Presidential nominee John F. Kennedy visited Tamaqua 53 years ago.

Today, the event is a study in contrasts.Kennedy was a Democrat. Tamaqua was a Republican stronghold.Kennedy was Catholic. Tamaqua was largely Protestant.Kennedy came from a background of privilege and wealth. Tamaqua was a working-class, blue-collar town.Despite those differences, Kennedy's presence on Friday, Oct. 28, 1960, was a big deal for rank-and-file residents, although innocuous in terms of pageantry.For instance, there was no official greeting offered by the community and Kennedy never actually spoke in Schuylkill County's largest borough.Youngsters at Tamaqua's two Catholic schools were allowed to witness his arrival. Those attending church-sponsored St. Jerome's and Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic schools celebrated the day.However, Tamaqua public schools did not permit children to participate in the Kennedy appearance. Many say politics and religion ruled. And that divergence ultimately denied children an opportunity to grasp the experience of a lifetime.Tamaqua resident Wayne Truskey says powers-that-be denied public school students a chance to take part."I was a student at Pine Street School," he said. "Mrs. Dougherty was our sixth-grade teacher. She was very upset at the time as she and all teachers were ordered not to allow students out to see such a historic event," explained Truskey."As I recall, some senior high students skipped school and got themselves in hot water, one or more of whom went on to be teachers in our school district. You have to remember, at the time, Tamaqua was very ethnic, religious and politically old-fashioned," Truskey said."Our teacher did her best to get everyone to the window of the south side of the school to get a glimpse of our future president. She was very emotional that day," he said.Tamaqua native R. Thomas Berner, professor emeritus of journalism and American studies, Penn State University, was a student in the Tamaqua Area Joint School System and remembers events of that day."I've always suspected there were other reasons the school board chose not to give us half a day partisan politics and religion," Berner said.It is unclear who made the decision, but most Tamaqua youngsters of 1960 were denied a chance to experience an event they likely would have remembered for the rest of their lives.Neither politics nor religion, however, would deter adult Tamaquans from turning out to welcome the future president when his motorcade passed through the town en route to Hazleton.His caravan entered on US209, West Broad Street, then turned at the Five Points intersection and proceeded northbound on SR309.Interestingly, Kennedy's local appearance failed to warrant headlines in the Tamaqua Evening Courier.In fact, the paper apparently didn't send a reporter and didn't publish a story.The Evening Courier did, however, feature one single photo of Kennedy as he was greeted by locals on West Broad Street in front of Home Savings & Loan headquarters, now the Tamaqua Area School District Administration building.The image, captured by Courier photographer Roy Ackerman, shows Kennedy standing in a Ford convertible as the caravan slowly makes its way along the main street.Residents "engulfed Sen. John F. Kennedy's car as it moved through town," stated the photo caption.The paper's front page carried UPI stories about Kennedy's Philadelphia campaign as he tried to win Pennsylvania's 32 electoral votes. The UPI story contrasted it against Vice President Richard M. Nixon's political stumping in Illinois.Fifty-three years after Kennedy visited Tamaqua, local residents recall the day with pride despite the 1960s partisan politics which, they say, reared its head and strongly influenced how the day unfolded.