Before he became a president JFK was a prankster in CT
As a historical figure from a famous family, many people are familiar with John F. Kennedy’s life, from his presidency to his marriage to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and ultimately his assassination. What many people might not realize is that a young JFK spent a portion of his formative years in the Nutmeg State as a student at Choate Academy in Wallingford.
According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum the presidential Kennedy wasn’t the most studious pupil during his time at Choate. In fact during his time there, Kennedy formed a club of pranksters called the Muckers, and it’s this period of Kennedy’s adolescent life that is under the focus of a new YA historical fiction novel “JFK & the Muckers of Choate.” The book details (by blending fact with fiction) Kennedy’s academic issues, pranks and life as a teenager.
Hearst Connecticut Media recently spoke with Scott Badler, the author of “JFK & the Muckers of Choate” about his book, which published May 29.
Q. Why did you choose to write your book as a YA novel?
A. I thought, people in high school read about Kennedy, you know the Bay of Pigs and the assassination, but they never really see him as a young person. I think a 17-year-old would be interested to read that he was kind of like them. A rebel, just trying to find his way.
Q. What kind of research did you have to do in order to write this book?
A. I certainly spent a lot of time at the JFK Library, a lot of time at Choate, the school he went to, and talked with the librarian ... going through their archives, their year books and everything.
Q. What was the most surprising thing you discovered while researching your book?
A. I think that JFK was in therapy at 17-years-old. He went for a couple of reasons, the headmaster suggested it to him and two others and after the Muckers expulsion was rescinded. Jack was the one who decided to go. He was a curious guy, he wanted to find out what all this was about and he went for a couple sessions and met with a famous therapist. The therapist actually took notes so we do have a basic outline of what they talked about although I went into some other issues that weren’t in his notes.
Q. In your book you note that you have blended fact with fiction, how did you choose
which elements to fictionalize?
Well, certainly I had to make up the dialogue, but he was a prolific letter writer and I used a lot of his letters and used that as dialogue for the story. I gave a little bit of fiction to how the expulsion was handled, so I gave Jack a little more credit than he deserved. I really kept to all the same characters. I did create one character, who was a campus cop, just so Jack would have more of an antagonist. I didn’t know the names of who the campus cops were.
Q. What was it about the Muckers club that captured your interest?
A. Kennedy was an incredible prankster, even as president he was a prankster, which kind of amazed me that he would still do certain things with his friend Lem Billings, but none of his pranks were out of the ordinary. But again, we don’t think of him as a prankster, we see him as this president.
Q. Your portrayal of Choate is pretty stern, do you think you gave the institution a fair shake?
A. I really didn’t exaggerate its strictness and for what the headmaster kicks them out for; it was something they weren’t even going to do, but he was just tired of their general attitude. If you didn’t study or you were lazy or did little things to annoy the faculty or the headmaster, they would come down on you pretty hard. It’s amazing to think that the headmaster was going to kick them out for the little that they did, but the headmaster was tired of them.
Q. What do you want readers to take away from your book?
A. Just that Jack Kennedy was a normal teenager. It’s important to see him as a young man growing up and realize he was a rebel and that sort of led in a certain way to growth and evolution in his character, but that he was a normal kid. We just think of him as this famous president, this icon, this myth and he had a lot of problems. I don’t think we realized all the problems he had growing up with his mother, his incredible problems with his health; he had a difficult time at school. Just because he was rich he didn’t have an easy life.
KENNEDY WAS AN INCREDIBLE PRANKSTER, EVEN AS PRESIDENT HE WAS A PRANKSTER