Fifty years ago today. [View all]
First year of grad school. Friday classes only in the morning. I went home to have lunch and watch the Mike Douglas Show, whose guests were the Four Freshmen. Thought I'd watch 'till two and then study the rest of the day.
At 1:30 or so, they broke in with some sort of incompletely stated bulletin. Being a progressive jazz fan, I resented their breaking in on the group I was listening to.
Then another announcement: the President had been shot. Now I had no thoughts for jazz, was just worried; but people survived being shot.
At about 2 came the horrible news. News that changed my life for about 20 years. I was an Irish Catholic Democrat who lived in Massachusetts. I really believed the Kennedy administration would usher in a time for a new generation, eventually my generation to take over. Now it was all in ashes.
A friend called and we went over to another friend's house that night and laid waste to his liquor cabinet. The only good thing--I acquired my taste for Cognac that night.
All was misery.
Marriage and finishing grad school got me out of it, though some still lingers.
I can't be the only one on this board with memories of that day. Please share yours.
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