Monday, November 22, 2010

47 Years Ago Today

This comedy spoof album by Vaughn Meader of the Kennedy First Family, of course, predates the President's assassination November 22, 1963, forty-seven years ago today. I was 6 years old, and remember getting out of the taxi that brought me home from first grade and seeing my mother crying. I thought it had to be about my grandmother who was in the hospital. I was too young to really appreciate the President's death, but I was relieved it wasn't my "Nanny" as I called her. The next few days were spent in front of the television watching the amazing, nonstop, coverage of the news and the funeral, including the murder of Jack Ruby a few days later. I still own all of the magazines and newspapers my mother saved in the following days, weeks and months.

• For the Wiki on Vaughn Meader, click here.

15 comments:

  1. Oh Casey I can't believe you posted this. This was my parents' FAVORITE album...they used to play it for their friends all the time. I don't remember the content at all, but I remember when Kennedy was shot (I had just turned 5) they announced that they would never play it again. And they never did!

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  2. THANKS FOR SHARING. GRANNY

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  3. I WAS THAT MOMS LAYING ACROSS HER BED RESTING WHEN THERE WAS A KNOCK ON THE DOOR. IT WAS THE MAN THAT DELIVERED THINGS TO MOM EVERY MONTH. WHEN MOM OPENED THE DOOR I REMEMBER HIM SAYING THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD. I ALSO HAVE NEWSPAPERS FROM THAT NEWS.
    GRANNY

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  4. Ish—i'm pretty sure that's what happened at our house too. the record is absolutely mint, so it was probably only played a few times before the assassination and never afterwards.

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  5. should add, I bet our newspapers/magazines about the Kennedy murder are the most saved American journalistic pieces ever, even after almost 50 years.

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  6. I remember the album well -- it was pretty funny. I remember JFK said that his voice sounded more like Bobby!

    I also remember well the day of the assasination, being in high school at the time. It was announced during my chemistry class that the President had been shot and when we moved on to English class it was announced that he was dead. We were released for the day and didn't go back until after the funeral. It was a very solemn time even though my family (and me to this day) aren't and weren't much in the crying department. My brother and I were sitting in his brand new 64 Falcon convertible (he got it the day before the assasination) with my aunt when we heard on the car radio about Jack Ruby. It all seemed surreal then. Now, with the way the crazies have taken over everything, I think it would not appear so surreal. I think I'll remember every detail of the funeral for the rest of my life. And on a car note, the limousine that Mrs. kennedy rode in in the funeral procession was a 1960 Imperial Ghia limousine -- I believe it belonged to the Kennedy family.

    Paul, NYC

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  7. I didn't know about the Imperial. thanks for that! That was a pretty tasteful ride for a wealthy New England family. I'm sure they found Cadillacs gauche. I know they had their share of Lincolns too.

    The other type of wealthy New Englander, like Kate Hepburn, always drove large Ford sedans, right up to the end. That was more of what my town's upper class was like.

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  8. Forty-seven years ago today we were living in married student housing at UC Berkeley. I had just return from dropping my husband off at the UC campus and returned home. I set up the ironing board and flicked on the TV to iron and watch my soaps. The TV screen flickered and Walter Cronkite came on the air... and the rest is history.

    Sad, sad day.

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  9. one of the reasons I posted this topic today is that everyone that was alive at the time, remember EXACTLY what they were doing when they heard the news. I find that extremely fascinating, how certain memories are burned indelibly in our minds. In my art, which has so much to do with memories, I try to tap into that same sort of long-term remembrances. Imagine all of us 47 years ago, in all of our disparate locations, ages and lives, all coming together "now" and relating to each other in my blog. It's really the stuff that drives me to create art, if that's understandable at all.

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  10. I GET IT ALSO. I LIVED AT ONE TIME MANY YEARS AGO JUST NORTH OF DALLAS. I'VE BEEN TO THE SPOT WHERE HE WAS SHOT. IT GIVE YOU A FUNNY FEELING WHEN YOU WALK AROUND THAT STREET.

    GOOD NIGHT PAL GOOD NIGHT.

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  11. it seems like you've lived in a lot of places, Granny. That's pretty cool. I've seen so much of the footage of the assassination, and lots of TV shows, I bet I'd recognize the street it happened on if I were to ever go there, the Book Depository Building and all that. I always wonder how Caroline thinks about it this time of year. We're just about the same age. I'm sure Thanksgiving is always a bittersweet time for her.

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  12. I've heard that Kate Hepburn drove a 62 Thunderbird for many years until she had a wreck that badly injured her secretary/companion. In the documentary, "Me", made rather late in her life, she was driven in the last Roadmaster and I seem to remember in some other profile of her that there was one of the last of the square Caprices (before the whale-like one that came out in the early 90s?). I guess people with money and history behind them don't need to flaunt it!

    I'm constantly amazed that I work with people who weren't alive when Kennedy as President and have no recollection of where they heard the news because they weren't anywhere! And you don't even have to be what we refer to as "12-year-olds" to not have been alive yet. You can easily be 43!!! How did this happen??? :-)

    Paul, NYC

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  13. PLACES WE'VE LIVED
    NY,PA,TX,FL,SC,WV,OK.
    SOMETIMES MOVED BACK TWO OR THREE TIMES TO THE SAME STATE. CORPORATE TRANSFERS. A GOOD LIFE. LOVED TX. AND PA. N.Y. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STATE OF THEM ALL. I GUESS BECAUSE YOU CAN ALWAYS GO HOME. GRAVESTONE ALREADY BOUGHT AND LAID AT THE CEMETAY. LOL. WHEN I WOULD GO AND LOOK AT THE FAMILY GRAVES THEN LOOK AT MINE IT GIVES YOU A FUNNY FEELING. YUK

    GRANNY

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  14. Paul, I know just what you mean about younger people not even being alive when President Kennedy was assassinated. I'm 58 but my husband is only 47. He was born a month after the assassination! Talk about making me feel OLD! LOL

    GRANNY, YOU'VE GOTTEN TO TASTE LIFE A LITTLE BIT OF EVERYWHERE THEN! I THINK THAT'S TERRIFIC! I NEVER UNDERSTAND HOW SOMEONE CAN STAY IN THE SAME TOWN ALL THEIR LIFE. KUDOS TO YOU GRANNY!


    Casey, how tender to think about Caroline Kennedy each November. I had never thought of that (I'm embarrassed!) but I will from now on. Makes me feel like writing her a letter!

    hugs,
    Katie

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