The divide of JFK’s assassination

JFK’s assassination is a dividing line for me. I’m on the side that doesn’t remember where I was when everyone else heard the news. I’m in the baby-boom generation, born between 1946-1964, but I don’t feel too much like a boomer. The assassination is one reason why.

Another is that boomer stories are usually a decade out of synch of my life. When the news media wrote of how boomers were handling turning 50, I was still approaching 40. Now the stories are about boomers approaching retirement. That’s still 20 years away for me.

JFK’s assassination is a pivotal time in people’s lives if they can recall their feelings on that day. The moon walk was pivotal to me. I remember where I was, the anticipation of the event, and sitting in front of the TV late into the night at a motel in Mississippi where our family was vacationing. I was still young enough 10 p.m. was late.

When I mentioned the moon walk to an economics class I taught in the ’80s more than three-fourths of the class did not personally recall the event. The significance to them was absorbed from hearing the recollections from those who saw it and from seeing it replayed later on TV. That’s the way JFK’s assassination is significant to me.

UPDATE: Later in the day I saw this piece by Terry Teachout. He’s on my side of the dividing line and adds another dividing line between older and younger boomers: facing the Vietnam draft.

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