November 22, 1963- the First Worse Day of My Life…

November 22, 1963 started like most of my days as a teenager. Mom drove me to Laurel Senior High School, a large brick building in the center of Laurel, Maryland. I was doing fairly well in school. English, of course, was my favorite subject. I was a ‘constant reader” and I’d probably finished that morning’s edition of the Washington Post. Laurel was about 20 miles from D.C. and The Post was almost our local paper…well, that and the weekly Laurel Leader.

Back then I wanted to be a writer, maybe even a journalist. And since The Post was so close, maybe write for it. I followed the news and I followed politics. I knew what the president was doing every day — where he’d be and why. I knew that it was a year before the next election and he wanted to be front and center in a large southern state, his vice president’s state. I knew that was important for his reelection. And I wanted him reelected.

He’d become one of my heroes. I felt (now remember this is a 16 year old’s views) he was strong in the Cold War and he believed in Civil Rights. The second one earned him the ire of my father, who said, in my presence, some pretty nasty things about him.

That day the President would land at Dallas’ Love Airfield and then motorcade to and through Dallas. Eventually he would be in Houston where he would deliver an address.