Posted on 11/23/2010 7:46:34 PM PST by johnwcassell
NOVEMBER 22, 1963 was a day many Americans still living will never forget....
The President and Vice President were in Dallas...
Most of the Cabinet were on a plane bound for Tokyo...
The country was preparing for Thanks giving which I was looking forward to spending with Helen Fairbanks, my teenage love, in Baltimore.
Whether you liked JFK or not, you found yourself listening to Peter, Paul and Mary, the Sound of Music and a song about "chickenfat" supporting Kennedy's fitness program.
You were YOUNG. Even going to Atlantic City High you could wake up JOYFUL.
It was just something in the air.
Some people, including noted author Jack Engelhard, said we lost our innocence beginning in the early afternoon when the first word from Dallas was flashed around the country.
I, of course disagree. Kennedy had a sordid private life and no experience governing. Rep. Howard Smith could halt the New Frontier by adjourning his powerful committee. Joseph Kennedy's mad ambition to turn his criminal millions into presidential power for some twenty years gave those of us who preferred the gentility and quiet, simple dignity of the Eisenhower years pause as well.
But those bullets that blasted into the head of the President on that fateful day did change the world for all of us.
The aura of youthfulness began to dry up. Helen and I had a great Thanksgiving....and we went to a Kennedy Era Hootenany... but things were about to change.
Nowhere can you find a more down and dirty, truly accurate description of the change than in Jack Engelhard's DAYS OF THE BITTER END.
The cities began to burn. There were tanks and National Guardsmen in the streets. Vietnam was escalated to a vicious slaughter... The Armed Forces were disintegrating with mutinies and fraggings. A whole division sat on the DMZ with the Army afraid to move them. Their officers refused to even try to take them out and the Pentagon felt it was too dangerous to bring them home.
As an Air Force officer I faced sit-ins... slow downs...
shutdowns...
There was a pall upon the land as that gross creature in the White House twisted arms ramming through Great Society opium to hook the economy on government aid.
Yes, I missed Kennedy. His successor had the nation in flames...mobs in Washington chanted "burn...baby burn
...burn that White House down."
It was nearly a half century ago...
Yet those of us there will always remember... Why wasn't this Black Day in our history observed with a pause... a minute of silence?
A lot died with the President that day.
Whether you liked him or not.
John W. Cassell
PS-I don't even know where Helen is now.
I was in my 6th grade class here in CA.
I was 14 years away from being born.
I had just come out of Geology class at the University of Tennessee, walking up to the snack bar on the hill, where a TV was on.
I then headed back to the frat house to watch the drama.
I was managing an unknown group of unknown notalents called the Beatles.
I remember....I was in my Homeroom English class...my teacher, a black, disabled, woman (in 1964!) stood at the front of the class as it was announced over the intercom that the President had been assassinated. Maybe some of us no longer think about it because....1) Kennedy’s image was a created one, that has since been debunked and 2) we are tired of the Kennedy’s.....and for the first time in 64 years there is to be NO KENNEDY in Congress! Farewell to the Kennedy’s....thank heaven.
I noticed that it passed this year with nary a mention, at least not that I say.
I was in study hall in the old high school, my junior year.
No, really, I was still hiding in Argentina at that time.
No basketball game or pep rally happened. They finally let us go home early after dither about what to do. Many people crying. All of us just in shock for four days. And glued to the TV.
Went to church on Sunday and missed the on air assassination of Oswald.
I still remember exactly where I was when the news was broadcast over the company intercom.
Also if Romney is still an abortionist, Obama is the killer in chief of every unborn fetus not wanted by the mother.
Interesting ... I was between Chemistry class and English class, freshman year at ETSU.
20 plus years from being born and not even an afterthought to my Dad and Mom.
My dad was assigned to Altus AFB (AFOSI) and that night he came home with a .38. He had done that during the Cuban Middile Crisis too. Never before, never after.
In the garage waxing my Ranchero listening to the radio when they broke in with news of the assassination, I was stunned and saddened though I was a Republican.
i was watching tv in my room. didn’t care much for his politics but felt awful. given more time i think he would have been a great president.
I was in my 7th grade class
Hahahahaaaa .. that was YOU ??!?!?
/laughs
“Interesting ... I was between Chemistry class and English class, freshman year at ETSU.”
Yes, and also my freshman year.
Now where are my glasses???
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.