What Was I Doing?

On the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, do you remember what you were doing? Even though it has been fifty years, I still remember.  I worked at Motor Vehicle in the license plate division.  I sat on a high stool behind a cutout window. There were people waiting to be served. Someone came up from behind me and said, "Did you hear the President has been shot."  I thought she was telling me a joke and waited for the punch line.

  A few seconds later, the announcement came over the public address system reaffirming what I had heard. A silence came over the whole building and all we could hear was an announcer broadcasting what had happened in Texas. Many persons were crying. The office was closed and everyone was sent home.

Driving to pick up my son who was nine months old, I kept the car radio on. I could not believe that something like this could happen in the United States.  Foreign countries were more apt to have assassinations, but not the United States.  When I got home I turned on the television and for the next two days I sat and watched the horrible images.

The Denver Post had a picture of the President and his wife smiling and happy right before he was shot. Everyone seemed to be in a state of shock and no one could believe what had happened even though we could see the images being played and replayed on the television screen. It seemed as if the whole world joined us in mourning our President.  

When I saw Jacqueline Kennedy, with a veil covering her face,  walking between her brother-in-laws, Robert and Ted Kennedy, I felt a deep sadness. Her handsome husband had been killed and she was left alone with two small children. One moment would change history! 

And now, fifty years have passed, and that fateful day is once again being shown over and over again. Generations of people who were not even born will see what we saw when it actually happened. It still brings a sadness to my heart even though the majority of the persons involved in the past are now deceased. A tragedy that will never be forgotten!

Oil done by my brother in 1964.

"Our most basic common link

is that we all inhabit this planet.

We all breathe the same air.

We all cherish our children's 

future and we are all mortal."

John F. Kennedy