While relaxing on the veranda after a swim in the pool at a hotel in Acapulco, Mexico our usually jovial waiter arrived with drinks and informed us that JFK had been killed, the governor of Texas had been wounded, and that the borders of the US were closed.Remember November 22, 1963.
It was two or three nightmarish days before we were allowed to return to the US. As soon as my Eastern Airlines flight landed at Idlewild airport (later to be renamed for the fallen president) I hopped on the Carey shuttle bus to the city, ran to Penn Station threw my baggage into a locker and boarded a train to DC. I was present for the funeral procession. I just had to be there.
The universal grief expressed in the crowd was as if I was drowning in a vat of jello. I cried so hard I threw up behind a large trash can. I was not alone.The entire world deflated for so many of us following that day.
We now have a new, young president-elect and I am fearful about a repeat of so long ago. I was too young in 1963 to appreciate all that JFK was and could have been, but I am well aware of what Obama has to offer to the US and the world.
We have come full circle and hope is alive again in this country. May it be the gift that we give to one another and to the world.
We move on.
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Thank you for this lovely post.
ReplyDeleteWhen they first sold the Kennedy half-dollar, I nearly went 'broke' buying them up for gifts.
Then they came out with the gold-clad Kennedy half-dollar; again, more 'gifts'.
We have a gold one on display in the kitchen; dining room, living room and in our bedroom.
Not until Obama have I had such joy and optimism.
I hope the evil that destroyed Kennedy (and there were many many people involved in his death; not just one), has found its way clear to not repeat this dastardly deed done not only to JFK, but to the 'trinity' of hope and truth - JFK/RFK/MLK.
Diane