When I heard Caroline Kennedy was going to be on the cover of AARP magazine, I started feeling a touch of nostalgia. You see, Caroline was my childhood friend.

She was a good friend of mine when her dad was president. We were about the same age and I invited her to all my tea parties. The tea parties took place in my parents basement in suburbia, New York – just outside of Buffalo.

I received a toy stove and sink for Christmas and my sister got the matching refrigerator and kitchen shelves. We made our “tea” and sat at a little wooden table with all our friends. The dolls, the teddy bears and of course Caroline and John John were there.

We discussed some very serious topics while sitting around that little table. You see, Caroline and I had so much in common. Both our mothers were interested in interior decorating, my mother was painting the living room walls while her mom was redoing the White House. Her dad traveled a lot like mine even though he wasn’t a salesman like my dad was. Also, John John was a little pain to Caroline just as much as my little sister was to me.

I remember discussions about which one of us would be the first to land on the moon. I told her special secrets like when I overheard my dad say he was thinking about moving us to Cuba. I have other memories such as The Cold War was getting warmer, the Soviet Union was getting closer and nuclear war was a threat. We also practiced hiding under the little wooden table in case we got bombed. But we knew Caroline’s dad would fix everything with something called the Peace Corps.

Then her Dad died and she had to go away.

So when the magazine showed up in my mail box I was almost afraid to look. I didn’t want to know anything about her that would change a thing.

I wanted my memories of her and our innocent childhood together to stay the same. Through the years I had followed her whereabouts but had never rekindled the “friendship.” Yes, I knew she had been through some tough times with the deaths in her family, but throughout the years she had remained inconspicuous while John John had taken more of the spotlight.

Recently, I have been revisiting my past and trying to reconnect to some visions I had when I was younger. Since she was a huge part of my young innocent life, I knew it was time to connect with Caroline again.

I pulled the magazine out of my mailbox and saw her. She looked the same as me. In fact, she could have borrowed the shirt she was wearing from me. OK, I weigh a little more but she definitely has a lot more wrinkles.

Then I read on the internet what she said.

“Ever since I was a little girl, people have told me that my father changed their lives, or that President Kennedy’s inaugural challenge, `Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,’ inspired a generation in the 1960s that transformed our nation with courage,”

“To me that is one of his greatest legacies. Now, it is up to us to redefine that commitment for our time.”

Spoken like a true baby boomer. I have to admit I felt a twinge of relief because we must still have much in common.

Hey Caroline – Let’s reconnect and renew our friendship – -only this time let’s make it real.

Caroline, Do you want to come to my tea party?

Tags: Baby Boomer Nostalgia