My mother was here to stay with my sister’s children while my sister and brother-in-law attended the breakfast at the Texas Hotel. Of course they were all very excited!
Sad to say, I was living and working in Dallas. I worked at the Dallas Public Library and a group of us had walked to stand in front of Neiman-Marcus to view the motorcade. What a glorious day–the sun was shining, the temperature was perfect and we would see the most famous couple in the world!! Too, I had had the pleasure of shaking President Kennedy’s hand during the campaign when he and LBJ appeared at the State Capitol. So I was very excited!
Standing about 10 yards away, I watched as they passed by…I can’t begin to express the feeling of elation I felt. We then went in to order lunch to take back to work. While waiting for our lunch, we got word of the shooting. Our immediate reaction was, “Don’t say things like that. It’s just wrong to talk about the President like that!” Of course, it was true and after we got back to work, we were sent home. It wasn’t easy living in Dallas at that time…but we came back as a nation.
Of course, some of us wonder what this nation would be like had President Kennedy lived and served out his term, possibly been re-elected?
