(May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)Forty-eight years ago today. I'm remembering being at Good Shepherd Lutheran Day School in Highland Park and Mrs. Vordale calling us all into the Fireside Room to tell us the president had been shot and Pastor Lunde was going to help us pray for him, for his family and for our country. And I knew my parents were playing golf and I wondered who was going to tell them. (It turned out it was a groundskeeper on the 11th hole at Eaton Canyon.) The things we remember.
2 comments:
I was at La Colina Junior High School. We were told to go to our homeroom, which for me was Room 604 - Band, with about 75 kids. The principal made an announcement over the PA. Unaccountably, one kid was playing trombone alone in a practice room through the whole thing.
I also remember attending a huge RFK rally at the Santa Barbara Court House Sunken Gardens just four days before he was killed. My wife, whom I did not know at the time, was there as well, working for his campaign.
I was in 1st grade in Long Beach, CA. My teacher, Mrs. Walker, had pre-scheduled her son, a Marine Corp Officer, to come in and show us his uniform and say 'hi' to us 6 year olds that day.
After the Pledge of Alligiance, we sang, 'America the Beautiful', .... then the teacher took an intercom call. She walked over to her son, & whispered something in his ear. He just stood there in front of us, and he couldn't speak... . . I remember thinking, 'why has he come to see us, if he won't talk to us...?".
Mrs. Walker, held back any drop of tears, told us "The President has been shot." Your parents are waiting to pick you up. All I can remember is the bright blue uniform, red trim, & gold buttons...
When I got home, the weight of the event was heavy. No one at my house panicked, but my Dad, a Los Angeles, FBI agent, was on the next plane to Dallas. [although, we were shielded from all of it at the time.]
Over the years, I did overhear some of the FBI stuff from my Dad, always careful with classified info, we still got to hear stuff that average public never got to hear.
Decades later, I was honored, I guess the word is... Maria Shiver came into the frame shop that I worked in in Santa Monica , [before she was with Arnold]... she had 3 or 4 original black & white snap shots that she wanted framed.. they were of President Kennedy , Caroline, John, & Maria, eating hot dogs on a boating outing. I was really surpirsed that she trusted me with the photos... but she did. [What struck me, is the time frame, because we had those same 60's B&W photos of family outings that she had.] She left me with the photos, and then came back 10 days later to pick them up. She struck me as very normal, she didn't ask for a 'rush job', and didn't think it was a big deal.
Post a Comment