Just realised that this is the day John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. November always strikes me as the month for remembrance - whether of saints, souls or war dead - so I'll remember me on that day. Final year at secondary school, stayed late for orchestra practice (it was a Friday), visited grandmother after dinner - and she had a telly. We didn't. The screen was black, with the globe turning. I think there was some quiet music - just to tell you the TV wasn't burst? then the news - and later, the famous film by an onlooker. Edited, to cut out the fact that the fatal shot came from in front of the presidential limo.
I saw live on TV the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald - Sunday afternoon, I think - but it was the papers on the Monday morning that I remember most: the photos of Jackie Kennedy in the blood-stained suit (couldn't see the red blood or the pinkness of the suit,as papers were monochrome, like the TV), holding LBJ's hand as he took the oath. I remember it made me feel sick, and I skived off school until mid-morning, when I could bear my own company no longer and went in to have someone to talk to.
Was it being young that made me so affected by this? Nothing has had the same effect since - car-crash curiosity, yes, but not that terrible feeling of involvement. Maybe the world was still relatively "young in deed", as Macbeth put it.
Well, we're growing up - fast.
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