Forty Five Years Ago

[magenta]

I was sitting in my 8th grade English classroom. We were discussing Shakespeare, "As You Like It" if my memory serves. A boy had gotten permission to listen to a speech the president was going to make, part of an assignment for civics class. He had a transistor radio with a ear mike.

He stands up. He says, "The president has been shot, in Dallas." A girl shrieks. Another starts crying. The teacher asks us to sit down, and goes into the hall. She talks with another teacher and comes back in. ""Sit at your desks and read the assignment. There will be an announcement soon".

The bell rings, and I go to my last class, home economics. We are supposed to make cookies called "ting-a-lings" I don't regard them as real cookies, because they aren't baked. I know how to bake cookies. The teacher melts a bag of chocolate chips, and adds chow mein noodles and peanuts. As the students are putting them on waxed paper to cool, the vice-principal comes on the speaker.

"The president is dead. May be have a minute of silence." everyone is quiet, except for one girl sobbing. None of us know him personally, of course, but this is Silver Spring, just outside Washington, just outside what will become the Beltway. "School is dismissed, the buses will be here as soon as possible." We've all seen the handsome young president, some in person at events. He has a daughter. His wife is beautiful.

No one wants to eat the cookies, except me. I can't stand to see chocolate wasted, and eat several. Then I walk home. I can't believe it. No one shoots presidents. How could this happen? Why did this happen?

I learned life was unpredictable that day. And that even Camelot would end.

Comments

[ihateswine.livejournal.com]

This is one reason that I don't like anti-Castro people.

I have only heard about that day from people in your generation; I guess it must be like 9/11 - you'll always remember that day

[magentamn.livejournal.com]

Yeas, five days stand out in my life like this:

JFK shot
MLK shot
RFK shot
space shuttle blows up
Twin Towers attacked.

The first is always the worst.

[ihateswine.livejournal.com]

for me and my MTV generation cohorts, the list is:

OK City
Columbine
Bush takes Florida
9/11
Hurricane Katrina

the last was the worst IMO

[naomikritzer]

My list:

Challenger explosion
9/11
Wellstone's plane crash

The that hurts the most to remember, actually, is Wellstone.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I was in third grade, but reactions were similar.

What I find excessively annoying is montages of "the 60s" that include riots, rock and roll, tie-died love-ins and war footage, but don't include pictures of the assassinations of JFK, MLK or RFK. Many things made up the era, and they were defining moments.

I'm glad you didn't waste the chocolate.

[welshbard.livejournal.com]

I was just 4 years old and not yet in kindergarten. I don't remember JFK's assassination. I remember his funeral. I remember the horse with empty boots and I remember John Jr., who was almost exactly 1 year younger than I was, saluting the horse-drawn hearse-caisson.