November 22, What a Day!

Today is National Cranberry Relish Day, which is odd since it is two days before Thanksgiving when a lot of people will be making and eating cranberry relish so you'd think that would be its day. But no, it's actually today, and I have no intention of making any or eating any so I guess I won't be celebrating it until two days from now.

The other thing today is is the day President John F. Kennedy was murdered in 1963, or as I like to think of it, My Senior Year of High School. It was the day I gave up on politics, figuring if someone killed JFK nobody was safe, although oddly enough nobody has killed any president since and there have been so many worse ones whose deaths would not have caused me to shed a tear. 

That night I went to the movies with my two best friends, Judy and Sherry, neither of whom I know today, although I did have a brief reprise with Judy about ten years ago that lasted until it became clear she was incapable of sustaining a friendship. Plus she always dressed all in black which I found disconcerting. 

Anyway, that night long ago we went to see Lord of the Flies. The theater was packed, and when the film got out at just before midnight there was a line of people stretching around the block waiting for the next show. There were also newspaper vendors out and about hawking special editions with the headline "PRESIDENT KILLED."

Nobody mentions November 22 anymore. It may have been a very dark day in history, but now it's Cranberry Relish Day! Time marches on, things change.