That Day

I was on patrol.  It was a big deal in our school to be a patrol girl.  For one thing, you got to leave school early--at least 15 minutes early; I don't remember exactly how much earlier.  As a group of us were leaving the building, we noticed that American flag out front was at half mast.  We figured someone really important must have died, for them to lower the flag.  The principal?  No, maybe the superintendent.  Maybe even the governor?

I took my spot near the curb, near one of the exits where the kids would soon come streaming out.  Across the street were homes; many kids would be walking into the neighborhood; I was there to help make sure they safely crossed the street.

Everyone who came out that day said something similar--the President's been shot; President Kennedy's been assassinated.  I didn't believe any of them--not one of them.  You know how rumors can get started in grade school--soon everyone's saying the same thing.  And these were young kids, what do they know, anyway?  Lincoln was assassinated; modern people don't get assassinated.  OK, I knew there were two other presidents who'd been assassinated, but who were they, anyway.  We all knew Lincoln.  (Why are some people "assassinated", while others are "killed", I would ask my mother later that day.)

One of the kids from my sixth grade class walked by, and also told me the President had been shot.  I told him I didn't believe him.  He lived across the street from the school, and his mother was standing in the front yard, within yelling distance.  He called over to her to ask if it was true that the President had been shot; that he was dead.  She nodded yes.  So then I knew.  An adult had said so.

Five years later, I was waking up and heard something on the radio about Bobby Kennedy and a brain injury.  I immediately thought--I'll bet he's been shot.  No hesitation, no disbelief.  Yes, I was five years older, but I also reflected later how much had changed in those five years that made it so easy for me to believe another Kennedy had been shot.

We lost a great deal that day in November.