I suspect that many readers of the 70-something blog remember what they were doing when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas fifty years ago this month.  I don’t remember where I was when I heard the news, but I do know that my then-boyfriend and I were looking for a distraction to take our minds off that horrendous event.  We ended up going to a dog show, probably not a decision I would make again.

Wednesday, a friend asked me to join her that evening for a preview of a TV documentary about JFK's life that will air November 11th on Public Broadcasting stations in the U.S.   The event included about thirty minutes of the documentary followed by a panel discussion with the documentary’s filmmaker, the director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and a historian who has just completed a book on Kennedy’s father.

The audience was enthusiastic, and so was I.  However, what struck me was that if I were not retired, there was no way I would have come home from work at six o’clock, grabbed a bite to eat and rushed to an event that began at seven. And my friend told me that she would never have invited me if I were still working.

So maybe retirement isn’t going to be so bad…