Today is the 60th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy being assassinated… Are you old enough to remember it? Where were you and what did you do? I was 10 years old, attending 5th grade at Lehi Elementary school in Lehi, UT. I remember being ushered into the cafeteria as a class where other classes were sitting watching the news on TVs set up for us to follow the events. After an hour or so of that, we were dismissed for the day and had a couple of days off so we could watch the events from home. Not sure if I was picked up by my Mom, or if I walked home that day. I remember seeing people on TV in mourning, common people as well as celebrities and government leaders, Civic leaders and normal joes alike. It was a sad and turbulent time, and ushered in the rest of the very turbulent Sixties.
As I look back through my 70 years of life, I realize that I
witnessed many historical events in my lifetime. I remember being scared by the Cuban missile
crisis and the uncertainty of how it was handled by our leaders. I remember watching the first man walk on the
moon. I recall the involvement of U.S.
soldiers in Viet Nam, the frightening images of war that the news media
blithely showed. I saw the escalation of
tempers over the 1968 presidential elections when Richard M Nixon was voted
into office. This was followed by later
incidents in which Pres. Nixon was essentially drummed out of office. I saw the long lines at the gas pumps when
gasoline was being rationed. These and
other memories of that time surface from time to time, reminding me of where I
come from. I am grateful for these
snapshots of history and the eventual man I became. Thank God for memories of things I went
through!
While thinking about what I just wrote, I realize that the
message I conveyed may seem kind of bleak, and I didn’t necessarily have a
bleak upbringing. That whole time period,
though, was ushered in by a most devastating family event. My father, William Martin Bahr, was killed in
a car accident on September 30, 1962. I
had just turned 9 years old a short 20 days earlier. Because of this tragic loss, the events of
the rest of the Sixties were seen through the lens of mourning by my family. But my family rallied, some more than others,
and life went on. I think we were the
recipients of many kindnesses and concerns by the neighbors, by the church we
attended, by my mother’s parents and siblings, and to some degree by my father’s
parents and siblings. I am thankful for
these ministrations, and I think they influenced my wellbeing. More importantly,
they influenced my testimony of the Savior and Christian service. I saw people offering Christ-like service in
their gifts of love, sustenance, and other needful things. Oh, how grateful I am for these acts of
service by people who showed their love for Christ by their kind actions. How I hope to be able to be there for someone
in need like those who served my family.
May we each be a light to someone in pain or need.
Don
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