Friday, November 22, 2013

When The World Turned Upside Down ~ My Memories of the JFK Assassination

November 22nd in 1963 was a typical school day for this third grader. It was Friday, but I don't have any memories of looking forward to the weekend, like so many kids today. After all, I loved school.

We lived directly across the street from Henley School when I went there, and for many years after, on a stubby little street with just a few houses on it. The Henley playground, with its gigantic set of swings, was an extension of my own backyard. On the last day of that 1963 summer,  I had eagerly stationed myself on one of those swings, yelling out greetings to the mostly "old maid" teachers, as they arrived to prepare their classrooms for the new school year.

In those halcyon days before school bus exhaust, it was said I could roll out of bed and be at school, we lived so close. I sometimes brought friends home for lunch with me (those who might have a rare "mom who worked"). When it was time to go back to school after lunch, there were hop-scotch games and double-dutch challenges on the playground to give time for the teachers to welcome us back. We dutifully, and mostly silently, "lined up" in queues to go back in, knowing we'd have another chance to play during afternoon recess.

That day, for my mother, would have also been a typical one for this mother of four. With two in school, and two still at home, she had seen to feeding, clothing, and housecleaning with an enthusiasm seen rarely these days. She had sent us off with a hearty breakfast, fortified our day with a nutritious lunch, and looked forward to rewarding herself with her "program" at 1:30. It was a break from the routine of running her home, where she could immerse herself in lives outside her own, with their own problems and challenges. It was time for Chris and Nancy, Grampa, Penny and Tom Hughes. It was time for "As The World Turns."




We had just come inside from the Henley playground following afternoon recess, and were hanging up our coats and jackets on the hooks in the center of the hall. They probably allowed for about 10-15 minutes for this ritual, with teachers hustling us off to our assigned classrooms. A few teachers had had "monitor duty" outside, two on the girls' side and two on the boys' side. I recall one of those teachers frantically corraling us near the coat hooks, informing us that we were all to reverse course, put our coats back on, and go home. The President had been shot.

For me, it was a short sprint out the door, past the swings, and up the front porch steps of my house. There I found my mother in the living room, glued to the television set, saying that they had just broken into regularly-scheduled programming, in the middle of "As The World Turns," with a news bulletin.


The initial CBS News Bulletin which interrupted As the World Turns at 1:40 p.m.,
 as Nancy (
Helen Wagner) talks with Grandpa (Santos Ortega)


The television remained on throughout the rest of the day into the evening, and steadily for the following momentous days. Scenes replayed over and over again, the motorcade, Oswald's murder, Johnson's swearing-in, and especially the funeral. John-John's seemingly impulsive salute is one of those poignant memories, but I remember seeing the riderless horse in the funeral procession, with boots turned backwards in the stirrups, as being both sad and scary.*

We had no school all the following week, because Thanksgiving was coming up anyway. In the family rotation tradition, it was at our house that year. A houseful of family gathered that day to rehash all that we had seen and heard. We were not an overtly political family, but we all knew we had, collectively and individually, witnessed, through the medium of television, something historic and heart-wrenching.

For this little third grader in South Portland, Maine, it shaped how I viewed the world I was being raised into. It was forever to be a world turned upside down.




* The poignant story of that horse, Black Jack, can be found at:
http://www.horsecarecourses.com/horse_of_the_week/2012/02/black-jack-the-caparisoned-horse-at-jfk-kennedy-s-funeral.html

Photo credits:

Ed Stout, New York Times, http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/08/as-the-world-turns-to-end-in-september/

CBS Television live screenshot, printed in TV Guide magazine (vol. 12, no. 4), January 25, 1964: "A permanent record of what we watched on television from Nov. 22 to 25, 1963", p. 23. TV Guide © Triangle Publications, Inc. Self-scanned from collection of Wikipedia User JGHowes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JFK_CBS_bulletin.jpg


***********

This Collective Memory Project, brought to you by Geneabloggers, can be followed on Pinterest:

http://www.pinterest.com/geneabloggers/jfk-assassination-my-familys-memories/




Saturday, November 9, 2013

Honor Roll Project ~ The U.S. Marine Corps Memorial in Cincinnati, Ohio

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I am, this year, again representing Ohio.  Each Veteran's Day, we try to find Honor Roll monuments and plaques around the country, some prominent and famous, others unknown or obscure. We transcribe the names in a blog post, thereby making the names searchable by most internet search engines.

In so doing, we provide a hint for genealogists and famiy historians searching for ancestors on the internet, and give them a glimpse into the military heritage of their family.

Stop by Heather's blog, Nutfield Genealogy, on Veteran's Day, November 11th, to see all the participants' posts so far, or visit our Military Honor Rolls board on Pinterest.



The U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, located in Lytle Park, in Cincinnati, Ohio, was built and dedicated on July 4, 1921.  It consists of a 500-pound bronze reproduction of the traditional Marine emblem, the globe, anchor, and eagle, sculpted by Sarah Ayers Kruthap, resting on a rough block of Beverly (Mass.) granite.



The inscription on the memorial states that the memorial was given to the City of Cincinnati by Dr. Benjamin Ricketts, in memory of all the Hamilton County marines who died in action during the World War, including his own son. It lists the names of 35 marines who died during World War I.



"In honor of the United States Marine Corps & the Marines of Hamilton County who made the supreme sacrifice in the World War"

The portrait depicts 
Corporal Merrill Laws Ricketts
XVIII Co., V. Reg., U. S. Marines

"FILIO PATER"


Defensive Sector * Aisne-Marne * St Michiel * Meuse-Argonne



In left and right columns, here are the names:

Walter S. Austin
Otmer O. Anderson
Walter H. Berger
Russell P. Blackham
Charles H. Boettcher
George W. Budde
Lovette L. Channell
James W. Costigan
Edward T. Danford
Robert B. Decatur
Henry E. Denham
James F. Duncan
James W. Easter
Ford E. Erdmann
Raymond Erhardt
Albert C. Gahr
Guy Gaynor
Edward C. Gehlert
Harry J. Gorth
Lyle C. Houchins
Elmer H. Hughes
Wilber H. Jeffries
Robert D. Johnson
Lyle B. Jones
Edward A. Koehne
Julius J. Latscha
William F. Lindsey
Raymond D. Lindsey
Leo P. Linneman
Albert R. Marshall
Joseph E. Miemann
Nicholas W. Miller
Charles A. Naegelen
James A. O'Brien
Neal O'Leary
Philip E. Patton
Earl L. Parrott
James F. Reynolds
John Roos
Henry Schmidt
Max E. Seal
Albert Silverston
Russell A. Stephens
Ulysess W. Upton
Albert C. Veid
Willard J. Wagner
Robert A. Waters
Henry Watson
William F. Welch
Leo Weschke
Charles M. Wintering
Eli Wittstein

The memorial also included a Marine drinking water fountain on the back side, when in its original park location, but after the memorial was relocated, it no longer works.



This memorial is now located on the southern tip of Lytle Park, overlooking the I-71 Expressway and Anna Louise Inn.  It is #8 on the map.




Additional info:

Dr. Benjamin Merrill Ricketts was a world-renowned surgeon, who founded Ricketts Hospital in Cincinnati. His son, Merrill Laws Ricketts, born in Cincinnati September 24, 1893, was killed in France on October 4, 1918, six weeks before the end of the war, 25 years old.

Merrill Laws Ricketts' military service records show his name as Langdon Laws Ricketts (His name was changed by his mother after his parents' divorce.). He is buried at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, but has a cenotaph in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati.*




Find A Grave. Find A Grave Memorial # 26205779.  http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=RICK&GSpartial=1&GSbyrel=all&GSst=37&GScntry=4&GSsr=1761&GRid=26205779& Grave of Corp Langdon Laws Ricketts (1893-1918).