Tuesday, August 8, 2000
Today we dubbed our "sad" day. We visited two "sad" sites. The first was the Sixth Floor of the Book Depository in Dallas where it is believed that Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed president John F. Kennedy (although, no one really knows, of course).
Well, after that experience, we traveled north to Oklahoma City to see the Murrah building memorial. We visited the OK City bombsite 4 years ago on our first Rt 66 trip and it was a beautiful site to see. There was a long chain link fence with all kinds of stuffed toys and things attached to it to remember all the people who died in the Murrah Building bomb. Now, they have built a magnificent memorial including a brass and glass chair for each person who died in the bomb.
It is always unbelieveable to me how people can do such terrible things as these. I was also thinking about how the perpetrators of these acts never get what they want, nor are they ever remembered along with their "causes". It is always the victims who are remembered and immortalized. Having some time left in the day, we left OK City and headed west on Route 66. We were able to travel a section of it that we didn't travel last time. We ended up in Clinton, OK which is a lovely town and stayed at a nice motel, The Glancey Motel. We did some long-needed laundry and relaxed the rest of the evening.
We actually were in a museum on the sixth floor of that building and saw the window that Oswald shot through and videos taking us through Kennedy's presidency, the fateful day in Dallas, the aftermath and investigations. There was a lot of information within that one floor of the small building. The three of us really learned a lot. It was also a very moving exhibit, really bringing the tragedy home with videos of Jaqueline and the children at the funeral. It was amazing to see Dealey Plaza from that window, to be able to trace the path that Kennedy's car took around it. One of the most moving parts of the museum was the set of drawings done by children shortly after Kennedy's death. Even the children loved him and the impact his death made on them and the world is really awesome to think about.
These chairs are set out in a grassy field and really makes you think about the chairs in each home that are now empty because of this great disaster. The memorial also includes two large walls, one at each end of the memorial. One says "9:01" and the other says "9:03". The space in between, filled with a shallow reflecting pool, represents the minute when the bomb exploded. Finally, there is also a "Survivor tree", a tree that stood right next to the building and survived. This is surrounded by a low wall and represents all the survivors of the bomb. The monument is awesome and also very moving.
