DALLAS,
TEXAS—
A crowd of
people was standing quietly across from Dealey Plaza when we arrived last
Friday morning. A long line of visitors waited nearby at the entrance
to the Sixth Floor Museum, an exhibit housed in the Texas School Book
Depository Building from which official theory holds the fatal shot was
fired. Others climbed into a presidential limousine for a tour promising
to reenact the events of November 22, 1963, complete with sound effects.
The day was warm and clear, probably not at all unlike a day 33 years
ago when John Kennedy met his death as he rode through the streets of
Dallas.
We
paused at the top of the infamous 'grassy knoll,' the vantage point from
which some claim the fatal shot originated. We chatted with Dr. Dave
Tengwall, who was in Dallas to attend a conference hosted by the Coalition
on Political Assassination. Dr. Tengwall teaches a course on presidential
assassinations at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland. "Oliver
Stone's film JFK raised interest in the subject of Kennedy's death,"
he said, "and my class covers the other presidential assassinations
as well."
Mike Blackwell
of Pflugerville, Texas, was 11 years old when Kennedy was killed. "I
became interested in the assassination when I was in high school, ever
since I read Six Seconds in Dallas. I pursued the topic in college,
and I try to make it here every year."
Russ
Vandeveerdonk was only a year old in 1963, "But I'm from Dallas,
and my family is Catholic. I grew up on the Kennedy legacy."
Russ may
not remember the fateful day first hand, but he had a unique opportunity
to experience a vivid reenactment. Oliver Stone chose Russ to play the
role of Kennedy in JFK. "I would have paid for the honor,"
Russ said as he showed us photographs taken during filming. "It was
a fabulous experience."
Thirty-three
years have passed since John Kennedy was laid to rest, but a visit to
Dallas on a somber anniversary reveals that the memory has not faded.
The Sixth
Floor Museum
411 Elm Street
Dallas, Texas 75202-3301
(214) 653-6666
http://www.jfk.org
33
Years Later, Dallas Still Remembers
