But I just looked around and he was gone

To a seven year old boy there was no doubt as to which of the two events that weekend was the more important. Dr Who quickly became an obsession with me and remained so for many years. We're all supposed to have 'our' doctor and mine is and always has been William Hartnell.

However, in all the commemorations in the media it is to the assassination of JFK that I have been drawn. Not that I have a terribly high regard for the man. As, ironically enough, he himself said  "The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.". But I do recall well the events of that night. It's not my earliest memory. I can remember the Cuban missile crisis; now that was scary. Rather I can recall my father - a man with no interest in politics or current affairs - being genuinely moved as he tried to explain to my sister and I what had happened.

And it is for that, for the memory of my long dead father that it brings to mind, that I have been an attentive audience for the anniversary programmes. Unlike Kennedy he has left no permanent mark on the public record and after my sister and I are dead he will be forgotten. Brief and ephemeral as they may be these moments when I can see him again, even if it is only in my mind, are precious to me.