Keepng JFK's Flame Eternal

THE FACT THAT THE FIFTIETH anniversary of the JFK assassinstion fell on a Friday, just like the actual event, brings to mind the memory of all four days of shock in 1963, Friday through the funeral Monday. In retrospect, it seems rather amazing that the elaborate funeral was held only three days afer the death. For some reason, everybody seemed to think the sooner the better. As if wanting to complete the nightmarish whirlwind weekend process as quickly as possible, and then maybe pretend it never happened. Maybe it would have been better to give us all a few more days to openly mourn and grieve, before getting back to reality. We had no school Monday for the funeral, but went right back to work Tuesday, the day after the funeral. My biggest problem in thrid grade was subtracting a number like nintey three from a number like two seventy two, where you had to beg, borrow and steal firght off the bat. I remember staying up late Friday night, as the president's body was shown on TV landing in Washington after dark. Throughout Saturday and Sunday cameras in the White House showed mourners passing by as the casket lay in state. The military guards were statuesque. Even though I was only eight years old,I was not bored by all this. I recall needing to take breaks from the TV throughout the weekend, and get outside for a few minutes occasionally, but in general, I sat in front of the black and white TV. We had only two channels, CBS and NBC. I believe CBS was the first choice, spending the entire mightmare weekend with Walter Cronkite, who brought comfort. When told that the flame at his grave site would be eternal, that amazed me, the very thought of it, like it must have other people. At the time it seemed like anb awfully long time to keep a flame aflame. It still does. Didn't it go out for a few minutes, for some reason, just the other day? They got it lit right back up, though.