A Day Like No Other

The day dawned rainy and cool, but as so often happens this time of year in Texas, the clouds cleared yielding a warm and sunny day with temperatures in the mid seventies.  For the folks in my generation there will always be before and after with that day indelibly etched in our memories dividing one from the other.  Today is the 50th Anniversary of that day in Dallas.  I will never forget, just like so many others, where I was when it happened and the days that followed.  Like this year it was the Friday before Thanksgiving only this was no ordinary Friday in Fort Worth.  President John F Kennedy was in town with his wife Jacqueline, one of 6 stops planned that day.  We were all excited, JFK was a young vibrant President who had inspired our generation and Jackie had charmed the nation and the world with her style, charm and grace.  Before that day was over JFK would be dead, felled by an assassins bullet in Dallas and Jackie would be the stoic widow who would lead the nation in mourning its fallen hero. 

Growing up in the 50's, I was much too young to remember the Presidency of Harry Truman, the first President  I remember was General Eisenhower who had led the allies to victory in World War II.  I first became aware of JFK during the Democratic Primary season in the run up to the 1960 election.  JFK was battling Lyndon Baines Johnson for the Presidential nomination which would pit the winner against the almost for sure nominee of the Republicans, Richard Nixon.  LBJ was a Texas boy and Speaker of the House, JFK was the junior Senator from Massachusetts.  There was much ado in the papers and the TV about JFK being a Catholic.  Here in the stronghold of the Southern Baptist Church, many considered Catholics as evil idolaters whose loyalty was to the Pope.  It was a protracted battle but Kennedy eventually won the nomination and chose LBJ to be his VP candidate.  JFK then proceeded to kick some Republican ass to win the Presidency.  JFK was the first Presidential Candidate to effectively use the medium of TV as a campaign tool.  His televised debates with Nixon showed him to be cool, calm and collected under fire while Nixon looked uncomfortable and disheveled.  The TV and hard campaigning across the country won him the Presidency, the first Catholic to do so.  His inauguration speech inspired millions of Americans to action and is probably the most memorable and stirring of any Inaugural Address before or after.  Take a look and listen for yourselves:

JFK's most notable mistake as President was the failed CIA backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba from which he recovered quite nicely.  His most shining moment was during the 13 Days in October 1962  of the Cuban Missile Crisis.  JFK faced down Nikita Kruschev and the Soviets, using a naval blockade to force them to remove their nuclear missile sites from Cuba and high tail it on home. 

Earlier that year, Jackie had charmed the nation with the first ever televised White House Tour.  The restoration of the White House was Jackie's first major project as First Lady. She was dismayed during her pre-inauguration tour of the White House to find little of historic significance in the house.  Upon almost immediately exhausting the funds appropriated for this effort, Kennedy established a fine arts committee to oversee and fund the restoration process and asked early American furniture expert Henry du Pont to consult.  While her initial management of the project was hardly noted at the time, later accounts have noted that she managed the conflicting agendas of Parish, du Pont, and Boudin with seamless success.  In the tour she said, "I just feel that everything in the White House should be the best—the entertainment that's given here. If it's an American company you can help, I like to do that. If not—just as long as it's the best."  The video footage of the tour will show you the Jackie America fell in love with.

In the fall of 1963, JFK was looking to shore up Southern support for his re-election bid in 1964.  That was what the trip to Texas was all about.  Accompanied by Jackie, LBJ and then Texas Governor John Connaly, it was to be a whirlwind tour of six cities in the state that day.  In downtown Fort Worth at the Hotel Texas, JFK and Jackie were thronged with admirers and supporters before being whisked off to Air Force One for the trip to Dallas where a motorcade through downtown was planned before his arrival at the World Trade Mart for a speech.

JFK and Jackie rode in the back seat of  a Lincoln convertible with Governor Connally riding shotgun.  Around 12:30 As the motorcade made its way through Dealey Plaza, turning on to Elm Street to head for I35 and the Trade Mart, shots rang out and JFK fell into Jackie's lap staining the now iconic pink wool suit with his blood and brain tissue.  The Lincoln sped up, entered the freeway, bypassing the Trade Mart headed instead for the next exit and Parkland Hospital where he died at 1PM.  I was in Mr Cockerham's seventh grade English class at Forest Oak Junior High (now middle) School when the Principal came on the PA to tell us of the events in Dallas.  Everyone cried that day, faculty, students and staff.  The school day continued to its eventual end, however, nothing was taught but the lesson was learned and our innocence was lost. 

Lee Harvey Oswald was the accused assassin who was captured in the Texas Theater in the Oak Cliff section south of downtown Dallas.  However he never lived to tell the tale.  On Sunday morning the 24th during his transfer from City Jail to County facilities and in front of a host of witnesses and photographers Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald forever sealing his lips.  Here is the History Channel documentary on the assassination and its aftermath:

It would be another decade before Dallas slowly recovered from being a pariah, the most hated city in America.  Dallas was aided in the recovery by the Dallas Cowboys gaining their first Super Bowl trophy.  No one has forgotten the events of that day, for sure I never will, nor should they be.  Before will never happen again, but After continues on to this day.  

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Your musical moment for today features another First Lady with Style, Charm and Grace, Michelle Obama, as she presides at the closing concert of a young peoples White House Classical Music Workshop.  The performers include Joshua Bell on violin, Alisa Weilerstein on cello, Sharon Isbin on guitar, and Awadagin Pratt on piano as well as the young musicians themselves.  

Closing out today's post is this week's collection of handsome hunks that are Naked or Nearly So.  Thanks for sharing part of your day with me, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!