Dark past, bright future

By Dave Merry

Dallas is twenty minutes drive time from Fort Worth, and is one of the fastest growing cities in America due to the vast open spaces that surround it.

Dallas is renowned for being a financial centre made famous in the 80’s by the television series of the same name. It is also known for arguably one of  the darkest periods in the annuls of American history, an event that is still talked about, still investigated and still captures the minds of people worldwide, an event that ironically attracts thousands of paying visitors each year;

the assassination of American President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy at the Dealy Plaza on the 22nd November 1963.

The Dealy Plaza is located in down town Dallas and consists of three main entry roads that if viewed from above, takes the form of devils fork.

On the left is Elm Street, which curves inwards as it approaches the triple underpass.

On the right is Commerce Street that also curves inwards towards the triple underpass, and running straight down the middle is Main Street, connected together by Houston Street that runs along the top.

On the left of Elm Street - there is the Grassy Knoll, a bank of grass that rises upwards until it stops at the foot of the original picket fence that still stands today separating the Dealy Plaza from an area of waste ground that is used for car parking.

Running along this fence are rows of bushes and trees that obscure much of the Dealy Plaza from view should one be standing in this area of waste ground looking towards the Plaza.

North of the Grassy Knoll is the North Pergola and located behind that is the Texas School Book Depository, a red seven storey structure that now houses the sixth floor museum dedicated to the events of that day back in 1963.

You can access the post room and look out of the very widow that Lee Harvey Oswald was supposed to have fired the fatal shots whilst you listen to the actual police recordings taken that day and. Flashes of red paint highlight various holes in the curb stones that supposedly pinpoint stray bullets down on Elm street.

There is also the chance to actually ride in the back of an open top limousine, identical to the one used by the president, and take the route that was actually taken on the day.

It really is a moving and emotional experience.

Even the trees that stand outside the book depository are trimmed yearly to the height that they actually were that fateful day.

Looking across Elm Street is the Dealy Plaza itself, two large open fields of grass either side of Main Street - where sun worshippers laze in the warm sun and take in their surroundings.

Young or old, you cannot help but to reflect on the events of that day and what it must have been like to have witnessed such an incident.

To the north of these pastures, are two identical columns, accompanied by two identical pools of water, oval in shape, and accompanying these are two matching masts - each flying the Stars and Stripes.

Six blocks away from the Dealy Plaza is the monument, built to commemorate the young president’s life.

Four large white monoliths stand end to end forming a square, and sits on a bed of white marble slabs that are raised higher than those in the centre of the attraction.

In the centre of the white marble is a large black slab of granite with the encryption ‘John Fitzgerald Kennedy’ etched in large gold lettering.

The monument takes the form of an empty tomb, an architectural design that, in my opinion fails to impress or deliver, and if it wasn’t for the commemorative inscription honoring the president’s life, it may well be yet another piece of insignificant artwork.

However the Dealy Plaza is certainly an historical place to visit and you cannot help but feel the overwhelming atmosphere of being in a place that has witnessed such a violent and historical event, one that shook the world.

provided by the 6th floor Museum, Dallas.

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