Monthly Archives: November 2006

Today I pause for a few moments and remember the events that took place on this date in 1963 at 12:30 pm CST. It was at that time forty three years ago when John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
This was an event that is embedded in my mind’s eye as though it were only yesterday. I was in seventh grade Study Hall at the local Junior High School when the announcement was made that the President had been shot and killed. I recall the sense of sadness that an era had ended and knew life would never be the same for my country. This sounds strange, but it is true.
I vividly recall watching and listening to the events of the following days unfold.Most fascinating to me was the orderly transferal of authority to Vice President Lyndon Johnson. This was living history. No classroom lesson could have taught about the Democratic process better than this.

My family was one of many who watched the public funeral on our black and white television. I recall silence as the caisson carried his body to lie in state at the Capitol.It seemed unreal.I recall the pictures of his children watching the procession. A sense of shock and sadness prevailed.

Life has not been the same for many of us after those four days in November, 1963, when time stood still.
Today at 12:30 pm, I will stand still in remembrance of John Fitzgerald Kennedy; of what was and could have have been.
Will you do the same?