History Lesson

Wow, what a busy couple of weeks it has been! Summer is definitely kicking off to a great start, with lots to do and tons of fun things filling up my calendar. I realize I'm a little late on finishing up blogging about my trip to Dallas, since it happened almost three weeks ago, but there is just one more thing I HAVE to tell you about, and that is pretty much the only site-seeing I did. We had our Friday morning free, so a bunch of us girls decided to walk down to Dealy Plaza and the Texas School Book Depository. Sound familiar? That is because it is the site of one of the most significant moments in US history - The assassination on JFK. Dealy Plaza is what the motorcade was travelling around, and the book depository is where Lee Harvey Oswald sat as he shot the president (the last window on the sixth floor, to be exact). Now the book depository acts as a museum on JFK and the events surrounding the assassination. We went up to the sixth floor, which is the main part of the museum. Just being up there was so eerie yet fascinating. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures inside the building, but I did manage to snap photos of the outside, where it all took place.


Texas School Book Depository

Closer view of the sixth floor window, the top one in the picture, with the window slightly opened

The "Grassy Knoll". Also, if you look close enough you may be able to see the X's on the ground. There are two of them, marking the exact spots where JFK was when the bullets hit him.

Dealy Plaza

Other side of Dealy Plaza, with the book depository in the background

JFK Memorial

I also feel like I need to mention a wonderful book I read that is about the JFK assassination. It's a little bit science fiction, a little bit historical, and a whole lot of amazing. The book is 11/22/63 by Stephen King. Although this is a fictional novel, King did a lot of research about the assassination and even traveled to Dallas to make it as factual and realistic as possible. Having read it a few months ago, it was that much more fascinating to actually be there after reading so much about it and building my own version in my imagination. While I don't really have a desire to go back to Dallas, I am so glad I got to experience this and would very much recommend it to anyone wanting to see a truly historical, emotional, and important place in America. xxoo