As we approach the anniversary of JFK's assassination...

[L Verge]

I remember that day so well. I had just finished my last class of the day and was back in my dorm room when the news was broadcast. Everyone stopped what they were doing, abandoned the classrooms, etc. and gathered in what we called the Quadrangle. Within the next few hours, people were crowding into the chapel on campus or heading into town to churches.

I went to a state college about four hours from D.C., and many of the students were from the Washington area. Within twenty-four hours, the campus closed down because so many of us headed home. Those who grew up in the 50s and 60s near the nation's capital and Andrews AFB were constantly aware of the Cold War and the threat of attacks. We were sure that the end was near; after all we had just waited with baited breath through the Cuban Missile Crisis. Scary times.

P.S. I never want to hear a funeral dirge or the drum cadence for a military funeral again. Those days are engraved in my memory forever.