Today, November 22 is the 58th anniversary of President Kennedy’s assassination.
Usually I say, of course we all remember where we were. But I’ve come to realize, that many of my audience, were not older enough to remember, or not even born yet.
But, before I tell you where I was, I want to include some of my thoughts about President Kennedy. He was the first president that I was of age to vote for in 1960. It was very exciting, I was young, just starting my career in advertising as a graphic artist, and learning about photography. He was one of the youngest presidents to be elected, with the promise of doing great things for our country.
In October of 1963, I had just joined the United States Army Reserve. My unit, part of the 77th Division, was stationed in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City. By the end of October, I was taking my basic training at Fort Dix, in New Jersey. It was a Friday, and that Saturday we were going to get our first two-day pass. At the end of our training that day, probably about four in the afternoon, my company was assembled. That is when we were told that the president had been assassinated. We were put on full alert, and all passes were cancelled. The ironic part was that I was on the rifle range.
Now, I have to back up, and explain the photograph. I’m pretty sure, it was the fall of 1961. A friend, and I decided to attend the annual Army vs. Navy football game. It is customarily held in Philadelphia, PA. We drove down early in the morning, hopping to get to our seats early. Unfortunately, the traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike was very heavy, and it was stop-and-go, until we reached the stadium. Now we were very late, and wanted to get to our seats before the game started. As we were hurrying to our seats, we crossed a roadway in the stadium, and heard someone yell, “Here comes the President.” I whirled around, holding my new Miranda camera, and snapped the back and white photo that I’ve attached. That was more exciting than the football game.
Years later I made four black and white prints of this photo, on my dot matrix printer. I gave them to friends as Christmas presents.
When Hurricane Katrina struck, it destroyed forty years of my photography, including this negative, and all the prints, save one. When the couple who had the surviving print heard how all my photography was destroyed, they very generously sent me back this surviving print.
