LY #65 November 22, 1963

Where was I?  In Mrs. Whaley's fifth grade class at Daves Avenue School.

Mrs. Whaley told us that right before lunch she had something important to announce.  I had watched the news the night before with my Dad so I thought I knew what it was.  In the previous night's CBS News there had been a report on a White Supremacist group in the South.  Although the word "terrorism" wasn't used at the time, they were credited with bombings and were considered very dangerous.  So I went to the teacher, trying to guess what she was going to tell us.  "Is it something about the Water Mocassins."  I thought that was the name of the group.  She said no.  Then sometime either right before lunch or in the lunch line I heard that the president had been shot.

I ran across the street to our house and for the next few days we watched television.  I don't remember Jack Ruby shooting Oswald but I do remember watching the funeral on Sunday, especially the riderless horse with the empty stirrups.

Years later, in high school, I learned that I could make myself cry on command if I just remembered that day.