Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
I was sitting in class...it was announced that the president was shot and killed...my teacher sat down and cried.
50 Years...
- Thread starter Glenn Clabo
- Start date
Brian Moore
Moderator
Yep. I had arrived in this country a month earlier. I walked home from school at lunchtime on Nov 22 and the news was on when I got home. I intended to tell everyone when I got back to school but to my surprise they all knew.
I heard this on the radio last night while driving home. Listening to the gasps from the audience I felt like I was there. Its powerful.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivec...ostons-symphony-hall-after-jfks-assassination
I heard this on the radio last night while driving home. Listening to the gasps from the audience I felt like I was there. Its powerful.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivec...ostons-symphony-hall-after-jfks-assassination
Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the link Brian...it really does represent how it took the air out of the country.
Brian Moore
Moderator
That's a good way of putting it, Glenn.
Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Well, I was 4 years old, and vaguely remember my mother doing the ironing while I played on the floor. She must have been listening to the radio, as she she suddenly stopped and said, "My God". Whether that happened for sure, I can't say, but it seems to be my memory of the moment. She's not with us anymore, so I can't ask her to corroborate.
I know this will be an emotional day for many people, but I do worry (not very often, it must be said!) about people's unwillingness to have a balanced opinion of the man. He was far from perfect, and further still from saintliness, but he did make some fine speeches (even the, "I am a donut" speech), and stood firm against the worst excesses of communism, for which he would have got my vote.
I know this will be an emotional day for many people, but I do worry (not very often, it must be said!) about people's unwillingness to have a balanced opinion of the man. He was far from perfect, and further still from saintliness, but he did make some fine speeches (even the, "I am a donut" speech), and stood firm against the worst excesses of communism, for which he would have got my vote.
Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
I hear you Rob...but Trust me...there are few "balanced" opinions here in the states these days. My dad has nothing good to say about JFK and at 92 he is beyond set in his ways...
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Rob MacKillop
Edinburgh Correspondent
Cheers, Glenn. Lack of balance is not just an American thing - it is common world wide.
Pete Askew
Admin
I too have a memory of the event but, like Rob, I can no longer tell if it is real or not. THere has been so much since that I can no longer be certain. And certainly the man, his qualities, deeds and the way he met his end has been subject to the filter of time. Either way it is a fine image to mark the day Glenn.
Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
Thanks Pete...it's a statue on the grounds of our State House and I pasted in one of the banners with quotes from him that are all along our streets downtown. Because of 911...many government grounds have been closed off to the public if they aren't easily controlled. I just happened to have a 135mm with me so I got something. I have walked by on this street 100's of times...and never noticed until that morning. It really says something about our times.
Pete Askew
Admin
It does and this issue of memory of momentous events is also interesting. Have you ever read 'Empire of the Sun' by JG Ballard? If not then I urge you to. It is a fictionalised account of his internment in a civilian PoW camp in China during WWII. There are many events in the book which are real but would not have been experienced by him but, rather than research it fully, he has told it from the corrupted memory point of view of the child he was then. Fascinating. A similar thing happens in 'A Postillion Struck by Lighting' and expanded on In "The Great Meadow - An Evocation' by Dirk Bogarde.
Glenn Clabo
Well-Known Member
I was searching for something...so...Thanks for the recommendation Pete. I just downloaded it to my Kindle for next weeks holiday in the mountains of Vermont. Looking forward to sitting in the Lodge by the fire sipping a single malt...or two....
Brian Moore
Moderator
I was going to respond to Rob's post about JFK yesterday but I ran out of time. What I was going to say was that I think JFK's presidency is greater in memory than it was in life. He was certainly popular (in some places) and Jackie and the kids contributed much to the Camelot image. He made some blunders though (e.g., Bay of Pigs fiasco), he was quite the rake (which was concealed from the public at large by the press) and even his stand against Kruschev in the Cuban Missile Crisis was propped up and rendered "firm" in the public eye through behind-the-scenes compromises (e.g., removal of US missiles from Turkey). But I believe at the time he was killed he was just beginning to establish his presidency through the positive energy he was applying to problems in this country. In short,...I think he may well have become a great president, but I'm not sure an analysis of what he accomplished in his short presidency would support the notion that he was one. Just one opinion. 
