On this day in 1963, my Southdown Elementary School prinicipal, Mr. James J. Sherman, tapped on the door to our fifth grade classroom. Mr. Grad stepped out while we continued to work. When he stepped back in he was crying as he told us that President Kennedy had been shot, but we could not be sure if he was injured or if he had been assassinated. I could not believe it at first, as I did not believe at first that Dr. King and then brother Bobby were assassinated... But on that damp Nov 22, which is as vivid as this present day is in my most readily summoned memory, I remember that the sky was low and grey, the busses were oddly hushed and that my mother was crying when she opened the door for me to come in the house. With no telelvison in our family home, I soaked up the images and stories in LIFE and LOOK and the NY Times...and my memories of those images literally bleed into each other...Mrs. Kennedys bloody pink suit, Oswalds recoiling against his own murder, then that horse and John-Johns salute...and Caroline then...Such a little girl...And Caroline now...Amabassador to Japan...a healing toss across the bow of Naval Officer John F. Kennedys PT 109...a nod that life and democracy and go on through all these terrible moments... and that we have much yet to do... With love to our HHS Class of 71 ...
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 04:03:06 +0000