I’m not as sure I was a child of the 60’s, as I know I was a child in the 60’s.  In first grade on a fall Friday, my principal Miss Lewis told my teacher Miss Goodwin to tell our class that our president was dead.  I didn’t fully comprehend the impact of the news — as if I could at any age. 

Two days later, as we arrived home from church, dad turned on the TV in time to watch the assassin shot dead in Texas — live on TV.  It was a first for both of us.  I noticed the shooter wore a hat just like my dad had worn to church.  I remembered the day before on the same TV I watched the Lone Ranger shoot a bad guy in Texas, but that guy lived.  The event that started where they store school books led to school canceled on Monday.

My journey would soon include hearing crazy conspiracies about what had changed history until each conspiracy was quashed with explanation and experience.  In a decade I’d visit Dallas and remember the Dealey Plaza as much as I remembered attending the Cowboys-Dolphins Thanksgiving Day game. I learned that I couldn’t control life; the actions another can change everything in an instant.

As I have witnessed many other unreal events happen before my eyes, I’ve stopped to ask myself: “How are first graders seeing this?”  What impact will this have on their lives?  How will they see the world based on this first impression? In 2021, on the church’s Epiphany Day, I wondered how children would come to view our nation’s capital and what crazy conspiracies they’ll face in their futures.

I’ve heard it said: “you only get one chance to make a first impression.” Maybe we get a lifetime of chances to grow beyond it.

Describe a first impression that impacted your life.  How old were you?  How were you affected?  What have you firmly held onto?  How have you grown and changed to allow some first impressions to fall away?