Friday, Nov. 22 is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Can you believe it happened 50 years ago?

For many of my generation, it seems like a week or so ago when the nation was shocked into mourning.

For many of my contemporaries, and those who are a bit older, we can remember the time and day we learned of the terrible event — it was the day we realized it was time to grow up.

I was slouching through a political science class at John Carroll University in Cleveland when a guy opened the door to announce the news. “Class dismissed,” said the professor, a learned Jesuit priest.

It seemed like our class sleepwalked out of the tiny tower room and lumbered down the narrow staircase. We trooped outside into the crisp November afternoon where we were soon joined by hundreds of our classmates lining the quadrangle, the center of the campus. After a moment or two, several students walked to the center of the “quad” and lowered the huge American flag to half staff. Almost on command, hundreds of students fell to their knees in silent prayer. Not a word was said.

Fifty years later, despite official and unofficial investigations, many still wonder what really happened that day in Dallas. As Time magazine said this week, many just can't accept the Warren Commission's conclusion that “a confused strange man with a mail-order rifle could, acting on his own, reorient American history.”

Where were you on that day?

Early Bird is Saturday

Those of us who do not flee to the southland when the first leaves fall look forward to the annual Boothbay Harbor Early Bird sales event, the local kickoff to the Christmas season buying frenzy.

Our merchant friends go along with the gimmick and open before sunrise, offering coffee and hot deals to customers wearing their jammies. It has become a sort of Halloween contest, where house coats and fuzzy slippers replace fright wigs and conical hats as the uniform of the day. It is worth lots of laughs.

It is also worth a few bucks to shoppers seeking bargains and merchants trying to move merchandise. We note that our shopping/tourist season is a short one and our merchant friends have to do everything they can to make a living.

I like to support them and hope you will, too. After all, I would do just about anything I could to avoid another shopping trip to Portland or Augusta.

Like the annoying furniture guys say in their even more annoying local TV commercial: “Don't miss it.”

Turkeys, turkeys, turkeys

We had 26 wild turkeys trooping across the yard the last few mornings. They examined the grass, pecked at a few leaves, scratched up the sod under the backyard bird feeder and wandered off into the woods.

Once in a while, the big toms would present their plumage and strut around demanding attention from females who were more interested in pecking at bugs than romance. Sound familiar?

It has not been to many years since my bride and I stopped on the highway and marveled at the first turkey we had ever seen in the wild. They were reintroduced nationally, and now, I guess because of a lack of predators, they seem to be all over the place.

Maybe they got the memo noting November 1 as the end of fall turkey hunting season.