I don't remember the actual news bulletin of Kennedy's death but I do remember being upset that the cartoons were canceled. Both CTV and CBC aired the telecast of his funeral. Having just turned seven, cartoons seemed much more important than some man's funeral.
Another funeral that annoyed me was that of Winston Churchill. I was at Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind at the time of his death. Our supervisor made us sit and watch the entire ceremony, something I found extremely boring. How glad I was when we were allowed to go and play.
Being preoccupied with surviving at Jericho, I didn't notice the Vietnam war intensify or the Detroit riots. Not until Gordon Lightfoot's "Black Day in July" song came on the radio the next year did I finally pay attention to the news. By then war footage from Vietnam and peace demonstrations became a daily feature of the news.
When Martin Luther King Junior and Robert Kennedy were murdered in April of 1968, I felt worried about all the global turmoil. It felt like the end of the world. By God's grace, we're still here but the memories of those days remain.
I wrote about how I became aware of world events in Deliverance from Jericho: Six Years in a Blind School. It, and my debut paperback are available through the Bruce Atchison's books link.
I have a new book out called How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity. Read more about this wonderful testimony of God's love at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Virtual Bookworm Publishers.
This post got me to thinking about Three Dog Night, one of my favorite groups in the 1970's when I was growing up. When I was in the third grade at the Arizona School for the Deaf & Blind, I performed in a talent show with a second grade boy. He played the piano while I play the ukulele. We sang "Joy to the World." Other songs I liked by this group included "Just an Old-Fashioned Love Song" and "Black and White." Thank you for bringing back those memories.
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