Reflections of November 22, 1963, on its 60th anniversary.
Those were the words of Walter Cronkite in a special CBS broadcast that afternoon. We all know the history of this whether we were alive or from school.
I was sitting in my 4th grade class, on a typical afternoon in November 1963. My teacher Miss Treskowski (maybe misspelled) came in right after lunch and announced the event in Dallas. She turned on the classroom radio and we heard the goings on and reports of the shooting and ultimately the death of JFK.
She told us we could put our heads down on our desks and pray if we wished for our president. Eventually we were dismissed early and went home to watch the happenings on our black and white TV. I sat in front of the TV that afternoon with my grandfather Mike and saw it all. The reports of Lee Harvey Oswald being arrested in the theatre and that a policeman was also shot, presumably by Oswald.
I saw the photo of LBJ being sworn in with Mrs. Kennedy standing next in him, still covered in Jack’s blood, the arrival in Washington that night, and later the events at the Capitol, and Sunday morning I saw the killing of Oswald by Jack Ruby live.
We watched all weekend which concluded with the funeral on Monday, the funeral caisson and the horses with the riders’ boots hung backwards, “John John” saluting the casket, the whole works.
It was the most significant historical event in my life to that point and still today.
We have found few answers to this 60-year-old “cold case”. There are thousands of pages of documents being withheld from the public most likely revealing the crime was an “inside job”. I have read most of the early books on the assassination, the Warren Commission Report, written term papers about it, saw the JFK movie, and been to Dealy Plaza twice. It’s a lot smaller area in person, by the way.
America lost its innocence that day.
“Where once it never rained till after sundown, By eight a.m. the morning fog had flown… Don’t let it be forgot That once there was a spot For one brief shining moment that was known As Camelot.”
