"Children of yesterday, heirs of tomorrow,

What are you weaving? labor and sorrow?

Look to your loom again, faster and faster

Fly the great shuttles ..."

-- Mary A. Lathbury.

Remember where you were and what you were doing 48 years ago when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated?

Wikipedia states that "the thirty-fifth President of the United States was assassinated at 12:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dealey Plaza, Dallas, Texas."

Those old enough to remember were asked that question Tuesday, Nov. 22, and Wednesday, Nov. 23.

Some were asked while at Tamp & Grind Coffee cafe in downtown Alexandria, others while attending a book club meeting in the Gunter library branch at Libuse, Louisiana.

"I was in geometry class in Pampa (Texas) High School," said the Rev. Fred Tinsley, 64, of Alexandria.

Dr. Malcolm Denley, 87, of Alexandria, who was sitting with Tinsley, said, "I was making rounds at the hospital."

By hospital, Denley meant what is now Rapides Regional Medical Center but then was the Baptist hospital in Alexandria.

"My kids and I were in the car on the way to the grocery store. We were living in Lake Charles at the time," said Frances Hazmark, 79, of Deville.

"I don't think I remember the exact day or hour of it. I would have been four or five (years old). I just remember my mother being so upset by it, for days," said librarian Donna Mangham, 52, of Pineville.

"I was in sixth grade classroom. We were having class and our teacher was called out. She was a nun. When she came back, she made us all kneel on the floor and pray," said Bonnie LeBlanc, 59, of Pineville.

For myself, now 54 years old, it was Robert F. Kennedy's assassination that I recall.

I was only six years old when JFK was killed but by 1968, when RFK was killed, I was 11 years old.

At that time, I remember this program on TV about someone who had died and his body was being taken by train to Washington, D.C.

And I remember being mad that I was missing my favorite TV show because this program was on all the TV stations.

Not that there were many TV stations back then, just the major networks that broadcast back-to-back coverage, if memory serves.

Why don't they just put his body on an airplane and fly it to Washington, D.C. instead of carrying it around on a train? I wondered.

That took too long! And a plane could get him to Washington D.C. faster and then I could be watching my favorite TV show.

Remember, I was 11 and lived a more sheltered life back then. My world was Crystal Springs, Mississippi.

Since then, we have all caught up. Marking time as before and after such as the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan and the assassination of musician John Lennon.

And, 9/11.

Yesterdays can't be changed. Tomorrows can.

"Children of yesterday, heirs of tomorrow,

What are you weaving? labor and sorrow?

Look to your loom again, faster and faster

Fly the great shuttles prepared by the Master.

There’s life in the loom! Room for it, room!"

-- "Life in the Loom" by Mary A. Lathbury.