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Show TheChair in the Oval Office gifts of visiting dignitaries. On the other side of the lamp were six books held upright, one of them written by President Kennedy himself. And then my eye was caught by something resembling a menu holder in which had been inserted a card bearing the typewrit- ten heading, “THE PRESIDENT’S ENGAGEMENTS,” and beneath words were typed the hours and appointments for that day. At my left elbow stood a green By IRVING WALLACE Author of “Tha Prise,” “The Chapmon Report,” ond “The Sunday Gentlemon” T HARDLY seems three years since I stood beside the vacant chair, stared retaryto the President. § E a i x This was the immediate world before the President's chair. Beyond, and all about, there was more. Riding the swivel chair, I decided i ~ “Go on, sit down in it,” he said. s President Kennedy’s chair, and although I did- the table rose a flag, one the U.S. flag, the otherthe Presidential flag. I came around, and-I was back where I had started. not fit it for size, I knew instantly that Salinger was right. He had said that I would fee! something, and I did. What | felt that moment, J} have felt frequently in moments of the days since, and I believe that feeling will continue to recur until 5the day I die. It is's feeling 1 would wish for every American alive. . With my bulk occupying the chair in the Oval Office, I crossed my arms on the small green blotter that ‘was centered on the desk and contemplated what was immediately before me. First I saw a long desk we grow older—and I had enjoyed and suffered 47 years of living when I stood beside that chair—we become more cynical about our fellow men and their promises, more disenchanted by the possibilities of each new day, and often we are either too bruised by life’s trials, or too worldly and sophisticated, for the old words and dreams we _no longer believe can be true. The meaning of the chair, Everyman’s chair and no one’s throne, was clear to me. My youthful patriotism, my belief in good, in the law of God. Today this chair had some personal high spots in the President's life or thelives lute individual liberty. of his family, others obviously. the 6 My visual orbit had been fleeting, and yet I sensed, for me, it had been unforgettable. It had been an inspiration of my maturity. I thought: this chair was, ir a sense, manufactured by a group of wigged men who rode in buggies to.a place in Philadelphia to declare their independence from tyranny and to declare a democracy of men where all would be equal under the become the center of the world, the seat of freedom to which all Americana elevate one of their own to represent them in their continuing yearning for peace, ‘security, abso- lamp with a fluorescent light. On one ‘side of it was a cluster of gadgets, knickknacks, and souvenirs, Family Weekly, November£0, 1968 2 eencenam et I came out of that black-leather chair and once more stood beside it, staring down at it with feelings I had not known I still possessed. As rightness and practical possibilities of virtue in our system, was entire- ly restored. |