November 22, 1963.  Where were you?  Where were you when JFK was shot?  Do you remember?

We  lived in Green Springs, on the south side of Birmingham.  I was seven years old, in the second grade, going to school at Alley Elementary when it happened.  It was a brick building on the top of a hill, next to the local armory.  We lived only a few blocks from the school.  It was my time of innocence, my time to play, my time to have fun with all of my friends.  The Mullins sisters, all four of them were my special friends.  I used to go home every day under the care of our maid Della.  I know that the term maid may not be politically correct at this point in time, but in the early sixties it was the correct name to use.  To me, she was a part of our family.  She took care of us while our parents worked and disciplined me when needed.  I remember every time a thunder storm with lightening was near, she would turn out all of the lights in the house and make us crawl under a table.  

I was walking home with my friends that day, down the hill from the school.  I'll never forget,  the sun was shining, it was a nice day. One of our friends ran up to a group of us walking together, all excited, to tell us that President Kennedy had been shot.  That he had been killed.  We really didn't know the man, but we knew he was important.  I remember being sad and that we didn't say much to each other on the way home.

My daily routine at the time was to go home and watch television.  All of my favorite shows were after school.  The Popeye show with Cousin Cliff Holman, the Bozo show, the Three Stooges, all my heroes and cartoons were shown each afternoon.  But this was different, the president had been killed.  The cartoons were gone.  For three days, I remember the frustration of not being able to see my cartoons and afternoon shows.  I remember watching the news, my first time to ever watch anything real.  I remember the horse with the backward boots.  I remember the little boy saluting his father.  I remember his pretty wife, strong and sad.