05-06-2015, 12:46 AM
47 years ago the 4th of June fell on a Tuesday.
In consecutive shifts my mother and then my father divided the day by driving small groups of voters from nursing homes to the polls where Robert F. Kennedy's fight to win the California democratic primary was being waged. During my mother's shift, squeezing as many as 5 elderly but determined Kennedy supporters at a time into our Dodge station wagon, my father took me into the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Ballroom where I hoped I would see Senator Kennedy, but instead experienced only the incredibly blinding heat and glare of television lights. I had met Senator Kennedy two years earlier in New Albany, Indiana. I know I was excited at the prospect of meeting him again. He was alive when I fell asleep in a room upstairs before the results of the election were known.
He was still alive, but mortally wounded, when I awoke early the next morning and found, to my surprise, my father, awake and in front of the television, sitting with his hands clasped in his lap, leaning forward, watching the screen. I had never known my dad, a full time professional musician, to be awake before late, late morning or noon. He hadn't slept. Only I. Nobody else had slept. I may have asked what was going on. What I remember my father saying was this: "Somebody should take the guy who did this and machine gun him against a wall."
That's how I learned what had happened. Senator Kennedy lived 25 and a half hours after being shot. He died at 1:44am, 6 June, 1968. He was 42 years old.
Be glad you weren't there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSeNLgRrtFQ
In consecutive shifts my mother and then my father divided the day by driving small groups of voters from nursing homes to the polls where Robert F. Kennedy's fight to win the California democratic primary was being waged. During my mother's shift, squeezing as many as 5 elderly but determined Kennedy supporters at a time into our Dodge station wagon, my father took me into the Ambassador Hotel's Embassy Ballroom where I hoped I would see Senator Kennedy, but instead experienced only the incredibly blinding heat and glare of television lights. I had met Senator Kennedy two years earlier in New Albany, Indiana. I know I was excited at the prospect of meeting him again. He was alive when I fell asleep in a room upstairs before the results of the election were known.
He was still alive, but mortally wounded, when I awoke early the next morning and found, to my surprise, my father, awake and in front of the television, sitting with his hands clasped in his lap, leaning forward, watching the screen. I had never known my dad, a full time professional musician, to be awake before late, late morning or noon. He hadn't slept. Only I. Nobody else had slept. I may have asked what was going on. What I remember my father saying was this: "Somebody should take the guy who did this and machine gun him against a wall."
That's how I learned what had happened. Senator Kennedy lived 25 and a half hours after being shot. He died at 1:44am, 6 June, 1968. He was 42 years old.
Be glad you weren't there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSeNLgRrtFQ
www.jfkessentials.com
Where Angels Tread Lightly, 2015, John M. Newman
State Secret, 2013, Bill Simpich
Oswald and the CIA, 2008 ed., John M. Newman
Deep Politics and DP ll, 2003 ed., Peter Dale Scott
Our Man In Mexico... 2008, Jefferson Morley
Wilderness of Mirrors, 1980, David C. Martin
JFK and Vietnam, 1992, John M. Newman
Enemy of the Truth...2012, Sherry P. Fiester
Where Angels Tread Lightly, 2015, John M. Newman
State Secret, 2013, Bill Simpich
Oswald and the CIA, 2008 ed., John M. Newman
Deep Politics and DP ll, 2003 ed., Peter Dale Scott
Our Man In Mexico... 2008, Jefferson Morley
Wilderness of Mirrors, 1980, David C. Martin
JFK and Vietnam, 1992, John M. Newman
Enemy of the Truth...2012, Sherry P. Fiester