Saturday, November 22, 2008

The annual ripple from this historic day again floods the consciousness.


Another year already! Last year the anniversary of JFK's assassination occurred on Thanksgiving Day.

This is what I wrote, in part, one year ago today in a blog entitled Across Space and Time. It is of memories of a day interrupted one morning at Fresno State University, memories stirred on this day every year for the past 45 years:
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It'll start with a memory of standing in a hallway outside my girlfriend's 11 o'clock class. Of a stranger who approached us with a fantastic question we did not know the answer to. And of leaving my girlfriend there and going off to lunch in the university cafeteria. Of the announcement in the middle of that lunch that resulted in the sudden sounds of dropping forks and knives on plates and tables amid gasps and sobs echoing throughout the dining hall as these words came over the speakers:

"President John F. Kennedy died at approximately 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time today here in Dallas. He died of a gunshot wound in the brain."


And I'll remember some of the faces and places that ensued in the days that followed. Most of those people not seen in almost half a century, nor thought of in a year.
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And now another year has passed and it's 45 years since that tragic event unfolded. And I will repeat the memory ritual I've repeated this day of every year for the past 45 years. And I'll ponder how different (or not) history might have been.

And as editor Sam reminds me this day, it might have been extremely different, as I could learn if I just read this book by James W. Douglass. Today might be a good day to start.

2 comments:

D.K. Raed said...

Seems Sam in nudging us all to read that book. If I remember correctly, dear Border Explorer recommended it some time ago.

45-years! It doesn't hardly seem possible to retain such vivid memories over that span of time. But it is. I posted a few myself today.

Billie Greenwood said...

That book cut the last flimsy thread of illusion I might have had about our "great nation." Illusions are nice while they last. Life without an illusion is OK too. Scary tho.