On this day in 1963, Aldous Huxley, John F. Kennedy, CS Lewis, and JD Tippit died.
I can't remember where I was when I heard that Kennedy died. It was before I was born. Likewise Huxley, which had the further reason for me not remembering because he wasn't very interesting to me, and Lewis.
But I remember where I was when I found out that J.D. Tippit died. I was sitting here just now, planning a blog post on why nobody ever noticed CS Lewis's death and checking my facts in Wikipedia.
Tippit left a wife and three children. As well as being a police officer he worked two spare time jobs as well to support his family. He also fought in the liberation of Europe. He mattered as much as the other three but is remembered today only by the sort of people who are also tin foil wearing birthers and 7/11 deniers.
Well, we'll light a tea light for J.D. tonight. A man worth remembering because he died simply doing his job, for the city he served, for the family he loved.
Reminds me a little of Sarah Smith who lived at Golders Green.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you check out dodgy facts on wikipedia, given that fake news originated there?
ReplyDeleteI can remember the day that Kennedy died, because I heard the news on a Chrystal Set (I was a young, late adopter of steam radio) and thought that it was marvelous to get sound out of the ether via a bit of wire in the air and an ear phone thing, a bit to large for my ear. I remember the media fuss and the papers. We didn't own a TV in those days. I was too young to appreciate what it actually meant, but also remember Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby who shot him in a police station. The rest of the conspiracy theory passed me by.