Steel Notes Magazine December 2016 | Page 116

December 2016

Steel Notes Magazine

The End Of The World,
Camelot Was No More
by © Guido Colacci 2016

Not all coups involve tanks and armies in
the streets. Not all coups are proclaimed
loudly and to all the people
… 53 years ago today a coup
d'etat took place in the United Staes under the guise of
a “lone crazed gunman who murdered President John F.
Kennedy on the street of Dallas. In the U.S.A. where history books teach us that there is always a peaceful transfer of power within the rules of a democratic society
especially in America where the Constitution guarantees
this. I should have been too young to be taking interest in that dark moment in our history, but I did. For
some reason I did, to this day I can remember minute
by minute all the events from the moment. There was a knock on the classroom door of
my 3rd grade school room just as lunch was ending, and the teacher that was doing lunch
duty, Sister Richard Lawrence, went to answer it and was called outside into the hallway.
She came back into the room after a few moments, her eyes red and
crying… she spoke quietly and told us to pray for President Kennedy as he had been shot at. She didn’t say anything else as she led us
in prayer. As I was saying the words I knew by rote, in my mind I
pictured President Kennedy hiding behind a fence and ducking as shots were fired at him
and he fired back at them like some old western movie. For some reason I remember that
we were released right after that and so many people outside the school were speaking
in hushed tones and crying openly and some just grasped their child’s hand and walked
quickly while some lingered and talked, their faces openly shocked and heads shaking.
By the time we got home, my Nonna and I had heard things said along the way home, and I felt an unbearable
rush to put the TV on … I did, and there it was, he was dead by then. I remember a jumble of words, interviews,
photos and live coverage coming at me from every channel and trying as best I could to understand and to take it
in… I was overwhelmed by the information and the way it was told, almost as if the people were trying to get out
the words as quickly as they could or they would just explode.
The TV became a safe haven to me, like sitting in front of a fireplace, just
hearing and listening and seeing and watching… I don’t remember my parents saying much at all, which seemed very odd to me.
The TV was a constant companion the whole weekend. And then as things
seemed to calm down a little bit, right around noon or so suddenly right
there in front of this 8 year old’s eyes, the man who police said killed President Kennedy was killed, shot, although while it was happening I didn’t

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