"Oh," the man said, "you mean Dennis."
He was correct. For years, Dennis Spear drove Rose Kennedy to mass every morning. Still, Castle persisted.
"Who took care of administrative things for the family in New York?" The man fumbled around and came up with Leo's name. "So we let him in," Castle recalls. "You could tell he was getting a little annoyed."
It was indeed Robert Kennedy Jr.
As for my own night in JFK's old digs, I can't help but notice that his bedroom is clearly the least desirable of the 11 in the house. It's tucked into the southwest corner, so you can't see or even hear the Atlantic Ocean. It seems odd that even as a congressman and then as president of the United States, he chose to stay in the room he had slept in since he was a 13-year-old boy. He could have been in one of the upstairs bedrooms, with maj-estic views of the water and access to the oversized connecting bathrooms.
But the room that Kennedy chose boasted one crucial advantage: a side patio door that allowed the occupant to sneak away without having to walk through the rest of the house. Indeed, rumor has it that on at least one evening, president Jack and attorney general Bobby slipped out that patio door and climbed over a stone wall to evade the Secret Service for a night on the town.
Lacking a waiting car--or, for that matter, a good reason--for sneaking out, I just retire for an uneventful night's sleep. The firm mattress proves comfortable enough, but sadly, my large, Kennedyesque dreams are not to be. In fact, I can't recall a single dream at all. nFC
John A. Byrne (jbyrne@fastcompany.com) is Fast Company's editor-in-chief.
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