Sixty Years

That November day, getting off the bus at 14 into my sobbing mother’s arms is seared into my memory. The saddest week I had ever experienced followed. I had never lost a family member and this was my first experience with such enormous grief that shook the nation. My brother and I had spent the following weekend with our Josselyn grandparents.  They lived within sight down the street, my maternal grandparents lived next to us, where T and I live now. The old black and white television was on, the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was being transferred to prison. Jack Ruby entered the Dallas police headquarters without issue, approached Oswald and shot him on live national  NBC TV with millions, including me watching. Those days are seared into my memories like a movie.

My dad took the central photograph when we saw the President and First Lady leaving church in Hyannis MA, on Cape Cod. President Kennedy drove the limo away from the church that day. I remember it like a movie, we were so excited. My mother saved the newspaper clipping with the photo of JFK driving the limo himself, a first from the church and a very memorable day for me.

Some of the photos in the collage are from a visit to the JFK Library in Boston. 

Impossibly Close

my dad’s ansco
camera image reversed
reflecting, recording 
a sunny sunday morning
hyannis, old cape cod
the president prince
our jackie veiled
emerge from church
impossibly close
to crowds in silent awe 
salt air electric 
blue smokey
flash bulbs popping
super eight cameras 
clicking, panning
string neckties 
and netted hats
camelot’s couple
approach the shiny
leather seated limos
but wait
she gets in 
but he 
motions those squinting 
men who guard and serve
he’ll drive today
and off they go
compound bound
impossibly close
to me


For the Record,
This day came in dark and rainy, places north and west got snow on this heavy Thanksgiving travel day. Luckily, we just have to walk through the woods tomorrow to Sarah and David's for our Thanksgiving dinner.


All hands begging for PEACE.