Wednesday, October 30, 2013

JFK Assassination: the Death of Simplicity - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com

JFK Assassination: the Death of Simplicity - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com


Until the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November of 1963, my life was simple, pleasant, and full of prospect.

Mr. Metzgar, our next door neighbor in the summer of 1963, used to pay me half a buck to cut his 1/3 acre lawn and I was glad to get it. Our small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania was not exactly a hub of world economic activity but there were plenty of factories where a blue-collar high school graduate could get a job that paid enough to feed a family of four.

My dad worked in a Ronson cigarette lighter factory where he operated a metal stamping machine which, at one point, cut off his thumb. The job foreman did a good job of gathering the missing digit and packing it on ice. The factory did a good job of getting my dad to the hospital. The docs did a fair job of sewing it back on. It was misshapen, useless, and nerve-dead but we marveled at the medical miracle.

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