posted 11-22-2008 02:09 PM               

It is worth the price of admission though, for the chance to stand on the sixth floor and look down through the same bank of windows that Oswald did that day. It brings the history of the event alive, even if you, like myself, weren't alive that day.

The museum includes two references to JFK's role in shaping the nation's space program. Interestingly, they do not emphasize Apollo but rather focus on the events that took place while he was in office, such as Glenn's orbital flight.

posted 11-22-2008 03:04 PM               

He wasn't perfect, he was a man. He wasn't King Arthur and his Presidency wasn't Camelot but he had the ability to make us want to be better and work to see our nation lead the world.

Rest in peace Mr. President and may the man who steps into your office next January pick up you torch and inspire a nation again. This is still America where anything CAN happen if we just work together.

posted 11-22-2008 03:37 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
I visited The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza for the first time last month.

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posted 11-22-2008 04:28 PM               

Imagine visiting the Saturn V center at KSC and having moon landing conspiracy people bug you every minute, trying to sell you something...or just simply listening to them fool a naive public around you into believing their version of the truth. Or worse, imagine standing at Pad 34 and listening to people tell you about their imagined conspiracy to kill the Apollo 1 astronauts...especially when all you want to do is to pay your respects to the fallen astronauts.

I believe in freedom of speech, but I also believe in respecting the rights of those who wish to observe a historic landmark in peace. Hopefully Dallas has done something to keep these people from soiling this historic landmark...or at least restrict their ability to solicit near the point where the assassination occurred.

The only conspiracy I saw in Dealey Plaza was a conspiracy to make money.

Mark

posted 11-22-2008 10:10 PM               

All I remember is that when I went to stand behind the fence on the grassey knoll, I was more than convinced that this was where the shooter stood.

And although the fence was really hacked up, I never thought about taking a piece for myself... sure wish I had!

I went up to the Sixth Floor, but did not pay the admission to get in... yeah, it must have been Bob Boyd that took me there. But I am pretty sure I walked around alone... maybe he had been there so many times, he waited in a car for me.

I snapped a few Polaroid pics that day... scanned them, but don't know how to post pics here... I should put them up at Flickr and add a link here.

So I was in the fifth grade in 1963... school got out a little early that day... got home and my mom had been crying like I had never seen before... she was taking pictures of my baby sister in a red dress when the news came on. I remember the red dress... don't know if my mom still has that or not... the day is still a very tough point to discuss with her, but I should ask her soon, if I want to know.

I was talking to some friends of John, Jr. a few weeks ago and when I relayed the conversation to my mom, you could just hear the near-tearing up on the phone... so it is still a tough conversation to have with her about the Kennedy's in any way whatsoever.

posted 11-23-2008 03:30 AM               

As I was recording a programme in 1993 to mark the event, suddenly there on the screen was the old film of a man called Charles Brehm, who gave an eye-witness account to reporters within minutes of the shooting.

All through the years I had remembered this guy getting all upset while he was talking on camera, and I recall being quite shocked as a nine-year-old; I think it was this that really brought home to me the magnitude of what had happened.

I stayed glued to the TV until closedown that night.

Don't want to start an argument going here, but anyone who studies the ACTUAL facts of the case - first of all checking that they are considering facts, not theories that have taken on a new life as fact - will come to the conclusion that Oswald did it, just as he was the killer of policeman J. D. Tippett. There was no second gunman. There was no shot from the grassy knoll.

Oswald, a guy with his own problems, saw a map of the President's motorcade route in the newspaper a few days earlier, and realised he could put himself into the history books. Simple as that!

posted 11-23-2008 12:51 PM               

Oddly enough, that's what has fascinated me most about it. I have had some interest in the assassination itself, but I don't take it too far. Some of the key evidence is not pleasant to look at (looking at the post-mortem photos is like listening to the Apollo 1 tape: though you may be glad to satisfy the curiosity, once is enough for a lifetime, and it takes you a while to get over). There's also the conspiracy theories, and...well, though some of them may have some merit, I often find their proponents get a little too evangelical about them for my tastes.

I haven't yet made the pilgrimage to Dallas, but I hope to before long. Everyone I've spoken with who has been to the Sixth Floor Museum speaks highly of it.

posted 11-25-2008 10:00 PM               

My mom remembers that she was in the fifth grade, and the principal of the school calling her teacher out of the classroom. They talked in the hall for a minute and then the her teacher came back into the room and told them what happened. My mom says she remembers the general feeling of sadness in everyone, but that, at the time, she did not grasp exactly what was going on.

Growing up, one of the things that made me interested in the assassination was a bit of local history; i.e. Oswald's activities in New Orleans. Later I found out that the ties were closer to home when I discovered that Oswald lived for a time in my neighboring town. It even hit closer still to home when one of my uncles told me he actually knew Oswald as a child, and claims that he and Oswald got into a couple of schoolyard brawls.

posted 11-26-2008 06:52 PM               

It is unfortunate that so very important things can be changed so drastically within a mere few seconds. It is very important to understand the causes and what led up to like events so we can understand and correct them so they won't happen again.

Because the Apollo 1 fire occurred on the pad instead of in space we were able to determine what happened and go on to the Moon. JFK's assassination is one of those chapters of history that will never be solved completely as there were so many different people involved who gave conflicting accounts of what happened that day.

I have always kept an open mind about the assassination and have read many statements and accounts of witnesses on the internet and watched many related TV shows too. To this day I still cannot determine what really happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963. No one person can. For those who believe the Warren Commission's conclusion is the absolute answer I would suggest they dig a lot deeper. One avenue would be the multi-episode documentary 'The Men Who Killed Kennedy'. It includes interviews of the people who were actually there that fateful weekend, including compelling commentary by the doctors who treated Kennedy at Parkland Hospital.

posted 11-26-2008 08:17 PM               

Interesting to me, was that "facts" were locked up for years and years and years! Just like UFO stuff. Why? National security? Sensitivity to relatives?

Another part of my "personal" story: After years of owning "used" or hand-me-down televisions, my family had one of the first color televisions in the neighborhood, that we got earlier in 1963. So this was all "in color" for me... my and my brother were playing Monopoly in front of the TV on the living room floor the Sunday Oswald got shot. My mom yelled out to my dad who was in or just getting out of the bathtub... just the start or maybe mid-point of a decade that was quite incredible, to say the least!