50 YEARS AGO TODAY

I was 10 years old and in the fifth grade. The principal came over the PA system and announced that the President had been shot. I remember going home and seeing - for what I think was the very first time - my mother crying.

That day was a Friday, too. I remember two days later - and what may have been on live TV when I saw it - Jack Ruby take out Lee Harvey Oswald. Shit, even as a 10 year old I remember thinking that was justice served.

And then a couple of days later, the funeral. I'm old enough to remember the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I've always believed Lee Harvey Oswald killed him. What the fuck, he worked at the Book Depository building which he ran from that afternoon, he had the receipt for the rifle found at the scene, he murdered a cop and hid in the movie theatre. I don't know what Jack Ruby's motives were and I don't know if anyone else was involved. But I do know, it was the start of some awfully crazy times for a 10 year old.