General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: 1968 (Your Help, Please!) [View all]toby jo
(1,269 posts)I remember so clearly, like it's now, mom screaming the day Robert Kennedy was shot. She went to the drawer where my little brother's toys were kept and there was a little pistol for his cowboy outfit. And she took and threw it away. She was saying 'No! Child of mine! Will ever! ever! Shoot a gun!' God was she pissed. It was so sad. We had this picture of JFK in our basement, in her office, the one where John John is saluting his Dad's casket next to his sister and Jackie has her hand on his shoulder. I remember that funeral because of the horse, Blackjack, I think his name was. And the boots were on backwards with no rider. I was transfixed.
And I remember the fireflies we used to chase around at night. I had a great childhood.
My grandparents lived in Kent, Ohio, and we couldn't go see them because of the riots. When we finally did, I remember the store fronts being boarded up, and Dad being especially watchful when we drove down 59 past the school . I still see that picture of the girl being shot and lying dead on the front page, the paper there on the living room hassock.
Ironically the house I bought and raised my son in was in a neighborhood where one of our closest neighbors was in the guard and ordered to shoot. He said, ' we didn't want to shoot anybody. It was so confusing, we didn't know what to do.' He's a real gentle man. Another friend of mine was on campus and just remembers somebody taking a hankie and dipping it in a puddle and giving it to her to cover her face because of the tear gas.