Coffee spilled on my bathrobe as I jerked upright watching the NBC Today show interview with Kirk Ewing this morning. He’s the Scottish developer of a video “game” that recreates the murder of President John Kennedy — from the shooter’s point of view. I saw the young man deliver words like “investigation” and “forensic” with a deadpan expression. He probably didn’t realize his explanation of the game’s two modes, bloodless or not, as existing to entice more customers seemed a telling response to Matt Lauer’s question. So is Ewing’s youth. He doesn’t remember. He couldn’t know.

An entire generation, probably mostly Americans, recalls the Kennedy shooting as a poignant moment that stands out in our past. For some of us it defined our future.

We all have a story to tell about where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news, and I’m no exception. I knew something major was happening as I ran the mile between classes at either end of Northwestern University’s Evanston, Illinois, campus. It was very cold, and I had wet hair from a swim class. The other students I passed had strange looks on their faces. The campus was eerily quiet for break time.

Dr. Campbell began his psychology lecture with the news that the president had been shot. In a few minutes someone sidled out on the stage to whisper to him, and he announced the death. He bowed his head a moment, then tried and failed to continue speaking. Class was dismissed for us that day, for John Kennedy, forever.

We don’t need a simulation.