Thanksgiving Dance 1963

I have the tickets someplace.  It was set for Saturday night, November 23.  I was taking Laura Kanchar and all was right with the world. We were going with the regular gang as some of us could drive and others .. well, we were too old to have our parents drive us anywhere so we crammed into cars, dresses crushed, our only suits wrinkled.

That Friday, the 22nd, Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas and everything was cancelled; as well it should have been. The late Thanksgiving that followed was fairly somber. Laura's corsage forgotten in the mess.

Our homecoming dance was a couple months before. Warren Covington and his Orchestra provided the music and it was great.  Laura was my date that night too. The school and most folks, either party, went from happy to sad in just a few weeks. Things weren't the same and perhaps the pivot point was 50 years ago, coincidentally, Friday.

I ran across some stuff in all this regard during an hour of sorting basement boxes and "stuff".  The unused tickets from that Saturday night, some stuff from the Homecoming dance, a yearbook or two, and of course clippings about Kennedy.

50 years. 50 years ago this Fall and this week. Friday. 6th period.