March 26 – 2018 Aledo, Texas

Sunday, we went to Dallas. We had the navigator set for downtown. At that point we didn’t realize that the greater metropolitan area is 7.5 million people. It went OK anyway until we got to downtown, where a lot of streets were blocked off, because of the Dallas Half Marathon!! We eventually found our parking spot.  The number and size of the freeways (motorveje) is amazing.

A couple of many intersections (sammenfletninger)

In the US many freeways in towns have smaller frontage roads that run parallel to the freeway in order to create access (adgang) to houses, business etc. along the freeways. At one point I was on a frontage road that had 4 lanes (vejbaner) one way!! That indicates (giver et indtryk af) the amount of traffic around here.

Well, the reason for going to Dallas was not to look at freeways 😊

We went because of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
If you are my age or older you will remember exactly where you were on Friday, November 22th, 1963
when you heard that Kennedy had been shot.
The movie taken by Abraham Zapruder has been shown millions of times, so the scenery is very familiar.
The motorcade turning from Houston Street on to Elm Street down the hill towards the triple underpass.
It was really a strange feeling, to all of a sudden see it “live” and walk around on the spots shown in the movie.

 

The grassy knoll, that for a time was believed to be where the shots came from

The number of theories over the last 50 years about who shot Kennedy are numerous.
Was it Lee Harvey Oswald? The CIA? The FBI? The Mafia? The KGB etc. etc. etc.
And there has been a number of commissions investigating over the years.
As of now, and for a long time, the official conclusion is that Lee Harvey Oswald acted on his own.
He fired the shots from the 6th  floor in the Texas School Book Depository, where he was working as a temp (vikar).

The shots came from the rightmost window on the second to the top floor

The 6th and 7th  floor (etage) of that building has been turned into a museum where you can see all the details about the Kennedy tour to Texas, the Assassination, the world reaction, the Funeral, etc. etc.
You can also see the corner of the floor from where Oswald fired the shots, hiding behind cases of school books. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take pictures on the sixth floor.
On the floor right above, you can take pictures out of the same window, just a little higher.
It was a very interesting museum.

 

The motorcade came on Houston street and turned left on to Elm street

Oswald's view. The to shots hit Kennedy just about where the two cars are.

And then you cannot help wondering for a moment WHAT IF ……
What if Kennedy had not been shot. Would his legacay (eftermæle) have been as glorious as it is now (probably not).
Would he have gotten reelected? Would he have been succeeded (efterfulgt) by Robert Kennedy? For 1 or 2 terms?
And what would that have meant to the US and the World.
It is not the first time that there has been a “shot that changed the world”.

By the way and in connection to shootings and assassinations.
Yesterday, around the US and the world there were protests that called for action on gun control in the aftermath of the high school shooting in Ft. Lauderdale (Parkland) in February. Our campground in Ft. Lauderdale was only 13 miles /20 km from the school.  A very difficult issue that will not be solved for a long time, but maybe the fact that children are now protesting may have an impact.


This T-shirt,however, shows that it will be a difficult process,
to reach an agreement between the parties, that will move
the laws and rules from the 18th century to the 21st century.

Written by JJ