If you are like me and have had your fill of Kennedy Assassination Anniversary stories by now, I apologize in advance for the following.
Through the 50 years that have passed since Kennedy was shot, think of all the numerous accounts you have endured from the numerous folks on what they were doing when they heard the news that he had been killed. (“I-was-fill-in-the-blank” accounts for 9/11 seem to have recently eclipsed the Kennedy recounts as us old farts either can’t or don’t want to remember what we were doing in 1963.) That said however, of all of the accounts that I have ever heard, here’s one from my Mom that I never knew until she told me about it the other day.
We were living at the Store in 1963 and she was in the back room sewing an apron to be donated for the Arts and Craft Table at the St. Michael’s Fall Festival. (Just as the dates fall this year, Kennedy was shot on a Friday afternoon in 1963 and the Festival was scheduled for Sunday the 24th.) Mom said that she wanted to get the apron done that Friday afternoon before the weekend began.
Buzzy was not in the Store at the time and it was being watched by Mr. Knight the Postal Mail deliverer. Mr. Knight would bring the mail to the Scotland Post Office each day, and then do his deliveries down to Pt. Lookout and Scotland Beach. My brother Steve and I would sometimes ride with him and help him deliver the mail.
After Mr. Knight finished delivering the mail, he then would return to and hang around the Store through the afternoon until it was time for him to retrieve the mail from Miss Queenie and head back up the road with it.
Mom was sewing when Mr. Knight came back to tell her that Kennedy had been shot. She said that it startled her so much when he told her, that the thread went off the pattern she was trying to sew. Mom said that it caused her to mess up the apron such that she couldn’t donate it to the Craft Table. As she recalled the story Mom said “In fact I still have that apron.” She went to the kitchen closet and pulled it out as she said “You can even see where I ran the threads off the pattern when I heard the news. I call it my Kennedy apron. ”
