The neighbor kids and I were sitting on the porch of my little 4 room mountain shack, listening to planes roar overhead---there were a lot of plane flights--wondering whether they might be Russians. We didn't have a tv, so I was soaking up the worldly wisdom of my year older cousin at the time.

The drills at school to get under one's desk and cover one's head certainly got one's attention. At the time of the assassination, my mom and dad were having "problems," and we moved into grandma's house so I got to watch the funeral on her tv. I still recall the officiant priest reading from the book of Ecclesiastes: "There is a time to be born, and a time to die....." I also recall the two children clinging to Jackie's hand. And I recall being absolutely mystified by the Eternal Flame at the graveside. I ponder that one for years afterward.