Good Morning Gentle Readers,
There are a very few defining cultural moments that every generation shares. 9/11. December 7, 1941. And, as a rule they almost always include the questions: Where were you?........What were you doing?..... For the first wave of us Baby Boomers, whose coming of age included the Viet Nam war and summertime cities in flame, a watershed event was the assassination of JFK. And most everyone of us can tell you where we were and what we were doing when the news came.
TWC had math class immediately after lunch. Mrs Lush's English class. Mrs Lush, who pointed out on the first day of seventh grade that her husband was a trumpet player, not a drunk. The point was completely lost on me because, unbeknownst to Mrs Lush, the term had become archaic when she wasn't looking.
We knew something was very wrong as we filed into the classroom. Her eyes were red and swollen and she got right to it. The president has been killed in Dallas. I was pretty sure she wasn't a Kennedy supporter, being a fundie and all, but the idea that someone had killed the president threw her around. As it did us all. All life was pre-empted for the next 72 hours.
As a sidebar: 11-22-63 is a wonderful book, give it a read.
Photo Credit: Presidential Limousine photo is public domain
As Ever,
Photo Credit (unless otherwise noted): ©TWC, all rights reserved
