11-23-2021, 01:09 AM
Black Friday
I was sitting in Miss Willoughby’s 4th grade class
at Loch Lomond elementary when she burst into the room
wheeling a large black and white TV on a clunky stand
saying something went wrong with our President.
After fiddling with the rabbit ears she finally
found Cronkite. The class went dead silent
as he informed us that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.
I remember turning to a buddy, and saying that
it was probably only in the arm or leg, and that Kennedy
was tough. After all, he survived having the PT-109
cut in half, and Jimmy Dean even made a 45 record about it.
Cronkite froze us in our chairs when he announced,
“from Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official,
President Kennedy died at 1pm Central Standard Time…”
No one spoke. A few of the girls started to cry-
Miss Willoughby, too.
The shaky voice of the principal came over the loudspeaker,
on the wall, near the clock. Classes were dismissed.
Getting out of school early would normally cause wild cheering,
but I could only hear papers rustling, and shoes shuffling
toward the door, and out into that November day,
that suddenly very black Friday.
I was sitting in Miss Willoughby’s 4th grade class
at Loch Lomond elementary when she burst into the room
wheeling a large black and white TV on a clunky stand
saying something went wrong with our President.
After fiddling with the rabbit ears she finally
found Cronkite. The class went dead silent
as he informed us that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.
I remember turning to a buddy, and saying that
it was probably only in the arm or leg, and that Kennedy
was tough. After all, he survived having the PT-109
cut in half, and Jimmy Dean even made a 45 record about it.
Cronkite froze us in our chairs when he announced,
“from Dallas, Texas, the flash, apparently official,
President Kennedy died at 1pm Central Standard Time…”
No one spoke. A few of the girls started to cry-
Miss Willoughby, too.
The shaky voice of the principal came over the loudspeaker,
on the wall, near the clock. Classes were dismissed.
Getting out of school early would normally cause wild cheering,
but I could only hear papers rustling, and shoes shuffling
toward the door, and out into that November day,
that suddenly very black Friday.