Rhod and Anna's World Adventure

Howdy y'all it's Dallas time and the title is my interpretation of the Dallas theme tune.

Dallas is most famous for one major world-changing event and still many people ask the question, "Who killed JR?"

The answer for those people is "Who gives a monkeys! It was an 80's TV program. Move on!"

The major world-changing event was of course the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on the 22nd November 1963.

I'm not normally a great lover of history which is why I have a geography GCSE but this type of history I find interesting so we set off to see some sights.

We arrived in Dealy Plaza expecting to see a Niagara Falls-style tourist trap. You know, Starbucks overlooking the grassy knoll, street vendors selling replicas of the presidential car etc etc, but we were pleasantly surprised. (Unfortunately for us we could have done with a few food outlets as we hadn't had breakfast yet!) The plaza has remained relatively unchanged since the event except for 2 crosses marked on the road about 20 metres away from each other on Elm Street. These crosses represent the number of times the president was shot and the exact locations at which he was shot. As we watched cars drive down that road we noticed that most of them either changed lanes or swerved slightly to avoid driving over them. Coincidence maybe, but I suspect most of the time it was intentional.

According to the offical reports the president was shot from the 6th floor window of the book depository by Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald was then shot in the basement of the Dallas jail, just across the road from the book depository, 2 days later by Jack Ruby. It seemed like a crazy few days. The picture on the right is of the book depository, now home to the 6th floor museum, and the window is the second one down on the right.

The picture to the left shows the cross marking the position of the second shot which hit JFK in the head. But who is the figure hiding in the shadows on the grassy knoll?

The assassination and the events of the following days provided the world with the first example of 24 hour news coverage. So in-depth was the coverage that Oswald gave a press conference and his murder, which occured as he was being transferred to another prison, was broadcast on live TV!

Today we got one side of the story about the assassination. Tomorrow we go to the conspiracy museum to get the other side. Maybe we will find out who is lurking in the shadows!

One last question. Is anyone humming the Dallas theme tune?