I was 9 years old in June of 1968, and Robert Kennedy's assassination was the first major news event that I remember being consciously aware of.I was 4 when JFK was shot, and the event and days that followed are just vague snippets of memory. On the other hand, I have vivid recollections of listening to the audio replays of the chaotic scene moments after RFK's assault. That would have been the table top radio in the kitchen, tuned into KYW News Radio. 1060 AM out of Philadelphia.I have no specific recall of watching television that week, but I clearly remember that audio coverage, and in particular, the cries to "get a doctor over here".

I collected images from the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Evening Bulletin. (In those days Philly had a morning paper...Inquirer, and an evening paper...Bulletin). This was the one and only time in my childhood that I saved news images in a scrapbook. Never did it again, even for the moon landing.

I think I made a strong connection to the ages of RFK's children. At the time, I would have already been or soon to become an alter boy in the Catholic church, and the image of Robert Kennedy Jr. serving as an alter boy at his father's funeral was surely the most powerful image of the group for me. I can still remember studying the pain on his face and wondering if I would have been capable of doing that.

This is without doubt the first time that photo journalism made an impact on me personally and emotionally.

1 comment:

MitMoi said...

Amazing the difference 5 years can make in a person's personal history time-line, huh? I have no recollection of this or JFK.

I think the first big memory might be of the lunar landing (although just of a neighbor-girl mentioning it - no TV image-memory) and the first TV related image is of Nixon and the Watergate hearings.