JFK's Death....

Today is the anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination. If you are old enough to remember. Share your thoughts.

Keep working on the vision. Offer a vision to the young. They need it.

I was 2 1/2 at the time, and didn't know who the president was, nor why everybody was so upset. But I do remember that everybody was indeed upset, my mother crying, my father pissed, and neighbors dropping by one after the other, all excited, some weeping, to discuss what had happened.

I was sitting with my kindergarten aged brothers watching Bozo's Circus on Chicago's WGN when they interrupted to announce JFK had been shot.

I went to the kitchen and told my mom "Kennedy was shot!"
She asked,"What's the punch line?" She thought it was a joke.

I was driving my toddler to the grocery store in a Sacramento suburb. I just stopped my car in the middle of the road and got out and waved some other cars down to tell them. Then I went home and then went to my church (these were my pre-agnostic years). The nuns had brought all the grade school children into church, in their uniforms, and everyone was kneeling, praying silently and looking to be in shock. We were glued to our television sets all weekend, and watched the terrible beauty of the historic funeral procession to Arlington, with the black riderless horse, with the cavalry boots reversed in the stirrups. And little John John saluting his father.

I always love that picture of little John. He was so young but he seemed to have an old soul. I miss him too. :cry: What pisses me off so much is the bastard(s) who did this is still out there!



This is my second favorite picture:

I also have a book on John junior "The Day John Died" and there's the cutest picture of John with little John sitting on a bench and John is laughing and in the caption it states how John couldn't understand little John but still played around with him. I thought that was so cute.











Some of my favorite pictures of Kennedy are of him with his kids.

I watched the news unfold on TV, and it made me feel weird - sort of vulnerable. The next day, I was in a coffee shop with my dad; some guys in the next booth were making loud cracks about "burying the President", and a uncomfortable hush settled over the room. They piped down after that.

It was a very strange three days.

I remember it being like a family member had been killed.

My mom crying a lot.

and it is still so clear in my mind. Things were moving in slow motion. The principal came to the door and our teacher went outside the room to talk to him. Then she came back in and was crying and she said, "Children, our President has been shot and he has died".

The principal turned the PA system on and we all sat silently listening to the radio reports. We were all crying. I remember a friend who sat next to me walked back to the water fountain in the back of the room. I remember every detail.

We were dismissed early. I walked to school, so when I got home my Mom was sitting in front of the TV and she was crying. My Dad got home from work (he was a steelworker). It was the first time I ever saw my Dad cry.

We were glued to the TV for the whole weekend. We saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald while we were eating lunch.....

It seems like yesterday.

at Lake Como Elementary School in Orlando, Florida. It was a Friday and overcast. Some of the kids in our class were in the auditorium preparing for a Thanksgiving pageant. The children that were left in class were allowed to read or work on what they wanted--it was a slow day. All of a sudden, 2 of the boys that were in the auditorium came in and they were crying. "The President's dead!". Our teacher, Mrs. Hubka (who ironically was from Dallas), told them to calm down and she turned on the TV. A soap opera was on. Then Walter Cronkite came on and said the President was dead. He got choked up but regained his composure. We were transfixed. Mrs. Hubka started crying. The principal, Mrs. Johnson came over the PA system schoolwide. She said that she wanted all the school to go immediately home. My brother and I walked home. My mom was at work. I went next door to my girlfriend Linda's house. Linda and I walked up to the Colonial Plaza to find out what was going on. A huge crowd had gathered around the front of Bill Baer's TV Store. All the TVs were on and the store was jammed. A newspaper truck came up and unloaded newspapers and people just jumped on the pile. I remember putting my hands on one of the papers and when I moved my hands they were black--it was a special edition. This is the only time that my mother let us stay up allnight and watch TV--it never went off the entire weekend. I remember clearly Oswald getting shot and thinking it was some sort of sick joke. I can still remember the funeral cadence.

My mother was really effected by the President's death. In 1960, we were living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania which was very GOP -- they even went GOP when Roosevelt ran for re-election in 1936 which was very unusual. She had heard John Kennedy give a speech at a luncheon in 1959 and was really impressed and when he announced he was running, volunteered to run his campaign in Bucks County. A lot of people including my father thought she was crazy. She used to bring my brother and I to the Levittown Shopping Plaza with a folding table and pass out Kennedy buttons and fliers. I was remembering all of this over the last few weeks because my mom died on Halloween and among her papers is a letter from the DNC thanking her for her efforts. Also in her papers I found the newspaper I talked about above with handprints on it.

Here's to your Mom :toast: for the wonderful, brave person she was and here's for you :hug:.

I lost my Dad in Nov. 2004. He was a Dem. committee man for decades in my hometown (outside of Pgh. PA)

at Lake Como Elementary School in Orlando, Florida. It was a Friday and overcast. Some of the kids in our class were in the auditorium preparing for a Thanksgiving pageant. The children that were left in class were allowed to read or work on what they wanted--it was a slow day. All of a sudden, 2 of the boys that were in the auditorium came in and they were crying. "The President's dead!". Our teacher, Mrs. Hubka (who ironically was from Dallas), told them to calm down and she turned on the TV. A soap opera was on. Then Walter Cronkite came on and said the President was dead. He got choked up but regained his composure. We were transfixed. Mrs. Hubka started crying. The principal, Mrs. Johnson came over the PA system schoolwide. She said that she wanted all the school to go immediately home. My brother and I walked home. My mom was at work. I went next door to my girlfriend Linda's house. Linda and I walked up to the Colonial Plaza to find out what was going on. A huge crowd had gathered around the front of Bill Baer's TV Store. All the TVs were on and the store was jammed. A newspaper truck came up and unloaded newspapers and people just jumped on the pile. I remember putting my hands on one of the papers and when I moved my hands they were black--it was a special edition. This is the only time that my mother let us stay up allnight and watch TV--it never went off the entire weekend. I remember clearly Oswald getting shot and thinking it was some sort of sick joke. I can still remember the funeral cadence.

My mother was really effected by the President's death. In 1960, we were living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania which was very GOP -- they even went GOP when Roosevelt ran for re-election in 1936 which was very unusual. She had heard John Kennedy give a speech at a luncheon in 1959 and was really impressed and when he announced he was running, volunteered to run his campaign in Bucks County. A lot of people including my father thought she was crazy. She used to bring my brother and I to the Levittown Shopping Plaza with a folding table and pass out Kennedy buttons and fliers. I was remembering all of this over the last few weeks because my mom died on Halloween and among her papers is a letter from the DNC thanking her for her efforts. Also in her papers I found the newspaper I talked about above with handprints on it.

PA system. Dead silence in a room full of kids. School was dismissed and for the next 4 days we watched tv. Saw Oswald shot. I can't remember if the Zapruder film was shown in those 4 days or later. I'll never forget those drums at the funeral procession. Heads of state walking behind the horse drawn casket. It was a sad time for America.

The day JFK was killed was my 17th birthday, and since then I've read that worthless Warren Report, Death of a President, and just about anything else written about the assination. I have never seen any reason to support the single bullet theory. Just a cover up.

What a sad day. :( I don't believe the theory either. No way. How could a single bullet go from his neck to his brains? :eyes: Oh yeah. That one really works. I can't remember who made it up but I know they're a republican senator so did they have any ties to anything going on at the time? They, I think, knew something as to why they came up with the bogus theory.

if they are being shot from BEHIND.

system. Do they still have social studies? Our instructor was a very liberal teacher and his mouth dropped open till his chin seemed to hit the floor. I was in a Catholic boy's high school and everyone immediately marched over to the church to pray. Everyone felt that JFK had kept us safe from Russia and now we had no one to protect us.

It was on a Friday I think. I watched the TV all that weekend and on Sunday I saw Oswald get shot on live TV. It is the fist time I ever saw someone fall from being shot. It was a hell of a week. Then the funeral and the riderless horse who would not stand still. And John John saluting as his father's casket went by.

the principal came out and told him, and very calmy, he gathered us in a circle and told us. how he kept it together, i don't know! but we had the next several days off from school, and there was NOTHING to watch on tv. all THREE stations had the funeral and a bunch of commentary, so we were bored stiff. it wasn't even warm enough to play outside for long. i remember feeling very confined, but i think part of that was the grief over it. my older brother was a big kennedy fan, and i think my parents even admired him, although they were/are republicans. it was probably the beginning of my being aware of politics.

I was in my social studies class in 7th grade and the principal came into our classroom. He whispered something to my teacher and then left. My teacher then told the class that the President was shot and we were going to have early dismissal. I don't think any of realized that being shot would have translated into being assassinated. When I reached my home I turned on the tv and found out he was dead.

For the next days I was glued to my tv, along with my family. I saw Oswald killed in real time, and will never forget the funeral. I mentioned in a prior post what struck me the most was the horse with the boots in the stirrups backward, and Jackie's braveness. I remember watching those two children, and how John John didn't have a clue...crying now remembering it again, as I did earlier today...

I ADORED the Kennedys. I loved seeing photos of them and reading about them when they came into office. I was 9 at the time. I still have an old scrapbook with pictures from newspapers of Caroline, John John and Caroline's pony Macaroni. I even wrote letters to them and received a (form) letter back which I cherished. It felt like such a personal loss.

and other students were saying the president had been shot. Then the principal came over the intercom and announced it.

I remember it was Friday and the following Monday school was closed. It rained where I lived.

And I was in basketball practice. A classmate came into the gym and said the President had been shot. We left the gym to walk back to the main building, and as we came out on the sidewalk, the flag was being lowered to half staff. That one act suddenly made it real...before that it was just too much to comtemplate. The principal came on the intercom to say the President was dead, and his voice broke, which was shocking, and also made it seem real, and frightening.

Of the week-end following, my most vivid memory is Jackie getting off the plane with blood all over her skirt. It was just heartbreaking. And on Sunday, when she came out with the children to go to the capitol, her face was just so sad. And then the music and the drums, and everyone walking behind the riderless horse. I have no memory of John saluting the coffin...I didn't see Oswald shot...I don't remember anyone else much, except Jackie, and Bobby and Teddy.

I have never gotten over that loss. I became interested in politics because of JFK. He just made you feel like you had something to offer, and should offer it. Life seemed full of promise...anything seemed possible, and then he was gone. As Donald Sutherland said in JFK, nothing was ever the same again.