THAT FRIDAY IN NOVEMBER

 

This was back in 1963. I was only a couple months away from becoming a teenager. My mother & I were renting a small apartment down in West Palm Beach so I could attend the "special school" for the semester. On weekends we came home which was an hour up the coast.

Every other Friday my father had to work late. On those days I was allowed to leave school 15 minutes early. This allowed Mom & I to catch the city bus to the Greyhound station and from there to our hometown.

That particular Friday afternoon I was putting away my paraphernalia from art class preparing to leave. The teacher had stepped from the room. An older boy from another class came rushing in. He loudly declared President Kennedy had been shot! They had just heard it over the radio.

No one believed him! We figured if this was actually true sirens would be going off and our school would be closed immediately. Or perhaps if the president had been shot, it was only a minor flesh wound, nothing serious. The kid was exaggerating for dramatic effect.

I left before the teacher returned to class and met my mother at the bus stop. I told her the news even though I didn't believe it myself. I could tell she thought I was making up a story since I'd punked her in the past.

The city bus had only a handful of passengers and all were silent. But on the Greyhound we listened to people seated around us stating what a tragedy it was and our President was now in God's hands. However we believed him to be only injured.

Arriving back at our hometown my father picked us up at the station. Naturally we inquired about the president. Both of us went into shock upon learning Kennedy was dead, assassinated! This just didn't happen in our country and it was difficult to process.

After dropping us at home my father returned to work. I switched on the TV to learn more. I was still in disbelief despite everything I was seeing and hearing on the screen. This had to be a dream, a nightmare!

Everything took awhile to sink in.

Thankfully the assassin (or at least a known one) Lee Harvey Oswald was captured and arrested shortly afterward.

I'll never forget walking on the beach behind my neighbor's house and hearing her hollering out: "There's a gun! He's going to get shot! He's going to get shot!" followed by screaming.

I climbed over the seawall and ran straight to her house. I found my neighbor Helen and her sister Jean watching TV. I inquired as to all the commotion.

Helen had spotted Jack Ruby's gun on live television right before he shot and killed Oswald! This was more craziness followed by confusion.

Our world seemed to change quickly and dramatically after that. A strange and different energy filled the air. Nothing was ever the same. The entire planet seemed thrown into chaos. Our life and the lives so many we knew went awry. Nearly everyone's life seemed to be altered permanently in a negative way after that.