I remember when President Kennedy was shot up in Dallas. 22 November, 1963. It was a Friday. My 16th birthday. I was in class at San Marcos High School. 27 miles South of Austin, 49 miles North of San Antonio. We had just returned to class from lunch.
School was not let out. We remained in class. One of the teachers had a portable radio and turned it on to keep up with current events as we went through the motions of continuing with our studies. We did not know if it was an 'inside job' (coups d'etat within our own government) or if the Soviets were going to attack or invade. My first thought was, 'Why in the world would he come to Dallas, Texas? It would be easier to provide security for him if he were visiting Moscow.' Being a kid, I had no interest in politics but I can tell from what I overheard whenever Kennedy was mentioned by adults that regardless of what the history books say now of days...... He was not very popular here in Texas.
My 2nd thought was to form a plan of action in case there was an invasion. We were too young to join the military so the boys in class got together and we decided amongst ourselves to go home, arm ourselves and if we were invaded, to go up into the hills with whatever provisions we could carry and fight a guerrilla action, constantly sniping and moving. The girls and lady folk we could convince to come would be taken to safer places farther up in the hill country for their safety. We would bury ammo, weapons and food in caches, much of it in caves we knew of so that if the enemy found any of it, they would not find all of it.
But we saw no enemy planes landing and no parachutes as we walked home Ditto that evening and the days that followed. So in the following weeks, we just tried to make some sense of it all and get on with life. About 20 years later there was a movie called 'Red Dawn' and the young people in the movie fought the Soviet invaders as we had discussed. The movie kids also did a lot of really stupid and overly dramatic things as I recall, but then again, it was a Hollywood movie. Not real life.
I do remember coming in the back door from the alfalfa field behind our home a couple days following the Kennedy assassination. I had gotten my DeSoto hemi powered Henry J running and was looking forward to taking my drivers license test so I could drive it on the road instead of bouncing around the alfalfa field with it.
As I came in the kitchen door, I could see that my folks were watching their little black and white TV in the back bedroom. Very unusual for them to have it on during the day. As I got nearer, I saw Jack Ruby lunge forward and shoot Oswald live on TV as he was being escorted by the tall Texas Ranger.
Anyway, I determined soon after to go into the service the following year when I turned 17. Lots of guys in my school were dropping out and doing that. Things were tight and that would be one less mouth for my folks to feed. But my folks convinced me to finish school. So I stayed on and finished school before leaving for Marine Corps boot camp following graduation.
Thanks for the memories,
Harry
