WOW is it really the anniversary, Ricky? Hard to believe, indeed. That is so very cool that you got an autographed photo. Do you still have it?

I was 12 years old, going to Catholic grammer school just down the hill from our house. My dad was a Chruch Usher and Knight. We were in charge of opening up the back gate at the top of the hill at the end of our drive on Sundays, Holy Days and any school day that let out early so parents could avoid traffic and go in the back way. Of course on this day My Dad was at work and I got called to the principal's office and asked if I could run home and get the key and open the gate since school would be let out early after a big announcement. When I asked why the principal, a tiny nun just over 4 feet tall, Sister Agnes (she was shorter than me!) sat me down in her chair and told me about President Kennedy being shot, she started to cry and so did I. I cried all the way home as i was afraid the world was going to end. When I got home, my Dad was already in the drive with the gate key. We sat very solemnly all afternoon watching news, that evening we went back to the church for a prayer vigil. A day I will never forget as it was the first time I saw my father cry openly.

Sadly, the photo disappeared years ago. But the memory of that day is frozen in my mind. The other image that's stuck with it happened two days later when I watched Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Ozwald on live television. What very weird times we lived in back then.

I was in Kindergarten in Harrisburg PA and remember the American Flag being lowered to half mast. It was the first time I had seen Old Glory look so sad.

I remember it vividly too. I was in Catholic grade school at the time. I had never seen nuns cry before that day.

The date is forever with me too.

Third grade parochial school, nuns in shock, TV's turned on in school. Kennedy's assassination and the earlier Cuban missile fear, hiding under our desks = early years of growing up in southeast Florida.

The Irishman (aka dh if we were married) has an original Palm Beach Post article about JFK visiting S. Florida. Danny is in the picture as a tot. His mother sent it to the White House and President Kennedy posted an entirely unreadable response along with his signature.

I don't remember the events of the assasignation of JFK, but on election night, Danny mentioned that JFK brought out the Irish vote like Obama brought out the African American Vote.

Obama's intelligence and fire interested me from the first time I heard him on an NPR interview way before he was a candidate for presidency.

Godspeed to him.

If anyone takes offense at my post, please go pick some weeds instead of picking on me. My heart is in the right place.

We went to Dallas/Ft. Worth on vacation this summer to see Texas Stadium before the Cowboys move from it next year. We also went to Dealey Plaza, where Kennedy was shot and took the tour of the book depository. I was only 3 went it happened, but this tour will really make you feel like you were there. Very interesting and eerie. When you look out the windows at the depository, there are x's in the street where the two shots hit him. They have the streetlight timed so people can stand there and look up at the window and see the trajectory of the bullets for themselves. It's very eerie to stand on the grassy knoll and realize what had happened there.
I normally hate museum type stuff. My DH dragged me to this and I'm glad I went. On one floor, they have all the videos set up to watch from all the home movies people took. Really interesting and very well presented museum.

Julie