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I settled into the right rear seat and felt a little shiver. Images of a smiling president in that spot came to mind. And, of course, the Zapruder film.
I don't know. You make the call. Is this historical re-enactment? Or creepy commercialism?
Yes, you can now ride through Dealey Plaza in a Lincoln Continental limousine just like the one carrying President John F. Kennedy on that fateful day.
The $25 tour is the brainchild of Dallas native Paul Crute. He's the one who found the replica '62 limosine--authentic from the fluttering flags on the front fenders to the step for Secret Service agents on the rear bumper.
Mr. Crute was at the wheel as we left downtown to begin my tour. In the front passenger seat was famed assassination researcher Robert Groden. He has moved to Dallas to act as technical and historical adviser to the tour.
"We'll go straight to Love Field, where the narrated portion of the tour begins," Mr. Crute said.
Sitting back there in that open-air limo, I felt a mixture of embarrassment and fascination -- and an acute awareness of just how vulnerable the president was that November noon.
Everywhere we went, people turned and stared. Some pointed. Some smiled. Some just looked dumbfounded.
A man in a Toyota rolled down his window and yelled, "Hey, is that THE car." "No, it's one like it," Mr. Crute yelled back. "The original is in a museum in Dearborn, Michigan." (The Henry Ford Museum)
At a stoplight, a man in a Lincoln asked incredulously, "Is this a tour you do everyday?" "Yes," Mr. Crute replied and pointed to the sign on the side of the limo. "Call the number to make a reservation."
The passenger compartment of the limousine is equipped with powerful speakers. And as we pulled into Love Field, the speakers filled the car with the sounds of actual radio news reports as the president's plane arrived that day.
The announcer talked about the president climbing into the rear of the limousine alongside his wife, and he noted how the red roses presented to Mrs. Kennedy contrasted nicely with her pink suit.
I squirmed in my limo seat, feeling the ordinary humanity of John and Jacqueline Kennedy stronger than ever before.
From the airport, we followed the route of the presidential motorcade route down Mockingbird Lane, then right on Lemmon Avenue. Mr. Groden pointed out a spot where a family stood with a banner that read: "Mr. President, Stop and Shake Our Hands." Which he did.
We followed the motorcade route along Turtle Creek Boulevard, Cedar Springs Road and Harwood Street into downtown. On Main Street, Mr. Groden said people had stood 10 deep, cheering wildly. "At this point, the trip was considered a huge success," he said.
In the distance, I could see Dealey Plaza.
Old radio broadcasts and sound effects are interspersed throught the tour. It makes the experience eerily real.
And once we reached Dealey Plaza, maybe too real.
We passed by the former School Book Depository Building and started down the slope toward the triple underpass. And suddenly, out of those powerful speakers, the sound of gunshots rang out. BOOM...BOOM, BOOM.
Mr. Crute slowed the big limo to a near stop, just as the driver did that day.Then he zoomed forward, toward Stemmons Freeway.
The speakers blared with frantic news reports and police sirens and screams. The horror and chaos that must have filled that car that day were made stomach-sickingly real.
As we raced toward Parkland Memorial Hospital, the voices faded until the only sound was the mornful wail f a siren.
I don't know. History. Creepy? Tacky?
Maybe all of the above.
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