"Remember The Alamo"; "The War To End Wars"; "A Day That Will Live in Infamy"! How About "Nov. 22, 1963"?

For youngsters, many will remember 9-11 or their parents will tell them, but I know of nobody still around who remember World War I or where Korea, Viet Nam or where the Battle of the Bulge occurred and it wasn't Thanksgiving either. For this young oldster, I revisited the Ag. room in the bottom floor of the old Boys gym of Juab High School in Nephi, Utah. I was alone and pulled up the chair to sit and recall the dark feelings I had that solemn day in 63. Back then, I first thought it was a stupid joke somebody had pulled in Principle Newell's office. They were just installing an intercom system that could be heard throughout the school. Teacher Jay Dalley stood silent as did all of us kids learning about farm life. I still don't recall the confusion of the radio announcers although it was clear they were trying to gain their own composure to announce the President of the United States was just assassinated in Dallas. That couldn't happen, not to us in our day! We read about such things as President Lincoln being shot in Ford Theater years before, but those sort of things don't happen in real life, only history books. But it was real and we were excused to go home. I remember greeting my family, with all of our eyes filled with tears. We believed the Communists' had taken over our country, as we were drilled constantly on how bad Communism was and practiced running to the nearest radioactive protection area. It was doomsday in America. As I listened to more of the media announcers, the more confused I became. At first, it was a lone gunman; then a Communist's plan to take over our country. The Untied States was in a whirlwind as to who to believe. A long time later, the Warren Commission spent millions of dollars to figure out what was simple. They reported it was a lone madman named Lee Harvey Oswald who shot the President and the Governor of Texas from the Dallas School Book Depository. We all watched the funeral from the auditorium and a sober time for all of us. I still wasn't sure who did what, so years later I traveled to Dallas and did my own personal investigation and with the help of police officers. It took me a week, but concluded the Warren Commissions was accurate. Oswald had been in the US Marines, where he had became an expert with a rifle; hated America and wanted to live in Cuba, then Russia, so it all became more fodder for the media. It was soon thereafter I lost respect for reporters who interpreted the news, rather than just report it. In order that future students of history can appreciate what we all went through back then, I will put a few photos of the special edition of the assassination here, then donate the magazine to the Nephi City Library, so all folks can realize that tragedies will still come to all of us, in one shape or another. May we all learn from history as more madmen will cometh our way.