Archive - November 1, 2023

THE DEATH OF JFK–NOVEMBER 22, 1963 Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas. RPCVs—Tell us your story of being in the Peace Corps on November, 22, 1963. Where were you a Volunteer? What was the reactions from neighbors, friends, students? What did your HCN friends say to you about JFK’s death? How did the “American in-country community” react? How did you hear the news from Dallas? These are just a few questions you might answer. Tell us your story of that time in fewer than a 1000 words. I’ll post it on our site during the week of November 22nd. Send it to me: jcoyneone@gmail.com

The Infamous Peace Corps Postcard I recently received a few emails asking what JFK’s remark about writing to him meant to PCVs. Here’s a quick summary of the ‘famous’ post card incident that I posted on our site a few years ago.   Marjorie Michelmore (Nigeria 1961) was a twenty-three-year-old magna cum laude graduate of Smith College when she became one of the first people to apply to the new Peace Corps. She was an attractive, funny, and smart woman who was selected to go to Nigeria. After seven weeks of training at Harvard, her group flew to Nigeria. There she was to complete the second phase of teacher training at University College at Ibadan, fifty miles north of the capital of Lagos. By all accounts, she was an outstanding Trainee. Then on the evening of October 13, 1961, she wrote a postcard to a boyfriend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Here is . . .