Because someone asked on the 123MB and since I took the time to put my memories together, I thought I'd go ahead and post this. Some are still very precise and distinct (I think anyway), some are a bit muddled due to the impact of the Kennedy Assignation, but probably no more so than they when this happened.
Memory of a local teenager:
I was a sophomore in high school in Arlington, Texas - Fort Worth 10
minutes to the west, Dallas 15 minutes to the east. It was Home Coming
Friday with our short but enthusiastic Parade with floats made out of
chicken wire, tissues and crepe paper to start at 4:00 or maybe 4:30, the game and a
dance scheduled later that evening. We were waiting in the choir room
for our after-lunch choir class to begin. There was a Pep Rally
scheduled for sometime that day but I frankly have no memory of when it
was or was supposed to be. Some of our classmates skipped school and had
been in Fort Worth earlier to see Kennedy live and had just returned or
hadn't arrived back yet. Some played hookey to go to Dallas to watch the
Presidential parade. At 12:35 the bells rang but our always waiting
teacher still hadn't appeared. Some students were missing as well. After a few minutes it was obvious
something was definitely wrong but no one knew what. This was the era of
the cold war and only 13 months after the Cuban Missile crisis.
Speculative murmurs of possible nuclear war could be heard and we were
getting really nervous. No portable transistor radios were allowed in
class. No cell phones, no nothings back in 1963. I think last period had already
been cut for early Parade dismissal. It was already 10 or 15 minutes
into the class period (it seemed a lot longer) and some people were talking about just leaving when finally a classmate who had been in the office
ran in crying and told us Kennedy had been shot. Utter shock and
disbelief. A moment later Miss Ellis came in, about the same
time as the principal Mr. Webb came on the intercom to announce what had
happened. The lights were never turned on. I remember on a clear bright
Autumn day how dark the classrooms, the entire school felt. Hardly
anyone said a word. There were a lot of silent tears or quiet sobbing.
The principal left the radio and intercom on so we could hear what was
happening. Role was quickly taken then the bell rang early for next
period.
Everything was cancelled. School was dismissed even earlier than
originally scheduled but students couldn't leave unless a parent arrived
or they had a car. Bus students had to wait until the buses could get
there. I don't remember the next teacher even coming to the class room,
or maybe she just took role. We either left the classroom or she let us
go before the dismissal bell even rang. Some parents were already
waiting. We rushed home to watch our local reporters (Dan Rather for
one) become instantaneous national correspondents. We were home to watch
the confusion and speculation, both live and immediately aired unedited
8mm or 16mm rushes, the first interviews with witnesses in Dealey Plaza
or on the Grassy Knoll, and then to hear Walter Cronkite and the others
formally announce Kennedy was dead. At some point we learned Officer
Tibbets had been killed and it might be related to the assassination,
then that someone had been captured in a Theater not far from downtown
Dallas. About the time the Homecoming Queen would have been crowned,
President Johnson was taking his Oath of Office on Air Force One. We watched into the night to see the plane land in DC, Jacqueline come down the steps in her blood-spattered suit, the casket being removed and placed in the hearse.
We were driving home from church on Sunday listening to a live
radio broadcast from the basement of the Dallas Jail and heard Oswell
get shot. School was dismissed the day of the Funeral. Whose heart didn't break when John John saluted the caisson? I think most everyone in the nation and perhaps the world, watched it on TV.
I don't recall whether our high school ever had another Homecoming Parade or not.
Fast forward 8 years. My Ex and I were living in a rent house a
block from Rose Hill Cemetery (where Lee Harvey Oswald is buried) and
both worked in the Dallas County Records Building which is catty-cornered
across the intersection from the Texas School Book Depository. Every day
I walked in front of it past tens of gawking but usually quiet tourists
in Dealy Plaza to get to my car parked just behind the Grassy Knoll. I
drove under the Triple Underpass twice each day, on the way home
directly over the X on the street which still marks the spot Kennedy and
Gov. Connolly were shot. It always seemed surreal, and I still think
about it every time I go to downtown Dallas and pass by and over those
same locations these 50 years later. It's all still there. Except for
the Texas School Book Depository, since spruced up and now home to The
Sixth Floor Museum, it all still looks the same. I think somewhere I still have the yellowed copy of the Extra Edition of the FW Star Telegram.
2 comments:
I still remember where I was and what I was doing .....
50 years already - incredible!
Thank you for sharing your personal memories....although a few years before I was born, the emotions of that day, felt so strongly and by so many, still sadden me...
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