WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 8, 2018 29
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
When Greater Ridgewood mourned JFK
BY THE OLD TIMER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
They call it a fl ashpoint memory:
a profound event in one’s life in
which they can recall precisely
where they were and what they were
doing when it occurred.
For Baby Boomers in Queens and
beyond, the date of Nov. 22, 1963 is
a horrific flashpoint memory. Many
of them can still vividly recall
the moment they heard about the
assassination of President John F.
Kennedy as if it had occurred only
a few days ago.
The young president was slain
while traveling in an open car motorcade
through the streets of Dallas,
Texas. His death plunged the nation
into a state of mourning not seen
since the death of President Franklin
D. Roosevelt 18 years earlier.
Businesses closed up shop early
that Friday afternoon. Most sporting
events were cancelled. People
gathered around their living room
television sets the entire weekend to
watch coverage of Kennedy’s death,
his public wake at the Capitol that
Sunday and his funeral on Monday.
Like many other major national
stories, the Ridgewood Times sought
to capture the neighborhood’s mood
following the Kennedy assassination.
The front page of the Nov. 28,
1963 Ridgewood Times featured a top
story titled “A Community Mourns,”
noting that “many attend services”
in memory of the slain president.
THE FULL ARTICLE
FOLLOWS BELOW:
Tuesday at noon it was pretty
much an average day in Ridgewood.
Children were at school, mothers
pushed baby carriages along Myrtle
Ave., shops beckoned with their early
holiday merchandise.
All of which was a far departure
from 24 hours earlier, the blue Monday
when a sorrowful nation buried
its President. The streets of Ridgewood
then were quiet, deserted. Few
cars were stationed along usually busy
Myrtle Ave., the commercial hub of the
community. Only the parking meters
occupied the sidewalks, standing like
silent sentinels.
Most residents doubtless were witnessing
the sorrowful ceremony on
television, the funeral of President
John F. Kennedy. The solitude of the
streets was disturbed only by the
almost rhythmic collection of refuse
by Department of Sanitation workers
and they seemed more subdued than
is their custom. A few youngsters
tossed footballs in schoolyards, and
that was it.
It had been an unusual weekend, beginning
Friday aft ernoon with the disbelief.
Surely nobody would shoot the
President, and he couldn’t die. That’s
what they were saying on street corners
and in taverns. But somebody did, and
he died and that is now history.
Next day, the usual Saturday
hustle-bustle was somehow missing,
and the community grew even more
respectful Saturday evening, as organizations
by the dozens cancelled out
carefully planned festive occasions.
Nobody felt like dancing or dining
or having sociable drink or doing
anything. And the community went
to sleep early.
Those organizations that held
meetings dispensed with the regular
course of business to pay tribute to
their dead President. And there was
no frivolity.
Churches of all denominations
accommodated larger numbers
of worshippers than normally
Sunday. In some cases, persons
were required to stand in the rear
portions of the churches, but they
remained and they prayed. Many
returned to their houses of worship
in the evening.
Then it was Monday, the day of
mourning proclaimed by President
Lyndon B. Johnson. And Ridgewood
mourned. Stores were closed everywhere,
and on each door was a
simple, effective message, something
like, “Closed in memory of our great
President.”
People began appearing on the
streets again after the burial and
many walked in the sunlight of Myrtle
Ave. But it was more like a Sunday
stroll, for few shops reopened.
And nobody seemed to care for
most had serious things on their
minds. And that’s the way it was
until Tuesday.
The front page of the issue also featured
a memorial box with Kennedy’s
image and a tribute from Montana
Senator Mike Mansfi eld, a Brooklyn
native who at the time served as Senate
majority leader.
“He gave us of his love that we, too,
in turn, might give,” Mansfi eld was
quoted. “He gave that we might give
of ourselves that we might give to one
another, until there would be no room,
no room at all, for the bigotry, the
hatred, prejudice and the arrogance
which converged in that moment of
horror to strike him down.”
Following Mansfi eld’s quote, the
Ridgewood Times wrote, “If John
Fitzgerald Kennedy is to truly rest in
peace, it will only be if his death has
not been in vain, that we the people
will turn back those forces of hate, bitterness
and violence that are eroding
the moral fi bre (sic) of our country
and dedicate ourselves to pursue true,
lawful Democratic principles to settle
our diff erences.”
If you have any remembrances or old
photographs of “Our Neighborhood:
The Way It Was” that you would like
to share with our readers, please write
to the Old Timer, c/o Ridgewood Times,
38-15 Bell Blvd., Bayside, NY 11361, or
send an email to editorial@ridgewoodtimes.
com. Any print photographs
mailed to us will be carefully returned
to you upon request.
Ridgewood Times archives
The front page of the Nov. 28, 1963 Ridgewood Times
link
link
link
link
link
link
link
link
