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Add My StoryAuthor: Gretchen Tenny Hall
During the fall of 1963 my husband and I were living in London–he a grad student and I an expecting mom. On the evening of November 22nd we attended a production of “Hamlet” a genuine extravagance on our grad student budget. During the intermission before the final act, word spread through audience members that something had happened to the American president. Remember that at the time no internet, cell phones or such electronic devices existed. We experienced the final act of the play in which virtually everyone is killed, with foreboding and fear.
After the play as we walked into the street we learned from the news hawkers that President Kennedy had been killed in Dallas, TX. We rode home on the Underground, surrounded by English folks, strangers, with tears running down their cheeks, trying to express their sorrow to one another, and especially to us if they perceived us to be Americans. Just a few days later we gathered with other American friends in London to celebrate Thanksgiving, probably the saddest holiday I’ve ever experienced. -Gretchen Tenny Hall
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