50 YEARS AGO TODAY...

My brand new turquoise, Zenith clock radio woke me up at 6:30 am.  

  The radio was a birthday present from my parents.  They gave it to me the night before so i could use it to wake up for my 16th birthday on November 22nd, 1963.  For the first time I was able to hear a music alarm.  WQAM Miami was tuned in to the new raido and I thought it was a miracle that the Beach Boys could be singing to wake me up instead of the rude, ringing alarm from my old, wind up Big Ben. 

     Today was a big day..My mom was going to pick me up after school and take me to the Driver's License place to take my written test and road test so I could trade in my learner's permit and get a real driver's license.  I studied the test handbook and had been driving with my learner's permit since I was 14.  No night driving and only driving with an adult on the learner's permit for the last two years was like being on felony parole.  Today I would be able to drive the 1950 Plymouth that I mowed lawns to buy.  My dad let me use left over house paint to cover the mostly rust exterior.  I learned to shift the 3 speed on the column and was able to parallel park the beast without too much trouble as long as i could find reverse. 

     It was during 11th grade TV history class that the teacher interrupted the TV lesson to announce that the President had been shot in Dallas.  The teacher adjusted the TV set to pick up NBC and we were able to watch some of the bulletins about the shooting.  Finally, the President was pronounced dead at about 2pm Miami-time and we were all released from the rest of the day to go home.  The school had the school buses come early and I rode my bus home.  I got there ahead of the time my mom was going to leave to pick me up and take me for my driver's license test.  We called the State Driver's License Bureau to check on my appointment and were told that they were shutting the office down because of the shooting.  I was really upset that I was going to have to wait to get my license but pretty quickly calmed down and settled in to watching non-stop television and history unfold for the next few days..We had a birthday cake and candles but it was a very sad birthday party, 50 years ago today....