JFK - #3

I remember I was in the kitchen, probably making breakfast, lunch, I’m not sure, and the radio came on and they said they interrupted the station and they said “President Kennedy has been shot”, but they didn’t know anything else because we didn’t have that instant kind of digital TV that we have now, and the internet, and we had to wait. And the kids, the older kids were in school. Your dad was not at the time, I don’t recall, and umm… so we hovered around the radio, I remember, in the kitchen. I can remember it because it was next to my refrigerator and I just stood there, like in frozen time, like ‘this can’t be happening, somebody can’t be assassinated these days that they could take a shot at the president.’ The day turned out to be really sad when we found at that he had expired and did not make it. Well, he made it to the hospital but he was dead. When you saw pictures of Jacqueline on the plane in her blood splattered, beautiful pink outfit that was just splattered in blood that she insisted on keeping on and they were swearing in Lyndon Johnson on the plane to be president. It was really hard, like, this is history going on before me, that I never would have thought I would have experienced in this lifetime. It was very traumatic. It was very hard. Hard to think about it.

JFK - #4

I was in uh, my kitchen getting lunch for one of the children that came back from school for lunch. And he came in and he said, “Mom, there’s no Bozo,” and I went into the living room thinking there’s something wrong with the television and at that point they’d already broken in that President Kennedy had been shot. They weren’t sure if he had passed away but he was shot, they were taking him to the hospital. And then from that point on I think all the people in the house where were kids and my mother-in-law and eventually my husband came home. We just watched television basically almost for twenty-four hours. For us it was something we had never experienced as far as anyone attacking the president. It was just amazing when I think about it now – the security that we have and they didn’t have then. They didn’t have any when they were taking Oswald out to go to another jail, he was just in the middle of a crowd of officers and that’s when Ruby shot him. That was on live TV. We saw that. We basically just waited for all the news to come out. There wasn’t a station that didn’t have it. We really didn’t have many stations at that point. President Kennedy was the first president I ever voted for. Because he was kind of in our age group, a little older, but our age, there was a lot riding with him that we thought would better us, better our lives.

Aggie

(From In These Parts (or Main-Travelled Roads))

Aggie and Dave have fallen on hard times. Dave has gotten colder, more distant, and almost abusive to Aggie as his business has started to fail. Aggie has just discovered that Dave has pawned their prize ‘spode’, expensive China that was a wedding gift from their mother.)

Dave, you took the Spode? Those plates were a wedding gift from my Ma. Dave, the harvest is almost over. If you sell the plates, if you go south, we’ve got nobody here to harvest our crops, we don’t have the plates, we’ve got nothing left. Nothing. Winter’s coming and we can’t afford to throw any more money at the threshing business. If you’re going to sell anything, that money’s got to go toward the winter… and toward seed for next year. Dave! You didn’t buy an engine when you should have and that chapter is closed! Just listen to me! Listen to me, you cannot do this, you stupid, stupid, bullheaded man!

(She stops, holding her face as if she’s been slapped.)

How could you? How could you? Just stop. There’s nothing you can say. One wrong turn on the road somewhere and we ended up here. You do what you need to, Dave. Sell what you need to. Go!

Woman

(From Harlequin Rhapsody)

The Woman has discovered that she is dying. She has gone to find The Man because he is the one person who still clings to her memory and might keep her tied to the Earth after she passes.

Do you think that we ran into each other by accident today? I had to see you. I had to ... ask you something. Then when I saw you I couldn't do it. Look, I've had some time in the past little while to take a bit more objective look at the things around us and what they mean. I don't know if God, or Jesus, or, pick a name, is still "alive" in the sense we mean it, or if he ever was, but I do know that he wanted to be remembered, so in that sense he still is alive. Do you see. Everything around is still shakes with the echoes of him. Maybe what he said so long ago wasn't so loud, but he put enough force behind it so we still hear him today. His voice, his presence is still here. For me, I know that there's somewhere I have to get to, and I can't get there until the echoes of me here are gone, and I'm a little impatient if you want to know the truth. I've led a fruitful, but mundane existence on this world and I'm ready for it to be completely over. No, argument please. I'm not worried about anyone else, they'll forget me soon enough. But you, you still sing the songs you wrote for me, still gaze at stars like I'm beside you, still whisper words to me.

My love, I'm not asking not to be remembered. I'm asking simply to die, to be allowed to fade away, that's all. Let me die. Savor my memory on occasion, but don't keep me here until you go.