“Freeze Tag” captures a momentous day: November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and what hearing that news was like for a ten year old girl in Catholic School.

Everyone my age and older has an assassination story. “Where were you? What were you doing, thinking, wearing, when you heard that John Kennedy had been shot?” That story. I was a child, so my assassination tale begins on the playground and ends in my parents’ living room. And because I was a child, my story is tangled up with memories of girl culture, 5th grade crushes, Catholic School– all the other falls from innocence.

It was November. And in November, the game was freeze tag…

Joan Hawkins is professor of film in The Media School at Indiana University. Her book School and Suicide, which contains “Freeze Tag” and other stories, was published by Alien Buddha Press and is available through independent book sellers and Amazon.

MUSIC
Show Theme: “Firetime” by The Keithe Lowrie Duet
Children’s Corner (1908)- Claude Debussy, performed by Gerluz
In the following order:
– Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
– The Snow Is Dancing
– The Little Shepherd
– Jimbo’s Lullaby
– Serenade for the Doll

CREDITS
Narrator: Joan Hawkins
Producer & Host: Robert Shull
Audio Engineer: Doug Storm
Recording: Kyle Quass
Literary Consultant: Shana Ritter
Executive Producer: Josh Brewer