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I remember our principal announcing over the intercom that John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed and the stunned silence that was palpable to even a room full of first graders.

I remember the funeral and the procession as we viewed it on a Motorola B&W television set, one of the old ones that had the CRT tube that would reduce the image to a single line, then squeeze that line into a fading dot in the middle of the screen. The assassination and funeral left a mark on everyone who was alive and able to understand it at the time.

4 years ago my father-in-law came to visit. He was a cancer survivor, but I think he knew it had come back. He was in the process of giving away some of his possessions and he presented an old paper sack to my wife (his daughter) and told us the story. In that paper bag there was a cylindrical cardboard container, and in that container there was a spent 75mm Howitzer blank shell casing. He was a member of the 'Old Guard' in the early 1960's. The 'Old Guard' is pretty much the cream of the crop of the Army's color guard. They were used in the major ceremonies in Washington. He was actually in a leadership position in the JFK funeral and helped to coordinate many aspects of it.

He was also one of the soldiers who, at the final graveside funeral, fired a series of 21 75mm Howitzer blanks as the final 21 gun salute. In that bag was a shell casing from one of the 21 fired in the final salute to a fallen President.

Time has a way of reducing vivid events into simpler lines of thought or even a single and pointed memory. Just like the old Motorola TV did when it powered down. For me, I am blessed to have a concrete reminder of those days. That old corroded brass shell is a tangible point from which the memories, once formed in the mind of a 6 year old boy, go from point, to line, and then to a full and vivid picture of that tragic day.

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