....Here is a bulletin from CBS News....
“In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas. The first reports say that President Kennedy has been seriously wounded by this shooting.”--Walter Cronkite, CBS News, 12:40pm CST, November 22, 1963
On the afternoon of November 22, 1994, I was grocery shopping in a small store on Lexington Avenue and East 87th St. I had just come from seeing the film “Interview With the Vampire” and needed to pick up some things for dinner. While I was at the back perusing the greens, I noticed a tall, well-dressed man come in the door. As he began walking towards me, I realized it was John F. Kennedy, Jr. My first thought was how ironic it was that I would encounter him on that particular day, the 31st anniversary of his father's assassination. I ended up in line behind him and at one point we both had to move out of the way as a worker with a handtruck needed to pass through. We slightly brushed against each other and he smiled at me, a smile that was a haunting combination of his mother and father. As we got back in line I noticed his hands, and how they were exactly like his father's. I remember spending the rest of the day wondering where he had come from, where was he going, on that particular day of days?
Many Americans today will pause to observe the anniversary of that tragic event in Dallas. While I had yet to make my entrance, exactly four years and two days later, I grew up knowing that November 22, 1963 was the day that changed the course of history, and it was a day where everyone knew where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. So I thought I would share my mother's recollection of that moment. She was working as an assistant in the finance department of PIE in Oakland, Ca. It was practically the one day her boss was home sick. The building covered an entire block and she sat at one end facing a large room full of desks with typewriters and adding machines. At about 10:40am various telephones began ringing, including her own. Her boss called to tell her that they had interrupted television programming saying the President had been shot. As he gave her a play-by-play report, she watched what seemed like a “wave” of telephones ringing, then the typewriters and adding machines going silent nearly one by one, until you could hear a pin drop. Her boss suggested she get on the phone to have it announced over the intercom. He called her back some time later to tell her the President was dead.
Today is also the anniversary of when the medium of television took a new turn in our lives. The unprecedented 'round-the-clock coverage of events would eventually become a staple in the fabric of our lives, bringing Americans together for a common purpose, beginning with Walter Cronkite's words I quoted above, then later removing his reading glasses as he struggled to remain steady as he announced the grim news.
It would be there again when another Kennedy was gunned down, for the resignation of a President, the murder of a Beatle, the explosion of a space shuttle, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
It's also another day to wonder “what if” - this young, vibrant, handsome, intelligent and articulate President had survived to realize his full potential, and his vision for this country. Where would we be today? One of his most compelling quotes is as relevant today as it was during the height of the cold war when he delivered it:
“For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's futures, and we are all mortal.”Be safe,
Rg
