over to the West Side Highway in Greenwich Village to watch part of Manhattan's link of the chain form.  Although the event was dripping in media hype, it was happening so near by that I controlled my eye-rolling and strolled over to the highway at 2:30 to observe the chain forming at 3:00.  I bumped into a friend, Skip, and we walked along the line of participants getting in position to see if we might know any of them. 

 

With so much of a build up, it was surprising that it was over in just 15 minutes, and the crowd dispersed rather quickly.  (As Peggy Lee might have queried, "Is that all there is to an over-hyped charity event?")  All told it was estimated that 7 million participated nationwide, with 100,000 of the participants coming from the New York metro area. 

 

On the walk back to my apartment I stopped into a shop called the Statue of Liberty Gallery on Hudson St., which had recently opened to capitalize on the statue's centennial celebration.  I bought myself a little 4-inch rubberized Lady Liberty.  Once home I changed into my running clothes and headed up to Central Park (via subway) where I ran around the roadway that circles the park (five miles).  

 

The Death of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (May 19, 1994)

 

 

 

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died the night of May 19, 1994 at her Manhattan apartment.  Cause of death was non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which had been made public a few months earlier.  Her death came one month after the death of former president Richard Nixon (who JFK defeated for president in 1960).  She was a great lady who was especially revered in New York because of her love of architectural preservation.  Jackie's death is particularly memorable for me because it coincided with the death of my father.

 

Dad suffered from a rare degenerative disease of the brain known as progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) for about 10 years - the same condition actor Dudley Moore suffered from.  On Mother's Day on 1994 he was hospitalized for a mild heart attack and two weeks later I visited him and my mother for the weekend.  (Up until this hospital stay my mother had taken care of my father at home.)

 

I heard the news about Jackie's death (at the age of 64) during the 11:00 news while packing for my trip and I read more about it the next morning in the New York Times while waiting to board my flight to Pittsburgh at Newark Airport.  On the last day of my visit Mom, Dad and I watched some of her funeral from Dad's hospital room.  (It was a sunny and  hot day in New York.)  The next day, May 24, Dad died unexpectedly, two months shy of his 70th birthday.  I returned to Pittsburgh the following day to help my brother, sister and mother with funeral preparations.