One last JFK poll just to prove or disprove a theory I have.

[Bluenorthwest]

70. Because it is personal. I was a small boy, that was the day I learned this fact: Dads can die.

I heard the news on TV with my Mother, Dad was at work and my older sister at school. I was consumed by fear for my Dad, who was to me just like Jack, a Democrat who had kids about our age, an Irish guy, a good man. Good men, good fathers, can be murdered by bad men. Big fucking lesson to get. I stood watch by the window waiting for Dad for days after when he was gone to work.
A few days later we were at the home of family friends when Oswald was shot. Everyone was in the kitchen except for me and the Mom of the family we were visiting. We saw that murder happen live. We told the others, or she did.
So in the space of a few days, sub kindergarten me learned that his parents were mortal, saw a man shot to death on TV surrounded by 'protection' and also saw John Jr, who was my age, mourn his father on TV. I had a 'Jon Jon' haircut. We were the only Kennedy Democrats in our town.
Later, when RFK was shot, I was older and got semi beat up by Republican kids who thought it was hilarious that Bobby was murdered.
Personal in that those events were things that happened to us who were witnesses. JFK was the first person I mourned, first person I saw mourned, his death was the announcement to child me that mourning and life are partners.