April 4th
I remember April 4th, 1968 very vividly.
My parents were great..they would take us out, individually, in groups etc. This was to be my turn. We went to dinner at the restaurant at the museum of modern art. Up until that time, after all the times we had gone there, I didn't know they had one. I felt so honored. Next on the agenda was going to Carnegie Hall to see Duke Ellington perform his new spiritual music. It was so great. But....then... before the show started. Paster Genzel came out... I had met and seen him many times before at the jazz masses our parents took us to. He came out and announced that Martin Luther King had been shot and murdered. He led a prayer. I don't think I can ever remember seeing my dad cry like that.
They continued the show, and I have to say it was great. Everyone was so numb. I was in awe of how they were even able to perfom. But they decided to go on because it was spiritual music. Duke was on it. I will never forget that night.
My parents were great..they would take us out, individually, in groups etc. This was to be my turn. We went to dinner at the restaurant at the museum of modern art. Up until that time, after all the times we had gone there, I didn't know they had one. I felt so honored. Next on the agenda was going to Carnegie Hall to see Duke Ellington perform his new spiritual music. It was so great. But....then... before the show started. Paster Genzel came out... I had met and seen him many times before at the jazz masses our parents took us to. He came out and announced that Martin Luther King had been shot and murdered. He led a prayer. I don't think I can ever remember seeing my dad cry like that.
They continued the show, and I have to say it was great. Everyone was so numb. I was in awe of how they were even able to perfom. But they decided to go on because it was spiritual music. Duke was on it. I will never forget that night.
posted by Annie Van Bergen at 2:43 PM
3 Comments:
That is amazing. I remember when RFK was shot. First of all I am Canadian..I was enrolled in early grade school..and I was in a Catholic School despite being Protestant...it was the only school in town :)
Anyway I remember that there was a newspaper clipping on the chalkboard and all of the Nuns were crying.
It would take a few decades before I learned why it was such a big deal to have Catholics in the White House. Now I marvel at how RFK and especially his brother, were given so much freedom from the Media..neither of them have become as iconic in today's infotainment era. JFK mad Clinton look like a choirboy!
I have always been fascinated by MLK too...another man who would have been met with far greater controversy in todays' paparrazi world. But without his work, an Obama Vitory would have still been another 25 years away.
Complicated men in simpler times eh?
ouch sorry about the spelling.
"Complicated men in simpler times"...
absolutely
We are roughly the same age. I was also in grade school when these things occurred.
You make a good and interesting point. Would any of these great and influential men survived the age of information saturation we now live in? And it makes me wonder, if we are missing out on other potential great and influential people because of it.
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