Advice from a Small Town Girl

I have to confess that I can hardly wait for November to be over. I know that the end of November means we are ever closer to the cold and dark of winter, but I don't care.

Because if I see one more documentary about the assassination of John F. Kenney, I will scream.

Like nearly everyone else over the age of 50, I remember exactly where I was on November 22, 1963.

I was sitting in the combined 3rd and 4th grade classroom in Bickleton, where we were using the school's television to watch something educational. For the life of me, I can't remember what it was. All I know is that it can't have been on any of the regular TV channels, since our programming was never interrupted.

Until, that is, someone from the high school hurried into the room and told the teacher that the TV was needed right away, as someone had shot the president. I don't really remember exactly who came in, even though I knew every person in the school. That's not hard in a town the size of Bickleton.

At any rate, I remember (or think I do) that as soon as the door, our normally very organized (not to say bossy) teacher was stunned. She was very quiet, and didn't seem to know what to do next.

And that's what I remember.

I don't remember anything else about that day. I was 9 years old, and it didn't seem possible that someone who always appeared as alive as JFK could be dead. Of course, at that age, my concept of dead was limited to barn cats. All my grandparents were still living, not to mention all the other relatives I knew. I suspect that I went home and stuck my nose in a book.

We know so much more now about that day. Or we think we do. Some are sure that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone; others believe that there was conspiracy.

But I'm tired enough of the whole thing, during this macabre 50th anniversary celebration (and I use that term advisedly), that I don't care.

Because, after all, what does it matter?

We will never know what the remainder of Kennedy's presidency would have been like. I think we like to believe that it would have been Camelot. Never mind that Camelot didn't work out so well for the Arthurians.

I believe it's much more likely that JFK's presidency would have ended up like many of those in recent times, bogged down in the compilation of complexity and partisanship that our government has become. We know now that even though his speeches were compelling and uplifting, and that even though he gets the credit for the Peace Corps and the men on the moon, most of his legislative overtures were bogged down in congress.

Sound familiar?

I love having a hero; someone to look up to and admire. But my heroes these days are not likely to be presidents, or even to be in any spotlight. I have taken to admiring people who simply live their lives with grace and simplicity, faith and honesty. And that's my Camelot.