Wow, just dawned on me that tomorrow makes 62 years. I was not alive yet, but my dad was in the Army at the time and had some interesting tales from that day.
I was the photog for a reporter of a small market tv station as we did a reprise of JFK's TX tour for the 30th Anniversary. Interviewed a retired judge at the Galveston Yacht Club, former PT Boat Cpt. Kennedy went to the city courthouse, met with him. Great story
I was in 6th grade. After watching TV for two days I became restless and asked mom if I could go out and shoot baskets. Surprisingly she said no. This is history in the making, she said. Not five minutes later Ruby shot Oswald and I saw it. When history is playing out, you can’t shoot baskets.
After that I apparently went to my room where I wrote a letter that was never mailed. Discovered years later behind a headboard, I wrote about how the country felt out of control. As if no grownups were in charge. I know now adults wondered if they were seeing a coup.
Yeah, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". That message was lost on that entitled Trump who uses America as a piggybank and just craps all over it now!
Can you imagine how sickened the Kennedys would be by RFK. Zero qualifications. I guess we will see if he can kill as many Americans as The Grifter did during Covid
I look forward to these posts from you every November, Michael. What a dark, dark day for this country. It's easy to say, "What if?", but in Jack's case, I wonder how much differently the 60s would have played out if he'd been president for the entirety of them.
As I remember, JFK refused to be further involved in Viet Nam. Johnson escalated. If Kennedy had remained President, then Bobby (Sr.!), who was anti- corruption and pro civil rights, would still have been Atty Gen. History was changed that day, and we are much the worse for it.
In my home we couldn’t listen to music for several weeks. Mom said it would be disrespectful. The night of the killing our Catholic parish was full of mourners. With nothing scheduled, a priest led us in the rosary.
I’m sure every home had to come to grips with the grief in their own way. It was tragic and shocking, something we, as a country, had not experienced. Too bad that was the beginning of our loss of innocence.
Just reread Manchester’s book on the trip and that weekend. Was in second grade in Dallas at time and remember teachers coming out at recess to herd us back into the school and school closing up for the day.
Freshman in College walking to class when an avalanche of crying/sobbing students starting running back to dorms.What’s wrong. “they killed him “. Went back to dorm,watched Walter Cronkite announce the devastating news. Great sadness&anguish engulfed the nation(classes dismissed)😢
This year, coincidentally, Nov 22 is also on a Friday. I remember that John John’s birthday was Nov 25, just a few days later. That famous salute. The grief of the nation, and the hollow Thanksgiving of 1963. The depth of that loss is unfathomable.
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I had that it was Fort Worth’s Texas Hotel.