Will that hopeful feeling ever return?

A junior at Elmhurst’s York High School in 1963, I will never forget when legendary cross country coach Joe Newton announced to our gym class that JFK had been shot. After class, I went to my job at Montgomery Ward in Elmhurst, where customers viewed the assassination and began sobbing and even fainting.

JFK represented H-O-P-E to an excited ’60s generation. He had charisma, a quick wit, and he wanted to make life better for America. I yearn for the days of Camelot under JFK, when life, and the way empathetic people treated each other in everyday activities, was so much better. Part of the American dream died on Nov. 22, 1963. What will it take to return to the positive, energetic feeling that JFK gave this country — is it gone forever?

Jim Lentz

Wheaton