Reply #34: 1968

[Awsi Dooger]

I remember vaguely following the early primaries. Then the night before the California primary my dad and I were eating at a burger joint and my dad was discussing the primary with some man at the counter.

The next morning before school I turned on my kids shows and instead there was a man with a bull horn standing atop a truck, talking to a crowd. I listened long enough until I realized it was outside the hospital in LA, that Bobby Kennedy had been shot. I awoke my dad and he was initially furious, convinced I was kidding him.

We threw away all the toy guns in my toy chest after RFK died.

Actually, I have a much earlier political memory but until a few years ago I had no clue how it connected. I was in nursery school and one day the teachers talked softly amongst each other and then stopped the class in midday. It became very silent and strange. All the kids were walked outside and to the road leading to the back of the school. One by one the parents arrived to pick us up. I was one of the last remaining and the teacher held my hand until my grandmother arrived. I always knew that was a Friday since classes didn't resume for several days. But I never realized what it was until I looked at my class picture and it read 1963-64. That was obviously the JFK assassination. My parents insist I watched the coverage and asked plenty of questions, but I have absolutely no memory other than the oddity at school.