Tell me if you think this is a strange sequence of events, Scaiaholics:

This morning, I was covering an event with the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department at the county administration building. They were getting their report on their annual jail inspection.

Texas Commission on Jail Standards says Dallas County has passed inspection. Jail declared noncompliant for about two months in 2018 after an inmate died. Dept says they found small issues this year, but the county “has already put some plans into place to address those issues.” pic.twitter.com/5T8az3YAh7

— Alan Scaia (@scaia) November 22, 2019

The county administration building is a few blocks from the jail. It happens to be same building where Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly assassinated John F. Kennedy. The building was going to be torn down, but Dallas County bought it and moved in.

“Doggone tourists,” I said, rolling my eyes, as I wandered outside and saw an unusually large group of people milling around the grassy knoll.

“Wait!” I realized after more time than I care to admit. “Today’s the anniversary of the assassination.”

And the sequence begins:

— I’ve now lived in DFW for 10 years. This is the first time I’ve ever been in Dealey Plaza on the anniversary. Loyal Scaiaholics will recall, as the Fort Worth beat reporter at WBAP on the 50th anniversary of the assassination, my job was to explain to people how JFK loved Fort Worth so much, he demanded to stand in the rain to meet the townsfolk.

I’ve brought family to the plaza. A few years ago, I brought a college associate visiting from Indiana to the plaza. In that case, I halted traffic so he could take a picture.

But I had never actually come to Dealey Plaza on the anniversary itself, which feels strange. Also, I was only there today because I was covering an unrelated story.

— That brings us to the next item. They sang “Amazing Grace” and read accounts from people. They had a moment of silence at the moment JFK was shot. It was a stirring tribute. I mean that genuinely; people from around the world had gathered on a cold day when it was spitting rain to remember what happened. Many of them could tell you exactly where they were when he was assassinated.

So you might think at a moment so important in American history, they’d maybe shut down the road in front of the school book depository so someone doesn’t have to scurry out into the street to lay down some flowers while another guy holds up his hand to stop traffic. You might be a fool.

— As traffic started moving again, the flowers were quickly dispersed. But people from around the world had come to Dallas. Somehow, I found the Montreal Expos fan.

“I have got to meet the guy in the Expos jacket,” I said to myself.

We got to talking. He’s not, actually from Montreal. He’s from Dallas. This is completely true. He’s not an Expos fan; he just happened to find the jacket at a substantial discount.

He says he comes sometimes but not every year. This year, he had a friend in from out of town. We agreed Dealey Plaza on November 22 is like Times Square on New Year’s Eve: tourists show up, but New Yorkers stay away.

— While most locals stay away, the JFK nuts show up. That reminded me of a colleague from the old WBAP days. Loyal Scaiaholics will also recall I was his plus-one at the JFK opera when it opened in Fort Worth.

I texted him and, like an idiot, asked if he was at Dealey Plaza. Obviously, he was at Dealey Plaza. He wrote back to meet him at the “Pergola by the Zapruder pedestal.”

“Okay, Scaia, you can get through this,” I said, psyching myself up for a battle of wits. “You’re pretty sure a pergola is sort of like a gazebo. Find something that looks like a gazebo. Zapruder is the guy who took the film. The Zapruder Film. Find a gazebo where you’ve read about the Zapruder film.”

A few minutes later… success! Another WBAP reporter was up in the sixth floor. He was kind enough to snap a picture of us down on the grass. Looking at it now, though, it feels kind of strange to have a giant circle drawn around me from that exact vantage point.