On this day in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
I was in the 5th grade, in Ms. LaCour's class in elementary school. School let out early that day.
No, I didn't understand what was happening, but I remember being a bit perplexed. All the adults were crying, and lots of the parents of my friends had been recalled to alert status at the local Air Force base.
2 comments:
I was in 2nd grade, at home with a cold. My 5th grade brother was sent home. My dad, USMC radio man, was in Spain helping set up that country's comm system. He was sent stateside within the week. Of course I was too young to remember all those details but I do remember being sick and lying on the couch while my mom did the ironing and wondering why there were urgent voices in non stop coverage of something to do with the President.
Side note: JFK had visited our school on base that very autumn. Only the 5th and 6th graders got to shake his hand or talk to him but I did see him.
I consider that I had a fortunate childhood. Kennedy was killed 15 months before I was born; I was 20 & at work when the Challenger exploded. I do vividly remember the NVA tank bursting through the gate in Saigon, but that was at a remove: my favorite uncle was safely back home, & that wasn't our territory,
My stepson was 8 on 9/11/01, & it changed his thinking irrevocably. He says that even then he decided he wanted a reckoning with the kind of people who would do such a thing, & that it's a big reason he joined the military (he's now on his 2nd hitch in the USMC, & about to make sergeant).,
It is given to some to live through, as the Chinese would say, "interesting times". I believe that God gives each of us what we need to cope with such trials; it is up to us to put His gifts to use.
--Tennessee Budd
Post a Comment