Wanted to share this here, (posted on the other 50 yr. thread)....
..........................................................................................
Etched in memory.
I had just been transferred from managing the Sears store in Vineyard Haven, Mass, to managing the store in Falmouth Mass.
My assistant manager called me to the front of the store, where the TV display was located... near the front window.
"The president has been shot!"
...and with that, the world turned upside down.
For the next few hours, my store filled with people, watching, crying... then heading home to try and manage their lives. How to tell the children, and where do we go from here? The president was the dream of every dad and mom... the highest wish and hope for their own children.
Yes... the world stopped for the next two weeks.
DW reminded me that she was in Hyannisport, at the same time... shopping with our kids and a neighbor and her kids. The store and the town basically closed down... and they all drove home, without speaking, because the kids were too young to understand.
.................................................. .........
It was only during the previous summer, when we were still living on Martha's Vineyard... (DW and I, two very young sons, aged three and four, and a brand new baby son who was born on the Vineyard)... that we had been over to Edgartown, by the ferry slip for the boat that goes over to Chappaquiddick. We were with our next door neighbors, who also had young children. The little girl, age 7 and the boy age 5, were good swimmers, and swam out into the channel, to where the Honey Fitz was anchored.
JFK and Jacqueline invited the kids aboard for about 20 minutes to play with Caroline and John John. A very exciting time for all of us.
.................................................. .........
Perhaps it's just age, and a faltering memory, but somehow those years were different... The awe of the presidency, the feeling of respect for government leaders, and the pride in being an American was a warm place of comfort and safety. My own kids grew up with that and still remember it that way.