I shoot pool...not presidents

[wahcheck]

50 years ago today....

....I was sitting in a high school class when someone popped in and said the President had been shot and killed........Silence fell over the room and I personally felt a gloom I hadn't felt before........the pervasive feeling was that hope was lost and what is going to happen to us as a nation now?
As they say, things we all took for granted changed then, and nothing has ever been the same since. I don't care what anybody says about JFK; he was a hero of mine. His light shone brightest during the Cuban Missile crisis,
IMHO.

 

[pool101]

Zaragosa AFB Spain, I was 7. They sent us all home and the base went on lock down. We sat and watched the tv replay over and over.

 

[jay helfert]

Cool stories guys (& gals) even if they involve a sad day for our country....

JAM mentioned watching Leave It to Beaver and I've always sort of wished I grew up in simpler times - when life wasn't so hurried and everybody still gathered around the table to share a meal. Where everybody had time to watch an actual baseball game (or listen to it on the radio). Everybody loved their country and couldn't think of a reason not to. Most importantly, pool rooms were everywhere and most of them were full.

It seems like everything changed that day -- our country lost its innocence and it hasn't turned back, probably never will.

Oh well, there’s always pool. That’s what I love about the game – nobody can change that on me. When I’m alone on the table putting balls in the pockets life becomes very simple. This will never change. 200 years from now some kid will still enjoy the simplicity of being all alone putting balls into pockets.

Thanks for this post! I feel he same way sometimes when life is getting me down.

 

[JAM]

Here are the moments in time that I remember exactly what I was doing when it happened.

The earliest was 1978 John Wayne Gacy. I remember I was 6 years old watching the TV as they carried out the bodies from the crawl space.

1980 John Lennon assassination. I remember my mom crying, I was 8 years old and had never seen her cry before. When I asked her what happened she told me one of the Beatles was killed.

1982 The Stl Cardinals win the World Series beating the Brewers. I was a very happy 10 year old that day! (again I was glued to the TV!)

1986 The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster. I was a school auditorium watching along with all the other kids. At first we didn't understand what happened, but after a few minutes we all got that heavy feeling and we realized seven people just lost their life.

1987 The fall of the Berlin wall. Unfortunately what sticks in my memory most about this occasion was that douche-bag David Hasselhof singing on the wall with his electric jacket. Uggh! I was listening to the Violent Femmes play Add it up!

1993 When I saw the most beautiful girl in the world for the first time. This is the day my daughter was born. I was a nervous wreck but from that moment on everything changed.

2001 9/11 I was at work when things unravel on the radio. It was like a modern day Orsen Wells episode. I was working as a machinist in a big factory. The entire place got quite and all you could here are the radios all over the plant. It was eerie as hell. For the first time in my life I found myself hating a group of people I had never met.

I know there have been other more important thing that have happened in my time on this earth but these are the ones that stopped me in my tracks and made me take note.

Gosh, I remember that Challenger. Man, that was such a tragedy.

I watched 9/11 live, like most people, on TV. Thereafter, when they hit the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., shut down. Everybody was trying to leave the city at the same time. There was a massive gridlock. It was quite scary.

One other time in history for me was Desert Storm. I was frightened.

 

[sawtex]

On the wing of an F-100 Super Saber, Cannon AFB, Clovis New Mexico. Shiff Hall came on to the hanger floor from the office and asked,Tex arn't you from Dallas, no but close was my answer, President Kennedy has just been shot there. Not a good time to be from TX as I remember.

 

[JAM]

On the wing of an F-100 Super Saber, Cannon AFB, Clovis New Mexico. Shiff Hall came on to the hanger floor from the office and asked,Tex arn't you from Dallas, no but close was my answer, President Kennedy has just been shot there. Not a good time to be from TX as I remember.

It wasn't a good time to be in D.C., either. It was one of the worst dooms ever I can remember. I was affected by it for many years as a child. A few times as a child, I actually envisioned a sniper shooting at me as I walked down the street. I could not imagine anyone shooting down another like that, me living in a sheltered life as I did. That changed for me after that point.

I go to Reagan National Airport quite often to pick him my brother when he comes for a visit. I have to drive over Memorial Bridge, which faces Arlington National Cemetery. You can see the Eternal Flame burning 24/7 on John F. Kennedy's grave when driving over the Memorial Bridge, with Lincoln's Memorial behind you. It always gives me pause.