Tour Diary 18

Tour Diary  - 18 - – 21.4.11 – The Grassy knoll – a sea cow – and onwards to Austin….

Well I have to say having now stood at the  window of the Book Auditorium and also on the grassy knoll I don’t believe that either Lee Harvey Oswald or the mysterious people on the grassy knoll were responsible for the shots which killed JFK.

The shot from the window was just impossible.  The car was moving, there were 6 people in the car and only a small portion of their bodies were presented as the targets.

The Warren commission wants the public to believe that Oswald – reportedly a mediocre shot – got off 4 rounds in very fast succession and 2 of these bullets killed JFK and seriously injured the Governor sitting in front of Kennedy.

For my trying to picture it… if you imagine a clock face.  The Kennedy car is in the middle facing 6 o’clock.  This bullet which came in from 10 o’clock somehow went straight through Kennedy in a direct line from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock then passed through the governor richoeting as it went and causing terrible damage.  If this bullet had come from the window it would have to have either passed through JFK and into the floor of the car or through him into Jackie.  That’s the angle.  Said bullet just arrived on the stretcher of the governor at the hospital having somehow continued its journey outwards and just popped out onto the stretcher.  It was pristing with not a mark on it, or any damage to it.  However, the bullet, which went into JFKs brain looked like a chewed up toffee.  If someone showed you the picture and asked you what it was you would never say a bullet.  This bullet also hit at completely the wrong angle, but also if the shooter was on the grassy knoll the trajectory of his bullet would have passed from 9 o’clock to 3 0’clock and could not possibly have hit at the angle which killed him.  This to me only makes sense if the shooter was directly behind JFK, firing from a standing point at 12 0’clock.  To think they presented these facts and expected sane people to believe the statements is I feel, really insulting.

It was a very sobering few hours in the museum and both Steve and I wondered what he would have been able to achieve if his life was not cut short.

WE also managed to fit in the Dallas Aquarium and Art Museum.

I hate to see animals in captivity, but feel it is a sacrifice on their parts so that we can all see them live and get to really care about whether they survive in the wild or not.  Without seeing the captive Orka in Brighton Marina over 35 years ago, I don’t think I would have become the campaigner I am to save dolphins and Whales.  It so moved me, that I was crying for days.  As he swum one stroke he was at the other side of the pool.  It was so criminal and thank goodness campaigners got him freed….

However, there was a family of massive Sea Cows in a very tiny enclosure and the biggest – about the size of a huge bull, not cow – had swum right up into the corner of the glass cage.  I was not sure how it could turn round and get out.  Steve stood eyeball to eyeball with his hand on the glass and our obvious sense was of the creature saying… “get me out of here!”  Of course this is just anthropomorphizing animals thoughts… it might just as well have been saying ‘What have you done with your hair!’  but it was a very sad and very moving moment.

We loved Dallas and had a good time just walking, which is our favourite thing to do in a big city.  We were also in a beautiful hotel as a treat and were in the pool – outside – when a big storm came on again with lots of lightning.  We were advised to get out of the pool as it is dangerous, but it was quite splendid swimming about with the sky black and lightning strikes.  We sensibly got out though.

Talking points – get  a shirt not a  dog!!

We have always known that if you have a dog and are out for a walk people will talk to you.  But the same is true if you wear the gorgeous flamboyant shirts, which Steve favours.

Most were bought yearly on our trips to NYC staying in The Village’ and Steve wears them so well.  They usually have a motif of some sort.. one is of Elvis’s face, another guitars but the one that evokes the most comment is one which his sister bought him  covered in what looks like childish drawings.

We were in a Bar in Chichester once and the barman said “Love your Mambo shirt man!’  Steve replied ‘What’s a Mambo shirt?’  The Barman replied it was the shirt Steve had on.  Steve asked how he knew the designer and the Barman said “if you turn around it will be down the back of the shirt”  Sure enough in big red letters, it says  “Mambo”

This shirt seems though, to either attract the attention of either young men aged about 30 old or… old ladies over 75.  So yet another one accosted him yesterday and said…

“O.M.G!  I just looooove your shirt.  I saw you in Starbucks and I wanted to approach you then and now here you are in the Art Museum so I just have to ask… who is the designer?’  Of course we are now prepared and so we just turn Steve around and point out the big name on the back.

She went on, as all the old ladies do who accost him in this shirt, to say that they have never seen such a gorgeous shirt and what an amazing design etc..

Now the thing is.. this usually happens when I am not  standing next to him, so I have to wonder is this just a ploy on their part to talk to my gorgeously attired hubbie. 

The best one though was a shirt, which because of  a particular incident, Steve will no longer wear out.  It is a shirt, which is covered in very naughtily nude cartoon ladies in seductive poses.  We were on the subway in NYC and a really old black lady suddenly realized what the pictures were on Steve’s shirt.  She immediately went into a religious rant about debauchery and the devil and such like but then proceeded to follow us off the train with her nose about an inch away from the pictures as if she couldn’t get enough of the images to look at so that she could rant and rave about them.  It wasn’t until we broke into a trot that we finally managed to shake her off!!

Steve will only wear this shirt now indoors where he hopes he will not encounter any religious zealots!

So if you want to strike up a conversation with strangers – get a snazzy shirt.