Tonight Linda and I saw the film “Jackie,” starring Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy. I am one of those people who remembers where I was when I heard the news that the President had been shot. (On the steps of the Ursinus College Library.) I remember calling my mom that night. She was crying and wondering what would become of our country.
You learn from the film the appreciation Jackie Kennedy had for our country’s history and the role of the White House in that history. Her efforts to redecorate the White House, criticized at the time for being too extravagant, were made with the recognition that the White House was our house.
The film also gets across the shock and the horror of those days. We may not remember that when Kennedy went to Dallas, people had put up posters with his picture that said “Wanted.” (I’ll bet if you think about it, you can come up with a recent echo of that kind of evil.)
I joined a carload of guys from Ursinus who drove down for the funeral. I was in the crowd that watched the procession. I didn’t recognize many world leaders, but I do remember Haile Selassie from Ethiopia (the only black guy in the front row of dignitaries) and Charles DeGaulle, who towered above the rest.
I was at the Sand Quarry on Fire line road getting a load of sand for my father. The weight scale guy told me. Truly a very sad day for our country.
ReplyDeleteI was in 4th grade and getting on the school bus to go home when our bus driver told us. I didn't really appreciate the magnitude of it until I got home and Mom was watching it on TV and crying. Everybody was sad then. In 1966 we moved to Texas and I remember my classmates saying, "You're going where they shot the President."
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