Dawg Daze: November 2013

It was 50 years ago today that John F. Kennedy was shot and killed in Dallas Texas.

I only have one recollection of that day, and it was of seeing the eighth grade girls at St. Bede's Elementary School all crying after hearing the news. I remember being very disturbed by this!

As fate would have it, certainly not my choice, here I am in Dallas on the fiftieth anniversary of that day. I had considered going to visit Dealey Plaza yesterday on my day off but for whatever reason did not. Susu sent a text this morning asking if I was going to go to anything in Dallas for Kennedy. My response was that I had thought about it but decided not to because I'd heard it was going to be a zoo down there and the weather was taking a turn for the worse. I mentioned it was also very depressing! But as I thought about how much I had admired Kennedy, it occurred to me that I was perhaps being a bit selfish.

I jumped in the shower, dressed for the weather, and drove the three or so miles into downtown Dallas. As it turns out, it was a zoo... and because of this the Dallas police had sealed off the area around Dealey Plaza. I was able to visit the Kennedy memorial and say a quick Our Father & Hail Mary and thank Kennedy for his service to the county. I walked over to Main Street, a block up from Houston Street, and realized that I was standing at a spot that Kennedy had passed over on his motorcade still alive and unaware of the fate about to befall him only a few moments later on that awful day fifty years ago. I then walked a block over to Elm Street, also barricaded, and was able to look across at the intersection of Houston and Elm Streets to the Texas School Book Depository where Oswald laid in wait, and where the motorcade took its hard left turn onto Elm Street and meandered its way towards the now infamous Dealey Plaza.

The world changed for everyone only moments later!

God bless the Kennedy's.

God Bless America!

Above and below... Kennedy Memorial.

Below: Main Street looking towards Houston Street

Below: Elm St and Record St looking towards The Book Depository (center)

Below: Elm and Houston looking towards Dealey Plaza (in the trees)

Below: Thirteen hundred miles away in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington VA.

I watched the movie Parkland about a week ago and there was a scene where they were insisting that JFK's body remain in Dallas over the vehement objections of the Secret Service. As the Secret Service forced its way out of the hospital with the body one of the agents looks out over the assembled Dallas PD and assorted mourners and expressed my sentiments towards this place, only slightly altered.