President John F. Kennedy's assassination left a nation stunned and scarred.

 

I was a simple little girl anxiously awaiting my fifth birthday.  My parents planned a nice party to celebrate their daughter's big day.  Decorations adorned the basement, brightly wrapped presents waited to be opened.  The world was a happy party awaiting my grand entrance. 

November 22, 1963 was a day that would forever be remembered in the annals of history.  What should have been a happy memory of a child's birthday party turned into one of the most tragic events of our time.

My mother fixed my hair real pretty with a big red bow.  I anxiously put my pretty blue party dress on with my white leotards and black patent leather shoes.  The princess of the day waited impatiently for her royal guests to arrive bearing brightly wrapped gifts.  Games of bobbing for apples and pin the tail on the donkey were big hits, causing healthy laughter to resound throughout the house. 

As everyone was being gathered to sing the traditional "Happy Birthday" song before the cake and ice cream was to be served, my father made an annoucement that we were to immediately go upstairs and sit down in the living room.  We were seated in front of the "Zenith" black and white television listening to words that even five year old children could understand.  Our thirty-fifth president had been assassinated! 

My most vivid memory of that very moment was the "silence".  Cold, stunned, shocked, deafening silence...and then the tears, streaming down everyone's face.  Our nation had lost President John F. Kennedy, but in reality we had lost so much more.

This was the beginning of a national loss of security...and the end of "Camelot" and "Bill Bailey, won't you please come home?", a romantic musical and song that were favorite's of President Kennedy.  It was also the end of my birthday party...and the beginning of a child's innocence, forever lost.