For many of us over the age of fifty this date will be engrained in our minds forever. It's a moment one cannot forget. For those Americans over the age of seventy it was the death of President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt near the end of World War II. For Americans over the age of thirty, the X generation, it was the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion and for those Americans over the age of ten most resent tragedy, The 2001 World Trade Center attacks.

Most baby boomers like me cannot get this date out of our collective minds, Thursday, November 22, 1963.

There was brisk chill in the air. The sun was so bright in the clear blue sky. The fall wind was calm, just a slight breeze from the north. The leaves had been turning to their magnificent fall hue of colors red, yellow, orange, and bright brown, all week long. Many of these beautiful leaves had already fallen on the streets of Burlington City. Everybody was in a very happy jovial mood, because it was the weekend before Thanksgiving. People were buying food and drink for this special holiday. At Cooper School (Burlington County school for disabled children) the Students were dismissed at 2:00 PM, much earlier than most students were in Burlington City School System.

Most of the students were playing with each other in the schoolyard, getting into their buses for home. Looking up at the school's front stairs, Mr. Stevenson (our school custodian) running down the stairs yelling that the President had been shot! The President had been shot! Now, most young Americans were thinking no way, how could anyone get past all of those Secret Service Agents in the Oval Office?

How could anyone crash through the White House Gates and fire a gun? What we all did not know is that President Kennedy was in Texas this bright sunny day not in Washington D.C. We did not know was that he was trying to get re-elected to the White House.

President Kennedy that warm fall day happen to be trying to pull his divided party together. The Dixie-crats (Southern Democrats) did not like him because of his Northern Civil Rights stand. Nor did they like him because he was a Northern Liberal who imposed his left winged political agenda on the good Ole South. The South wanted Kennedy out of the White House but had an ally in Vice President Johnson. So the southern Democrats were in a bind not liking the northern Kennedy but loving the Southern Texan Vice President Johnson.

My attendant arrived in the schoolyard to take me home as fast as she could, I was a lucky student that could walk home each day it was only a three-block walk from the school. We all wanted to know the fate of our leader. We got home at 2:21 Eastern Standard Time. All regular network programming had ceased. All eyes focused on the Dallas City Assembly. The world focused on the Speaker of the Texas State Legislative and the Dallas Speaker of the City saying the words no one wanted to hear. In a very soft tone he told the world that the Prince of Camelot, JFK left this world at 1:10PM Central Standard Time. It seemed like the whole world had stopped. All over this country stores closed, banks turned away people at their front doors, and gas stations shut down their pumps. In the eyes of a nine-year-old the world had started moving in slow motion. The Burlington City streets became empty within hours.

All eyes were glued to the nation's television screens from that point on. All eyes were focused our nation's capital, Washington D.C. It became a lost weekend. School closed that Friday and the next Monday. It was the weekend before Thanksgiving but Americans could not even think about that now. The whole nation was in mourning now. Forty years later this nation is still in mourning. America changed that Thursday afternoon in Dallas on Daly Plaza.

That Thursday afternoon people all over America just stood in the streets in complete silence after they got the historic news, and others just sat down on the sidewalks and cried. This was very confusing for a young African American boy to understand. How could everybody mourn for a person they really did not know or meet? It became very clear after that night everybody was crying because they had lost a leader. They were crying because America had lost its innocence, they were crying because they felt the lost of a friend and father just like the Kennedy family had lost a family member.

The Columbia Broadcasting System (C. B. S.) broke the somber mood by airing professional football games that afternoon. That was a pleasant departure from the dark mood of the previous days. Many Americans were not pleased with the National Football League because they continued to play their games that Sunday afternoon.

The Washington Redskins played the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys played the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. The Dallas Cowboys were booed getting off the plane, they got booed going on the field in Cleveland and they got booed at the hotel the night before. It would be a long time before the Dallas Cowboys would be termed "America's team". America blamed Dallas for the death of their leader. Everything and everyone in Dallas would be looked at with a scorned eye.

The American Football League cancelled all of their games in respect to the late president something the NFL should have done.

In Austin, Texas, that Saturday afternoon The University of Texas Longhorn football fans stood up to sing their fight song, "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You", but did nothing to honor the late President.

American flags all over the country started flying everywhere that weekend, just popping out all over the place. Some American flags had black bunting on the bottom half of the flag; some Americans flew the flag upside down as a sign of distress, while many flew their flag at half-mast in honor of President Kennedy. At Cooper School our flag dropped to half-staff, each student in the class was given the privilege to raising the flag each morning for that month. That was such an honor. Master Gray raised the flag on the third day of school.

On Sunday the world witness another shocking event. The CBS anchor news correspondent, Walter Cronkite would announce another bulletin on this day; the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, had been shot. The world could not believe what it was seeing. The CBS football game was interrupted with a special news bulletin. The world could not believe what it was seeing on the television screen. Accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was being transferred from the Dallas City jail to the Texas County jail. A loner named Jack Ruby shot the alleged presidential assassin in the stomach, thus creating the biggest conspiracy controversy that still exist today.

Within seventy-two hours this nation had witnessed two cold-blooded murders on television. Just sitting in the living room watching the game when the picture switched from New York City to Dallas, Texas. I started calling to my mother, telling her that Lee Harvey Oswald has been shot. My mother replied, "Gary stop playing. That's not funny". After the third time, she stopped cooking Sunday dinner and came out to watch the horrendous news with me. Not a word was spoken for about an hour. We had hardly gotten over the president's death. Then we had to deal with yet another.

Too much, just too much for a young nation. Too much for many of America's young citizens. We all wondered if the truth would ever be told. This sad event would surly be the end of innocence for America.

It was strange to see all for the world's leaders in on place, in one city, for one single event, The late President's funeral Sunday afternoon. These leaders came to America to pay their respects. They did not want to make a scene, did not want to be noticed. They were here to represent the people of their country, who had fallen in love with America's young new President. We all can remember the many beautiful military uniforms from many different countries, the military marching band behind the mourning Kennedy family. The lead black horse with no rider and a backward black Navy boot in its saddle. Everyone stepping in cadence with the non stop drumbeats of the color guard. The fifty state flags, the honor guard carrying themselves with great pride and beautiful form down Pennsylvania Avenue. Across the Potomac River to Arlington Cemetery. I kept searching for the mustard colored flag with the dark gold crest of New Jersey. Finally finding it near the end of the funeral procession in between the bright yellow and red state flag of New Mexico and the blue state flag of New York.

One could hear the very clear sounds all of the horses clomping down Pennsylvania Avenue. The strong clear voice of the drum major yelling instructions to funeral precession. That morbid 2.1 drum roll per second lasted for hours and hours so it seemed. The vivid picture of Little John-John playing with a long piece of paper until his mother whispers in his left ear. John-John then puts the paper down turns toward the flag draped coffin giving his dad a last salute. Remembering JFK's, young daughter Caroline and his wife, Jacqueline, the first lady of America kissing the flag-draped coffin in the Capitol's rotunda in Washington D.C. The line of over nine million people filing past by the flagged draped coffin lying in State. Black Americans, White Americans, Latino Americans, and Asian Americans, passed with tears in their eyes and sorrow in their hearts. These are the memories of that lost weekend forty years ago.

It was the death of a new era, an era that was extinguished in its infancy. If this man had lived some believe that this world would be a much better place for all people.

Forty years later, and the Kennedy mystique still lives, the question still is asked, "who killed him and why? John F. Kennedy wanted to change America. John Kennedy encountered clandestine forces he could not control. The Kennedy thrust to make this nation great, the Kennedy will to move this great nation move forward and climb heights unknown. The Kennedy mandate to put man on the moon before the end of the decade; he wanted to end the American involvement in Viet Nam. Some say the Kennedy voice was a perfect fit for this young country.

But on that dreadful day some forty years ago we lost something and someone special. Something and someone we may never get back. We all lost the life and vision of the young President John F. Kennedy.

THAT IS THE GRAYLINE !