Fred Schlosstein

When Fred Schlosstein of Irondale Street in Lehigh watched the funeral mass this past weekend for Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, he recalled memories of seeing the younger son of the family called Teddy as an altar boy in the same church he and his wife attended many years ago.

Schlosstein, who is 86, served a term in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ House of Representatives and two terms as a state senator in the state Legislature.

During those years, there were times when he was in the company of the Kennedys. But he says he remembers especially Teddy as a teenager as being a “hell-raiser.”

Kennedy went on to become a statesman and one of the three members of the U.S. Senate who have held office in that house the longest.

“He was the youngest of the Kennedy clan, and the boy got away with a lot of things,” he remembered.

Schlosstein showing map: Lehigh resident Fred Schlosstein shows a map of where he lived at Cape Cod, not far from the Kennedy family compound. He remembers Sen. Edward M. Kennedy as a child,

Schlosstein said his late sister held Teddy on her knees when he was very young while they watched movies in the Kennedy compound where Teddy’s late father, Ambassador Joseph Kennedy had his own movie theater

In later years, Schlosstein said he met all the Kennedys through social occasions.

“We didn’t live far from the Kennedy family compound and we could cross the street and look across the harbor and see their family estates,” Schlosstein remembered.

“Even when Jack became President of the United States, we could see the helicopter land on the weekends that he came to be at the family compound.

“I may have called Teddy a hell raiser when he was younger, but as the years went on, he matured and in the last two decades, he became a national leader.

“He grew up finally,” Schlosstein laughed.

He remembered meeting Sen. Kennedy’s first wife, Joan, who afterwards sent him a personally autographed picture of herself.

Joan and Ted Kennedy divorced and later he remarried and Scholesstein said that is when he “grew up” became a leader, one that won’t be forgotten for a long time in the U.S. Senate.

He said that his family got to know the the senior Ambassador Kennedy’s secretary and his wife.

“I remember seeing Joe Kennedy riding around the area in his big Cadillac. It had a tag on it with the numbers 202. He drove around quite a lot and all the neighbors would see him.”

“I remember when the eldest son, Joe Jr., went off to war and was killed in a volunteer mission when his plane filled with explosives burst into flames in mid air and he was killed,” he said.

“That B-24 was really loaded with explosives and he was going to make a dive and parachute out of the plane but something happened,” he said.

“Everyone knew that after Teddy grew up, he was a womanizer, just like some of the others in the family, but he grew up, like I said, and following the steps of his two brothers who had been assassinated, and entered into public service.

Schlosstein said he also remembers meeting the older Kennedy, the father of the children.

“But it was at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church at Centreville that I saw so much of Teddy on Sundays during Mass when he was an altar boy.

“I never gave thought in those days that he would become one of the greatest senators in the Congress,” he said.

“As for the national health reform package in the Congress, I think President Obama has lost a powerful friend. It will be interesting to watch.

“Teddy Kennedy was the type of person who could bring people from other side of the aisle along with him on some occasions and get powerful legislation passed by the Senate,” he said.

“But my thoughts are of the Teddy Kennedy as a kid and watching him change over the years to become a great American. We will miss him,” he said.