People, Aug. 20, 1979

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How I Spent My Summer Vacation, by Edward Moore Kennedy, Massachusetts' Senator: When the Congress finally adjourned, I carried on a family tradition. Gathering up 15 children, including my Kara, Teddy Jr. and Patrick, as well as Ethel's Christopher, Max, Douglas and Rory, Eunice's Mark and Anthony, and some of their friends, I set out in a camper for a fun-filled tour across my home state. We rode the roller coaster, the Dodgem cars and the wave swinger ride at the Riverside amusement park in Agawam. We camped out in sleeping bags. We canoed on Pontoosuc Lake, where Rory and I got doused good when our canoe overturned. We never had to send a single postcard because every place we went, we were trailed by reporters and television crews. All wanted to know when I would declare for the presidency. I told them, "I expect President Carter to be renominated, and I intend to support him." I do not think they believed me.

All Popes by doctrine are blessed with papal infallibility, but John Paul II appears to be the first who also possesses papal infantability. Certainly no predecessor within memory ever demonstrated the talent for baby kissing that the new Pontiff has displayed. During Vatican audiences and on his travels to Mexico and his native Poland, the sequence has been the same: John Paul reaches into the throng, expertly hefts a baby, and with arms burly from swimming and skiing, hoists the child overhead before bestowing a papal buss. Vatican aides are discomfited by the innovation, which slows processions and complicates protocol, but crowds love it, and the babies' mothers weep copiously. Visiting the U.S. this fall, John Paul should have plenty of opportunity to demonstrate his specialty in a country where baby kissing is an old political custom.