Alexander Visits Dallas, Texas

Dallas! This gleaming city stands proudly upon the dusty Texas plains. Dallas! A city that was untouched by the earthquake that devastated San Francisco in 1906! Dallas! A city that emerged unscathed by the Great Fire that set Chicago aflame! Dallas! It withstood the conquering hordes of Atilla the Hun! However, Dallas can not overcome the memory of one particular event...

Its NFL team, the Dallas Cowboys, has transcended its local origins and attracted a national following. Dallas was also the site, and the name, of a prime-time drama that, for years, kept viewers worldwide glued to their television sets in order to follow the nefarious schemes of J. R. Ewing. And yet, for many people, the city of Dallas is associated with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

West End, Dallas, Texas

Alexander spent an afternoon in Dallas during the month of December 1997. He visited the West End (above, left) a marketplace filled with interesting shops, including a place when it is possible to have your name engraved on a grain of rice. He had lunch with his parents at The Blue Mule. And, like so many visitors to this city, he visited Dealey Plaza, the site of the Kennedy assassination, and a mecca for conspiracy buffs everywhere.

The Alexander Home Page is not interested in advancing any conspiracy theories of our own. We will not be pointing the finger at J. Edgar Hoover, or Lyndon B. Johnson. We will not be implicating Fidel Castro, or organized crime families. We will not even place the blame on El Niño.

Since he was in the neighborhood, however, Alexander decided to take a look around Dealey Plaza, to see if he could answer some of the lingering questions concerning the events surrounding the death of President Kennedy.

The Texas Schoolbook Depository At left, Alex and his father can be seen in front of the former Texas Schoolbook Depository. It was from the sixth floor of this building that Lee Harvey Oswald is believed to have fired the fatal shots. Alex peers thoughtfully towards the stockade fence atop the Grassy Knoll, where many believe that a second gunman positioned himself.

Alex had a good time stomping around on the Grassy Knoll, which is a gentle roadside slope from which witnesses had the clearest view of the assassination. Abraham Zapruder was on the knoll, upon the pavilion seen in the background, when he filmed the famous home movie footage that has been examined time and again since 1963. Alexander on the Grassy Knoll

Alexander atop the Grassy Knoll After he completed his stomping on the Grassy Knoll, Alexander climbed up to the stockade fence area to look for evidence of a second gunman. While he found no hard clues, he did notice some pigeons behaving suspiciously, and promptly chased them away.

The car in which John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

After exiting the rear of the pavilion atop the Grassy Knoll, Alexander and his parents discovered the actual car in which John F. Kennedy was riding when he was shot. The car had previously been part of a private collection, and is now available for tourists to ride in. The tour follows the same route that the presidential motorcade took on that fateful November day. Apparently, those present thought the idea to be a bit unsettling. Nobody elected to take the tour. In fact, rides in the JFK car seem to be about as popular as engraved rice (see above.)

And so, Alexander left Dallas without resolving the mystery surrounding the Kennedy assassination. He leaves the task to those willing to devote their full energy to it. And over in Cuba, Fidel Castro breathed a huge sigh of relief.