this is it!

one of my best days:

today is the 42nd anniversary of the day john f kennedy was assassinated in dallas. i am fascinated with this event and have been for as long as i can remember. when i was a boy , we often had occasion to go to dallas. it did not matter where in the metroplex we were; neil and i would harass dad to drive through dealey plaza ,until he would- finally- relent and accommodate us. it is a habit i still have. i almost always drive by the plaza, and if time permits, i feel the need to drive through the plaza. i'm not sure what this does for me; but as a lover of history, being at the site of such a seminal event still excites me.

one of these trips was 2 years ago - on the 40th anniversary. i drove up for the day and met neil and melissa at brian's house. after breakfast, we went down to dealey. the plaza was filled with our fellow geeks. even some of the streets were closed, as people were everywhere.

for the assassination-obsessed, the gathering provided the opportunity to see several of the peripheral "celebrities" of the conspiracy canon. we saw beverly oliver -the "babushka lady," the deaf dude who was on the rail-yard overpass, jesse "the body, mind, blowhard" ventura, and some author who i am unable to remember at this time. it really was an event, and it was fun to be in the midst of our fellow enthusiasts. i just referred to myself as an assassination enthusiast. interesting.

we had previously decided that the gathering at the plaza was not only cool and a necessary starting point; but, it was also strictly for amateurs. we wanted to pay homage to the story behind the story;so we had a full day planned, not merely a leisurely morning as was being enjoyed by our dealey plaza-mates. so after an hour or so, we were off.

first stop was the boarding house on zang and beckley. in november of '63, oswald was separated from marina and renting a room from a lady who owned this home. we intended to get out and look around, but the home's owner ( the daughter of oswald's landlady) had just returned from the grocery store; and ,we thought it might be rude to start running around her yard while taking pictures.

so we drove a few blocks to the duplex where marina took the famous pictures of oswald holding the manlicher-carcano used to shoot kennedy (whatever.) a texas monthly article had warned sight-seers not to stop in this neighborhood. like most white people, they turned out to be overly concerned about the activities of brown-skinned people. we got out of the car, and walked around the backyard of this unrented home. we remained unmolested by "gangs" as we took some pictures with the same view marina caught in her famously "doctored" photos. and we're off.

after arriving back at his room following the shooting of jfk, oswald grabbed a pistol and a jacket. he then started walking to our next destination- the intersection of tenth and patton. here, he supposedly shot officer j.d. tippit in an attempt to further his escape. we were surprised to find about 10 other "enthusiasts" walking the streets. when a question went unanswered as to where tippit lay after being shot, several of our new-found friends (read: companion geeks) retired to their cars to retrieve their assassination resource manuals of choice, hoping to find the definitive answer. none was. we left the intersection with a feeling of peace having had our unspoken fear of uber-geekosity justified by the sense of community provided by other nerds on a similar pilgrimage.

no journey like this would be complete without a visit to the texas theater. oswald went here following tippit's murder and was arrested shortly after arrival. the theater is in horrible condition and -though it is the focus of a community renewal plan- it doesn't show any signs of improving any time soon. there were a few older couples outside the door of the theater, but no one could go inside the building.

we were done in dallas, but we had one more stop to make - in fort worth. rose hill cemetery is the site of oswald's grave. his body may, or may not be in the ground there. there are some theories about the body buried there not being that of lee harvey; but, we will never know. i was shocked to see so many people on the grounds. first of all, i figured this would be too obscure to attract the attention of so many; but also, the grave is difficult to locate, and the cemetery keepers will not divulge the location to the curious. it was a fitting place to end a full day of looking back.

the answers to the questions created in november of 1963 will never be answered to our full satisfaction. in thirty (or so) years the federal government is legally bound to release all documents connected to jfk's assassination and all peripheral investigations. this may or may not happen ,as laws are changed or ignored in this country on a daily basis. even if all these records were made available to all the world, i doubt they would clear up much of the confusion and distrust permeating the culture of conspiracy. this is -after all- the definition of conspiracy theorist, we don't want the defining answers to ever be revealed - even if that is possible, at this point. some say the world changed that day, that innocence died and trust in our government disappeared. i can't disagree more. the notion that either of these qualities existed as late as the 20th century is hilarious. we were established as a nation with distrust and cynicism and secrecy and inequality as themes at the foundation of our development. the death of john fitzgerald kennedy, and the subsequent conspiracy by our government to conceal the facts of his death merely perpetuated the common threads of disenchantment and ignorance that seem to define the american public. maybe this is why we still are so infatuated with this story. either way, jackson and i will be in front of the book depository at 12:30 8 years from now - see you then.