Peter Rhodes on pylons, bum ache and reflections on an assassination in Dallas

Even at my tender age I knew that Kennedy, the tanned, handsome war hero and family man, was more like a film star than a politician. He stood for youth, vitality, hope and courage. Later we would hear about Marilyn and the Mob and the other dark shadows in Kennedy's so-call Camelot. But in November 1963 the assassination in Dallas seemed like the end of everything that was good in public life. And amid all the speculation that followed, one truth echoes through history: everyone of a certain age remembers where they were and how they heard the news that JFK was gone.