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Published: August 7th 2022
Texas School Book Depository
The infamous former book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald worked. I got up early for some photography. I was hoping for a location where there is some water reflecting the skyline, however the river in question was almost non-existent. Apparently, there has not been a drop of rain here for months and they are on the verge of a severe drought. Strangely, the news this morning is continuing to report on horrific flooding in Kentucky, which is not that far (by US standards) from here. They also mentioned a huge amount of rain in Death Valley, which I imagine is very unusual.
We had wondered why this hotel was quite expensive compared to the others we have stayed in and now we have found out. There is a three day conference taking place for independent beauty consultants, so it is extremely busy. We also heard on the news this morning that Donald Trump is arriving in Dallas today. I wonder if the two are connected - that tan and that hair need careful looking after I would imagine?
It is the first place we have stayed where the TV in our room has BBC America, so we hoped to catch-up on some news that does not involve Donald Trump.
Dallas Sunrise
Downtown Dallas and the Tom Landry Freeway Bridge at sunrise. He lost the election nearly two years ago (or won it if you're speaking to anyone in Texas I suspect), but the American news is still totally obsessed with him and CNN in particular. BBC America, however, had Star Trek The Next Generation on - now I like Star Trek, but it's not exactly BBC content. Please show us some news, although not the Tory leadership race and our circus clown Prime Minister as we're enjoying the break from all that.
Our plan for today was to head back to the West End Historic area and the JFK Museum in particular. After a worrying moment, where it looked like we should have booked in advance, we get our tickets and went up to the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository. This is the actual floor in the actual building that Lee Harvey Oswald fired his shots from. The actual window he used is sectioned off by a glass barrier, but the windows beside it have a clear view. They also have a computer generated simulation to show the exact route of the President's motorcade and the points where the shots were fired.
Most of the
Street Crosses
Marking the location of the President when the first and second shots were fired. museum is consists of boards with information about JFK, his policies and achievements, the build up to the day of the assassination, the short term aftermath, the longer-term aftermath, the police investigations and the subsequent enquiries. There is also a section on the conspiracy theories and the short-comings in the original police investigation, which left matters open to such theories. There are plenty of theories as to who else might have been involved. The left were against him as they thought he was too tough on communism, but the right were against him as they thought he wasn't tough enough. It probably meant he had got the balance right. The right also didn't like his New Frontier Programme, which was the cornerstone of his domestic policy. Whilst not much was achieved whilst he was president, it did give the motivation to push these things though, so there is a long-lasting social legacy from his presidency.
There are some quite graphic details of the bullet trajectories and how they hit the President and the Texas Governor who was also in the car. Afterwards we walked along the street outside and saw three crosses on the road, which mark where the
Corner Window
The corner window on the sixth floor where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his shots from behind some boxes. bullets hit - two close together (one of which hit the president) and one a bit further along, which is the one that killed him.
There is also a "roofless room" memorial in the JFK Plaza a block or so away.
It was starting to get very, very hot outside by this point so it was an ordeal to walk the relatively short distance to the Reunion Tower. We had planned to go there for something to eat, but the restaurants were closed for refurbishment, so we just went up to the observation deck.
There was, of course, the usual "event" photo, but at least you can be emailed one for free (not requiring to pay an amount like the $25 being charged on the New Orleans steamboat, see
Three Lions Jazz-style Please?). Like the San Antonio Tower of the Americas, it has both an inside area and an outside area surrounding it (see
Texan History Day).
The views were excellent, particularly of Downtown, but also to see all the complex junctions linking all the freeways that surround the city. There was also one of those mile-long freight trains passing by. The views were obscured slightly by mesh-like surrounding of the
Window View
The view from the sixth floor. ball at the top of the tower, which houses all the coloured lights that put on a bit of a show at night.
We headed back to the hotel and then left for something to eat. We had heard that there were lots of good places to eat at the Dallas Farmers' Market. It was, however, one of those places with lots of different food outlets where you get the food and then go to some central tables to eat. We wanted to go to a usual sort of sit down and get served type restaurant, so we walked back to downtown and found an Italian Restaurant there.
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