I received a lesson the other day in generational differences as they relate to historic events.

It came from a young public television producer who wondered aloud whether people her age are going to “get” the significance of the upcoming 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s murder in Dallas.

It was on Nov. 22, 1963 that a gunman killed the president as his motorcade moved slowly through downtown Dallas. The event shattered the nation, if not the world. We went into mourning. As a young teenager at the time, I was certain that the Soviet Union (you remember them, right?) was responsible and was going to invade the United States at any minute.

Those of us who were old enough to remember that event were stricken deeply. We’ll look forward to a time later this year when we’ll stop to remember, recall and honor the memory of President Kennedy. We’ll also look back on what we felt when we heard the news none of us at the time ever thought we’d hear: The president is dead.

But not all Americans have that awareness, my young friend noted the other morning. She wasn’t yet born when JFK died. Her only exposure to that event is through high school and college textbooks, which she said devoted relatively little space to that event. Her high school teachers weren’t that interested in telling the whole story of JFK’s brief presidency or in sharing the grief that struck the nation.

Her recollection was that her history teachers said that Kennedy was killed and, well, that was it.

The remembrances coming later this year will have to take the views of young Americans into account. Dallas is planning a dignified memorial to commemorate that tragic moment. City officials no doubt will face many questions from younger residents there who weren’t around to feel the pain that their parents and grandparents felt at that time. Why is this such a big deal? What did John Kennedy mean to the nation? And tell us again: What precisely was Camelot?

I’ll be awaiting those remembrances. Television programming will devote many hours to that event, rehashing perhaps the debate that’s raged for five decades over whether the gunman – who himself was shot to death two days later – acted alone or was part of some grand conspiracy.

My hope is that the remembrance becomes relevant and memorable even to those who weren’t around to feel the pain in the moment.