Do you remember?

Nov. 22, 1963
Until mid-morning, it was a good day — playing with my baby, Dan, in my little house, the rent was paid, the cupboards were full and my tall husband was off to work.
Then the phone rang. It was grandmother. Her daily call usually came mid-afternoon. She was early.
I'll never forget her message: "Put the television on. President Kennedy has been shot"
Switching on the old black and white, the pain in Walter Cronkite's voice was overwhelming.  The hardened newsman couldn't hide his feelings. It was, indeed, the United States' worst hour.

Nov. 22, 2007
In my little cottage on a little lake, life is good. The mortgage payment has been made, the cupboards are full and, at the crack of dawn, Dan called to tell me he was about ready to leave for work.
My 44-year-old son's call was not urgent.
Dan wanted to tell me to have a good day and, since it's the first real day of winter, to drive carefully. Don't hit the brakes too hard and make sure your gloves are on your hands and your hat is on your head, he said.
I did as I was told Moving along Aurora Road at 40 km/h, I remembered today marked the day John F. Kennedy died. It's almost noon. Other than me, nobody in the newsroom is sad. My colleagues are talking about England being eliminated from the 2008 European Cup.   

Do you remember? Let me know.

Comments

[Richard Johnson]

While I don't remember President Kennedy's assassination given that I was only 51 days old, I do remember man landing on the moon on July 20, 1969 !

My memory related to the Kennedy assassination is a gripping four hour presentation I saw at Huron College / The University of Western Ontario as a student in 1984.

A History professor by the name of Dr. Owens spent over 20 years compiling research on the Kennedy assassination and pouring over the Warren Commission's conclusions. He walked a spell bound audience of hundreds of young students through all of the film footage and photos and explained in detail the most well established theories. To this day I recall many of the details vividly; the hilly knoll, the man or men smoking and pacing behind the fence, the mysterious police motor bike that led the motorcade and no one knows who the driver was or why he sped off in the wrong direction after the shooting, the man with the umbrella, the missing film and photo footage, the sound of three shots, the mysterious and apparently impossible trajectory of the single bullet that hit the Governor as well as allegedly Kennedy, the links to organised crime and the communists. The list of details go on and on. I seems to me that anyone that was old enough to understand the significance of the moment knows when and where they were upon first hearing the shocking news. I expect that 9/11 is the closest I can come to a similar experience.

One has to wonder how history would have changed if the Kennedy's were not killed and what really happened on that fateful day 44 years ago.

[Jack Hauseman]

JOAN - I was in Grade 8 in gym class when we were informed that President Kennedy had been shot - by the time we got back to our classroom he was dead - I went to a Catholic School and Kennedy was the first Catholic President - my mother watched the entire event for 4 days on Television - it was a very sad and confusing time for all of us - I don't suppose we'll ever find out what really happened and whether there was a conspiracy - the end of Camelot - a few months later the Beatles arrived on the scene in North America, and the rest they say is history! JACK HAUSEMAN