Saturday, November 22, 2008

A dark anniversary

BTW, I didn't want to forget that today is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Like many Americans, I can remember exactly where I was and what I was doing when I heard it announced. I was a HS Sophomore at the time (Brooklyn Technical High School, total dork Class of '66), sitting in the Industrial Processes class taught by one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Starfield. The class was interrupted by a message that came over the loudspeaker above Mr. Starfield's head, to the effect that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas just a little earlier that day. In fact, we treated the announcement as a joke, and there was some nervous, uncomprehending laughter, which brought a furious rebuke from Mr. Starfield. Of course this made us realize the message was serious, and our mood turned immediately somber. It was still virtually impossible to believe, but our incomprehension was no longer of the amusing variety, to say the least. That this was only the first of several fatal blows to our youthful 1960s-era idealism I could not have imagined.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), R.I.P.

1 Comments:

Blogger La vita Alessandria said...

I was in the sixth grade and word filtered into our classroom just before our lunch break. One of my female classmates burst into tears; one of the boys laughed. I walked home for lunch and my mother was glued to the radio. I remember having a sense of denial until my mother told me it was true. A little while later, they announced his death. For the next few days we were all glued to the television watching the funeral, etc. Rachel

November 23, 2008 at 1:17 PM  

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