Sunday, November 25, 2007

The Day Kennedy Was Shot


from Knickerbocker Village
Howie Silverstein checks in with a "beauty in there" memory piece

"44 years and 1 week since you broke your arm Marv reminded me that 5 days later Kennedy was shot.....I meant to bring this up a couple of days ago in advance of the 44th anniversary which occurred at the beginning of last year in KV.....we were taking a social studies test that fateful Friday, last period in Mr. Klein's class in 65 when someone came into the room with the news, I heard Mr.Klein say,"don't tell them now..they're taking a test..."...when we were given the news afterwards I remember being angered because Elinor Birnbaum thought it was funny....after school we hung out on Cherry (David, Paul, Mark Schumer) and debated whether it was disrespectful that the older guys..yeah you Allan, Bobby, Marty? were playing basketball at a time like this....funny how lines were drawn by grade and age.....later on in front of the courtyard still on Cherry, after a plane went by we speculated and argued for too long whether it was heading for D.C....so if someone asks,"Where were you when Kennedy was shot?..." it's all about the LES and hanging out on Cherry St.

Howie

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

1965, huh? Look at all the progress we've made:( You know, researching, writing, and publishing and publicizing a student cookbook back then was difficult. There wasn't much experience in doing that kind of thing as a class project to draw on, kids wrote in long hand (those clunky #2 pencils on that rough, wide lined BOE paper), an aging Rexograph reproducing maching or Xeroxing if you had the bucks, and typed letters sent out by snail mail bearing postage stamps in hopes of getting the attention of people about what the kids did. Nowadays, with search engines, word processors, Web 2.0 publishing resources, digital recorders and cameras to capture the voice and finished products of family chefs, etc. etc. it can all be so easy, effective, inspiring, informative, and RELEVANT for students. Instead, articles like this turn up like artifacts from some advanced alien civilization and amaze us that such things can be done in TYPICAL CLASSROOMS... Progress in Education???