Confessions of a Once Silly Teenager

Saturday, November 16, 1963.

I was so very excited. I was sitting at the Mesker Amphitheatre in Evansville, Indiana watching Dick Clark and his Caravan of Stars. A dream of every teenager. The music was amazing and it was the most popular singers of the time, plus I got to see Dick Clark. American Bandstand was one of my favorite shows that I watched (in black and white) every day as soon as I got home from school.

I can still remember the excitement I felt that Saturday as the different stars were introduced - Lou Christie, Gene Pitney, Paul and Paula, Brian Hyland, Little Eva, the Shirelles, the Ronettes, just to mention a few.

I'm sure some of my readers have never heard of a some of these.

The next day Lou Christie and Gene Pitney were at the local radio station - WJPS 1330. I remember hearing the announcement on my transistor radio. They said if you call in you might get to talk to one of them over the phone. Well I had to try. I was so excited and  I waited and waited on the phone, but I never got to talk to them. But I was so nervous and excited, I broke out in a rash all over my body. Confessions of a once silly teenager.

It was almost a week later, Friday, November 22, 1963. I was sitting in my typing class (before computers and even electric typewriters) at Castle High School in Newburgh, Indiana when someone came around announcing to all the classes that our President, John F. Kennedy had just been assassinated. Our class sit there in silence and unbelief.

November in 1963 was a strange month for me. It went from crazy excitement over hearing  my favorite singers and just being a teenager to seeing our president assassinated. I remember watching as Jack Ruby broke through the crowds and shot Lee Harvey Oswald. It happened live on television. It was almost like the world had went crazy.

The next week was Thanksgiving week. I remember we had the whole week off of school. On Monday, everyone was glued to their television sets watching as they laid John F. Kennedy to rest.

As I said, it was a strange month in my life. It's something I'll probably always remember.

I think as a teenager you are so impressionable. You feel everything more deeply and your emotions are so easily affected.

I think the assassination changed the world that day. By the end of my high school years, I had classmates who were going off to war in Vietnam and the  simple songs of love and happy feelings that made you feel good about life became songs of war protest and anti-government.

Times were changing.

I'm so thankful for a God who never changes. Who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.