The city is a blossom of light in the middle of the desert. Neon-traced skyscrapers lurch above sturdy 1950s municipal buildings. Desertion preceded the holiday so when I drove around downtown on Thursday and Friday I felt as if I had the city to myself.
On Thursday after a small Thanksgiving dinner with friends, I ventured to Dealey Plaza, the site of the John F. Kennedy assassination. It had occurred 49 years ago to the day—November 22, 1963. Next year, there’s to be a commemorative ceremony for the 50th anniversary. This year, nothing was planned.
I parked beneath a giant, redbrick castle, which I later learned was a museum of Dallas history. Walking north on Houston Street, I first glimpsed the Book Depository, where from a sixth floor window Lee Harvey Oswald “allegedly” fired the shots that killed the president.
The Book Depository is unremarkable structurally but emanates a palpable (at least to me) evil. It drew to mind a smoldering, monolithic ember. Why didn’t they tear it down, I wondered as I neared Elm Street.
You can’t help but have a lump in your throat as you turn onto Elm Street and take in President Kennedy’s final view of the world. Two X’s mark the spot on the road where the bullets hit. With the assistance of Wikipedia’s iPhone app, I followed in the footsteps of how it all happened.
Other people were trying to understand the event spatially as well. Maybe 20 or 25 others were there when I was. What was once just misty history became tangible and real. The route. The Book Depository. The grassy knoll. Strange, conspiracy-oriented graffiti covers the back of the wood fence atop the grass knoll.
Before returning to Austin the next day, I took a short walk on the Katy Trail and visited Dallas’s City Hall, a heavy, angular building designed by modernist architect I.M. Pei. The grounds are beautiful even if the city’s headquarters looks like a relic from the 70s.
One thing about Dallas that I especially appreciated was the fall color. Brilliant orange, red, and yellow autumn leaves, which I’m so used to seeing this time of year, don’t happen in Austin. Dallas looked to be at it’s fall peak.
No comments:
Post a Comment