Fifty Years Ago Today

Fifty years ago on this day, at this time, I was riding an escalator at the Sears store in Las Vegas.   I had taken a break from studying for an English 101 test to take my mom, who was pregnant with my youngest sister, Katy, to Sears to buy a crib.   As we exited the escalator on the second floor we came out into a room full of televisions all broadcasting that President Kennedy had been shot.   We thought it was some horrible mistake that it could not really be happening.   My mom’s face was as white as a ghost and I walked over to a chair where she sat for a moment.  We knew we couldn’t shop so we returned home.   I remember watching Walter Cronkite announce the death of the President.  All these years later I still weep when I think of that day.  More than a president died that day, my generation’s innocence died and a new era of cynicism was born.