the grassy knoll

 

Sunday, November 24, 1963

It was two days after the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.  We went to church and then came home.  My mother was in the kitchen preparing lunch.

In the living room the television set was on.  My dad was sitting on an antique rocking chair.  I was on the floor doing something -- playing with dolls, or marbles, or coloring with crayons in a coloring book.

We were waiting, because we were going to get to see, on TV, Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who had allegedly shot and killed President Kennedy two days  before.

The desire to see Oswald came from shocked curiosity and horror, I guess.  As a child, if I'd been alone I would not have looked for this info on TV, but since my father was going to watch it, I stayed in the room and waited with him.  

('We're going to -- see -- Oswald.')

And then on the television screen, in black-and-white, a bunch of men wearing hats... and my dad stood up very suddenly and called out toward the kitchen in shock and disbelief, "My God, they shot him!"

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On You Tube, type in

Bob Dylan - Don't Think Twice, It's All Right (Official Audio)

uploader / channel:  Bob Dylan

And Play.

♪ ♫ ♫ ♪

Well, it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

It don't matter, anyhow

An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe

If you don't know by now

When your rooster crows at the break of dawn

Look out your window and -- I'll be gone

You're the reason I'm a-trav'lin' on

But don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

That light I -- never knowed

An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe

I'm on the dark side of the road

Still I wish there was somethin' you would do or say

To try and make me change my mind and stay

We never did too much talkin' anyway

So don't think twice, it's all right

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

Like you never did before

It ain't no use in callin' out my name, gal

I can't hear you anymore

I'm a-thinkin' and a-wond'rin' all the way down the road

I once loved a woman, a child I'm told

I give her my heart, but she wanted my soul

But don't think twice, it's all right

I'm walkin' down that long, lonesome road, babe

Where I'm bound, I can't tell

But goodbye's too good a word, gal

So I'll just say fare thee well

I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind

You could have done better but -- I don't mind

You just kinda wasted my -- precious time

But don't think twice, it's all right

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{"Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" -- a song written by Bob Dylan in 1962, recorded on November 14th of that year, and released on the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan and as the b-side of the "Blowin' in the Wind" single.)

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