Re: JFK

[Julia Hedden Denton <denton@uhunix.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu>]

Greetings from Hickam Air Force Base!

I'm a library student at the Graduate School for Library and Information
Studies, University of Hawaii.  My husband is a dentist based here at
Hickam.  I *am* old enough to remember the day vividly.  I was in 2nd
grade and had come home from school to find my mother across the street
visiting with a neighbor.  We were new to the neighborhood and I didn't
know the boys who were outside the house where my mother was visiting,
but I stayed outside with them because I wasn't invited inside.  Two boys
were playing with some old boards, trying to get rusty nails out of
them.  While I was watching them, my mother came to the door and said
that she had just heard on the radio that President Kennedy was shot and
might be dead.  I remember wondering why this was so important to her
that she interrupted her conversation to come tell me.  I was horrified
to hear one of the boys say he was glad Kennedy was dead.  He then made
a racist remark.  I realized that these boys were from a different world
than mine because I never heard my parents talk like that.  A few minutes
later one of the boys dropped a board and it fell on me.  The rusty nail
in one end pierce my knee and I cried out in pain.

My mother came out and said we would have to go to the doctor to get a
shot.  On the way to the doctor's office, the radio announced that Kennedy
was indeed dead.  My mother began to cry, and it was one of maybe five
times I ever saw her cry during my entire childhood.  My sister was
crying.  I began to cry again, only because I was afraid of the tetanus
shot.  My mother asked me if I was crying because of my knee or because
of the president.  I lied and said that it was because of the president.

I can still remember that day vividly because I can look down and see the
scar.  But that day left unseen scars on many people.

Julia Denton