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The Assassination of Robert Kennedy

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  • The Assassination of Robert Kennedy

    http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-na-robert-f-kennedy/

    http://www.newsweek.com/robert-kenne...angeles-207078

    On this morning 50 years ago I was a 9 year old living in Buffalo, NY, with my family. I remember getting up to do my paper route with my older brother when we saw our older sister crying in the kitchen. She had turned on the radio and heard that RFK had been shot early that morning in LA. We were all stunned. At that time my oldest brother entered and heard the news. He immediately headed up the stairs to inform my parents. About 30 seconds later I heard my Dad roaring at my brother that it was a sick joke and should be ashamed of himself. About 2 minutes later my parents entered. We all stood in stunned silence.

    Then my Dad said...."Not Again! No! NO! NO!" And then as a family we cried.

    As a Boston Irish Catholic family in the 60s there were 2 photos in our house...The Pope & JFK.

    My Dad knew the Kennedys. He had worked on Jack's campaigns in Massachusetts and Bobby's in New York.

    We added Bobby's photo that week.

    I have never shared that before but 1968 was a tough year.....Tet, Martin, Bobby, the DNC, riots, the election.

    Thanks Christ for Apollo 8 that Christmas.
    “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
    Mark Twain

  • #2
    I lived in the San Fernando Valley back then. I went to bed that night knowing that he had won California, yeah. I woke up that morning stunned to learn the news. Very similar, to if not more so, when I heard about JFK while in school 1963. I was supposed to walk to my 9th grade high school about two miles away. The walk was partly down a dirt road through an old orange orchard as we were at the west end of the valley. Never got to school that day as I spent the day sitting in the orchard among the orange trees.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
      Then my Dad said...."Not Again! No! NO! NO!" And then as a family we cried.

      As a Boston Irish Catholic family in the 60s there were 2 photos in our house...The Pope & JFK.

      My Dad knew the Kennedys. He had worked on Jack's campaigns in Massachusetts and Bobby's in New York.

      We added Bobby's photo that week.

      I have never shared that before but 1968 was a tough year.....Tet, Martin, Bobby, the DNC, riots, the election.

      Thanks Christ for Apollo 8 that Christmas.
      You wonder as to the conspiracy theories going around at that point. Had to be scary and you wondered where the country was going. This is something that doesn't happen these days. Important people are well protected for good reason.

      Speaking to some of my elders i was surprised that they all remembered the day when JFK was assassinated. This surprised me for a couple of reasons. There was no TV at least in India in those days, just radio & newspapers which I guess is more than enough. And JFK never visited India, not in the capacity as President. He did visit as a congressman in '51 and his wife came over by herself.

      Yet they still remembered him and i've always been curious why. Youngest president. He did rush over weapons when the China war broke out and this was right when the cuban missiles crisis hit.. But i think there was more. They liked him on a personal level, from what they read & heard about him.

      Fairytale president : )
      Last edited by Double Edge; 05 Jun 18,, 21:50.

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      • #4
        I heard about JFK over the school's speaker. I was in a Catholic School and the principal came on saying he had been shot and that he needed our prayers. Naturally that is what we did. Maybe 30 minutes later the principal said he had died. At that time I lived 45 miles from Washington DC. That day was a very traumatic day which I don't care to relive and have a hard time viewing anything associated with that day from pictures to commentary to this day. Even writing this is hard.

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        • #5
          Thanks for sharing that memory Buck. For those of us not around at the time it makes it feel very real & very personal.

          While I think America was too divided at this point for Bobby's election to produce the magic, happy America some like to mythologize, he would have at least tried to heal some wounds. Nixon just made them deeper.
          sigpic

          Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C C

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          • #6
            Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
            I lived in the San Fernando Valley back then. I went to bed that night knowing that he had won California, yeah. I woke up that morning stunned to learn the news. Very similar, to if not more so, when I heard about JFK while in school 1963. I was supposed to walk to my 9th grade high school about two miles away. The walk was partly down a dirt road through an old orange orchard as we were at the west end of the valley. Never got to school that day as I spent the day sitting in the orchard among the orange trees.
            Amazing similar to my own experience in Sepulveda, when I was 10.
            Trust me?
            I'm an economist!

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            • #7
              When Jack died I remember it vividly. I was 5 and was playing in the front yard of the Sweeneys, playing with Nora and Louise Sweeny and Kippy O"Neill. MRS Sweeney was always stern but nice...and she came out on the front porch crying telling her girls to come in and for us boys to head home. I got home to find my mother crying. It was weird. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Then she told me...and I started crying.

              I remember well the funeral procession with the prancing charger with the reversed boots in the stirrups and can still hear the cadence of the rope tightened drums of Pershing's Own as the marched toward Arlington.

              I went through much the same 5 years later.
              “Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
              Mark Twain

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