I sat with my second cup of tea this morning and Googled the Lou Reed song of the same name. I didn’t know it, but my friend Ursula texted me this morning and suggested I listen to it; a remembrance of the day. The words are so poignant and apropos in today’s world. And we all remember where we were when it happened.
I was  young, but I remember my mom had kept me home from school that day (she did that a lot – I must have sniffled or something ). I was riding my rocking horse and watching TV, and I remember my mother had my birthday cake on the shelf in the hall closet, which she thought I didn’t know. When the announcement came I remember Walter Cronkite’s voice and my mother being so upset, calling my father at the gas station he owned, then calling my Irish grandmother.  And they were both crying. I didn’t understand at first, but then when she explained it to me I remember feeling this overwhelming sadness. He was OUR president. He came from Massachusetts, like us. He had a place on Cape Cod. On Friday afternoons in the summer when his plane landed at Otis Air Force Base on the Cape his chopper would fly over Mashpee on the way to Hyannisport and we would all go out into the clearing and wave to him. He was one of us. And now he was gone.
So for me there is a visual of the inside of my house and how November’s slanted sunlight came through the picture window and fell on my mother standing in the kitchen doorway, crying on the phone. A still shot of the day John Kennedy died.
I know the late Lou Reed is either someone you love or an acquired taste, but he was a genius in my eyes. I’ve put the lyrics below if you want to read instead of listen.
I dreamed I was the president of these united states
I dreamed I replaced ignorance, stupidity and hate
I dreamed the perfect union and a perfect law, undenied
And most of all I dreamed I forgot the day John Kennedy died
I dreamed that I could do the job that others hadn’t done
I dreamed that I was uncorrupt and fair to everyone
I dreamed I wasn’t gross or base, a criminal on the take
And most of all I dreamed I forgot the day John Kennedy died
Oh, the day John Kennedy died
Oh, the day John Kennedy died
I remember where I was that day, I was upstate in a bar
The team from the university was playing football on tv
Then the screen want dead and the announcer said,
There’s been a tragedy
There’s are unconfirmed reports the president’s been shot
And he may be dead or dying
Talking stopped, someone shouted, what
I ran out to the street
People were gathered everywhere saying
Did you hear what they said on TV
And then a guy in a porsche with his radio hit his horn
And told us the news
He said, the president’s dead, he was shot twice in the head
In Dallas, and they don’t know by whom
I dreamed I was the president of these United States
I dreamed I was young and smart and it was not a waste
I dreamed that there was a point to life and to the human race
I dreamed that I could somehow comprehend that someone
Shot him in the face
Oh, the day John Kennedy died
Oh, the day John Kennedy died
Oh, the day John Kennedy died
Oh, the day John Kennedy died
Songwriters: Lou Reed
The Day John Kennedy Died lyrics © Sony ATV Music Pub LLC
May we take a moment to remember those that are gone and give thanks for those that we love.
I’m sending love and light out to all of you.
Deborah