The Day Kennedy Died…

Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the assassination of our 35th president – John F. Kennedy.

Baby Boomers vividly remember the Kennedy Assassination – November 22, 1963 – a Friday. It was the most defining moment of our time. My family and I had just moved to Laurel, Maryland and I was in the Second Grade. At the impressionable age of 7, I had little concept of government and what government did. My first memories of a presidency were John F. Kennedy, his inauguration, and The White House in 1961.

At the time, I didn’t even understand my grandfather had been a White House police lieutenant under several administrations since the 1920s. He was the most solid human being I have ever known. He retired from a heart attack in the mid-1940s right after Harry Truman was sworn in as president.

November 22, 1963, a Friday, was like any other autumn day in the Mid-Atlantic – chilly, the rustle of leaves, and the utter boredom of schoolwork. I was a terrible student. To me, education was pointless and tiresome. I just didn’t understand the importance of it. Early that Friday afternoon, we were let out of school ahead of schedule, which was thrilling for a kid like me.

Time to go home!!!

Busses were lined up in front of the building. I had no idea why. The surreal part of the experience was everyone was crying. I did not understand the tears. On the bus going home, I was told President Kennedy had been shot to death in Dallas. I arrived home to find my mother in tears.

In my naive mind I thought, “how can the president be dead?” JFK, our president, was a young and vibrant leader with the nation’s hopes and dreams in his hands. He was a man with vision who gave us hope and genuine leadership. I’ve often wondered how different our world would have been had he and brother Bobby survived.

At such a young age, I was completely clueless. That weekend, our Philco TV was on around the clock – with investigators and the media attempting to dissect the assassination of an American president. The funeral procession down Pennsylvania Avenue was profound. I didn’t understand just how significant it was at the time. Our world was about to change.

There was our world prior to the Kennedy assassination and the world that would follow. The two were as different as night and day. The 1960s, as much as we romanticize them, was not the decade of sweet memories. What we had going for us as children was our innocence with not a care in the world. We could escape to our bedrooms and playgrounds and the world of imagination.

The social unrest of the 1960s was something we saw on the evening news – Vietnam, the riots, rising crime. Seems the early 1960s was peaceful and we were on the rise as a nation prior to the Kennedy assassination. Kennedy had his challenges – the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and personal issues in his own life. Standing up to the USSR and getting the nukes out of Cuba was a big win for Kennedy. His “dream” speech proposing we send man to the Moon and return him safely to the Earth was a page turner. It inspired. It energized NASA. We were going to the Moon.