11/22/63. Where were you?

I was in my second grade classroom and the principal started to broadcast the radio reports over the PA. I was one of the few kids in class who understood what was going on, and I felt the air go out of me when I heard the reporter say "The President is dead".

My mom's bank was closed until the funeral was over and there was NOTHING on TV except coverage until then. The night of the President's death I remember my mother and sister and I lying on my mom's bed crying silently. We had seen President Kennedy a few days before he was elected when he rode through our town in a motorcade. My mom told me that he waved at me, and I really wish I could say that I remember that. And more than anything else that night, there was an incredible feeling of EMPTINESS!

Since I'm sure that george h.w. bush is not a member of DU, I'll guess that any of us who were around then will remember where we were and what we were doing.

How about you?

So since I was 8 years from conception... I think my parents at least still liked each other back then...

with scarlet fever! I was delirious for days and when I snapped out of it, I asked my mom if the president really died and if daddy really cried. I thought I'd had a nightmare.

A national nightmare!

7th grade math class. One student in my class had said, "wouldn't it be neat if Kennedy was shot while here?" The teacher came back into the classroom later and said dejectedly, "Doug, you got your wish."

it sounds like a strange wish to me.......

eom

There were many Republican nuts in Dallas who hated JFK. These are the guys who supported the John Birch Society, H.L. Hunt's crazy radio show Life Line, General Walker and segregation. But there were a lot more people in Dallas who loved Kennedy - believe it.

I've heard that before.........sorry, I forgot about that.

...that would give him a 1 way ticket to Gitmo for that!

:hippie:

My mom and I were watching the soap operas (I think it was "Search for Tomorrow"), when they broke in and made the announcement.

Even though I was only 5, I knew who Kennedy was and how significant this was.

I also remember how shocked both I and my mother were.

During rehearsal some members had small radios and during the rehearsal we were told that President Kennedy was dead.

she started crying immediately then sent us home

my mom and grammy were glued to the TV and told me the President was dead. We saw replay after replay of the tapes

it was a lot like 9/11. Disbelief, fear, grief and anger.

on my way home from school (back then, kids could walk home by themselves) a classmate named Christina (isn't it funny that I even remember her name) told me that President Kennedy had been shot and killed. I remember starting to cry and I said to her that she was wrong and that it couldn't be true. I ran all the way home into my house to find my mother in tears sitting in front of the T.V. Yea, for sure, a day I'll never forget - six years old.

Home sick that day. I was on the couch watching tv with my Mom when it happened. I remember how devasted my Mom was.

I was 3 and I still remember seeing John-John standing out there. I don't really remember anything else, except that it was a turning point for my family....most of them decided to move back to Sweden.

Cheers!

Seventh grade. Schuyler Colfax Junior High, Wayne NJ.
Somehow the word began spreading around the locker room. Maybe someone had a small transistor radio. Expressions of disbelief as we touched up our hair and makeup. Then the P.A. announcement that the President had been shot in Dallas. Girls breaking down and weeping on the benches. I remember standing there, staring blankly into a mirror while dabbing on lipstick. I couldn't believe my ears. I was totally numb, dumbfounded, astonished. This stuff didn't happen in America.

I was a month away from my seventh birthday. My mother picked me up that afternoon, so I assume they let school out early. It wasn't until I watched the news that night with my parents that it really struck me what had happened. I seem to remember a lot of crying adults, so I cried too.

The next few days were very sad and went on forever. Like you, I recall there was little or no kids programming on TV.

I still have the faintest recollection of being in a big crowd on my father's shoulders. My mother tells me that JFK reached up and shook my hand but was looking at her. That was a fall day, at a campaign rally in New Haven, three years earlier. It's one of my earliest memories.

...very similar!

at Citrus Heights Elementary School when Principal Zumbiel made the announcement. I also remember when my dad came home from work he had tears in his eyes. We listened to his Profiles in Courage album that night.

taught that way back then.)

A crying teacher came into our class and told our geography teacher the news that Kennedy had been shot. Some time later, the news went around that he was dead. When we got home from school, we did nothing but watch the coverage.

Later, when Oswald was shot on live TV, I was watching at the time and remember being pretty freaked out.

It was Catholic School. I was 12 years old. The teacher was crying. They sent everyone home. My father was devastated. I knew, even at 12, that the country would never be the same again.

I recall it was shocking enough to hear the President was dead. But when Ruby broke through the crowd and shot Oswald, it was like the Twilight Zone!! Has the entire country gone insane? How can a man in police custody under suspicion of killing the President, be killed himself?

It was extremely strange to say the least...........

7th grade geography - Mr. McComis was the teacher. Another teacher came tot he door and broke the news to our teacher. He did not say anything other than the that President Kennedy had been shot.

When I got home from school my mother was clenching her hands and wandering around. It was dark in the house because it was getting very overcast outside, but my mother didn't seem to notice and didn't turn the lights on.

To the exact day.

But being a Kennedy fan, I have taken note of this day since I was old enough to understand its importance.

Ann Arbor

law firm. i had lunch with 2 women who were my co-workers. i remember we had italian food because back then i was catholic and didn't eat meat on friday. i had spaghetti with marinara sauce. on our way back to the building there was a car parked with the radio on and we heard that the president had been shot. we went upstairs to our office where the radio was on. (i'm getting chills writing this -- it brings back the memories). when we heard that the president had collapsed into jackie's arms the woman that i had lunch with fainted. she had recently lost her husband to a heart attack -- he died in her arms. i remember one of the men getting some brandy or something for her. i don't think any of us did any work that afternoon. i remember riding home on the subway and i couldn't stop crying. cried for days.

He turned 3 the day of his father's funeral (November 25).

In later years, "John John" said many times he wasn't sure what he remembered and what he had been told. He did not remember saluting.

Since I had just turned 3, my memories are of the same kind.

My father was editorial page editor of our local afternoon newspaper. The old teletype machines would ring 5 times when a flash news bulletin was coming in. The bells clanged shortly before 12:45 Eastern time. Dad jumped up to read the news off the wire, then called home. When Mom answered, he said, "Jack's been shot."

Mom turned the TV on and I know we stayed in front of it for the next four days.

class at Gypsum Ohio Elementary School. The principle came into the classroom and talked to the teacher and they both had tears running down their cheeks. I remembered that most of our class cried. We were sent home from school early.

I remember saying to another girl that I feel so sorry for him, and she said "That's stupid. He's dead. You should feel sorry for his family." Guess she was right, but she pi**ed me off none-the-less.

Guess it's something that you could never forget - just like I'll never forget what I was doing when John Jr's plane was "lost".

How horrible. I wounder how Caroline feels today? I do feel sorry for her. She's lost a lot and still seems like such a genuinely kind and caring person.

....they made an announcement (on the intercom) that the President had been shot and that school would close early. I remember my Dad picked us up from school. My Dad was a truck driver and he was usually out of town so it was very unusual for him to pick us up.

I remember as we drove home, we listened to the reports on the radio and I sat in the back seat, looking at the back of my dad's neck and thinking how lucky I was to have my dad home safe. John Jr and Caroline would not be so lucky.

But my mother never forgot it......

Someone came into the room, whispered something to her. She informed us Kennedy had been shot and then she left the room.

We began a hushed chatter wanting to know what was going on.

Later they called an assembly and that's when they told us Kennedy was dead. I remember a lot of older kids crying.

the news. The repukes HATED Kennedy and want us to forget
him totally. Sometimes I think most have, sadly.

Oh, and I was in class eagerly awaiting the beginning of
the weekend. Little did I know what a nightmarish weekend
it would turn out to be...

.....and the comments I've heard from right wingers recently is that they would be more inclined to work with a liberal like JFK. The complaint is that the current Democratic party has moved further left of JFK.

Didn't quite know it at the time...

Not to be sardonic, of course, but this is like the 20th thread we've had today asking the same thing. :hurts:

So What?

We had the day off of school for teacher workshops. It was a Friday. We had a bowling league after school on Fridays but on that day, we bowled in the morning since we had no school. So we were all at the bowling alley and a kid who was always in trouble came running in yelling "The president is dead!" We all thought he was kidding. I got home before I knew it was true.

Yes, I remember nothing on TV except Kennedy and the funeral, etc. for three or four days. I remember Walter Cronkite wiping a tear from his eye. And I remember watching Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald.

The other thing I remember is a neighbor we had who hated us because we were Catholic. She said "I am not sorry to hear YOUR president is dead". We went inside and told our parents and my dad went out and had a word with her. He never told us what he said to her. My mom stayed in the house because she was crying. I still remember this as the first time I ever felt anyone's hatred because I was different than they were.

it over the intercom.

at Western Illinois University. Someone came in an told the professor. He was visibly shaken and dismissed class. I ran all the way back to the dorm to find everyone clustered around TV's ....many were crying. I thought it was the end of the world.

on the "open table" at Cochran's pool hall in San Francisco.

came to the classroom crying, told the class he had been shot and we left school, drove down to the ocean and sat there for a couple of hours crying. it was an incredible loss of innocence.

at Hocker Grove JH in Shawnee Mission, Kansas. We all knew something bad had happened when the principal came over the PA system and asked for all the machines in the shop classes to be turned off so that everyone could hear what he had to say. He told us just before the bell rang for the end of class. There were girls crying in the hallways. It seemed the country shut down for 4 days--stock exchange dark, shops were closed, everyone stayed in and watched the TV. That wouldn't happen today I don't think. No one announced any closures, it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Everyone was in shock. A few days later, Jack Ruby killed Oswald on live television. A naive nation was so numb, they couldn't realize that this had to be the first sign of a major conspiracy. And they have been lying to us about it ever since.

I was born in 66

with my 5 month old son asleep upstairs. I called my husband at his office ( a doctor) and told him about JFK. He said I was "crazy", no one would do that, and his radio was broken. So he sent a patient out to her car to listen. He called me back and apologized for saying I was crazy. I cried all afternoon.

living here in Memphis

Miss Thelma Verner and Mr Wesley Lothery were our teachers (2 classes who alternated teachers and classrooms during the day). An announcement was made around 2:30 PM EST on the school PA system. I believe that teachers had been informed by other teachers, quietly, during the preceding half-hour, because Miss Verner was insistent that we be quiet and ready for the announcement when it came.

The school principal made the announcement as gently and kindly as he could. I remember just feeling stunned. I think other students felt the same way. Our classroom had a door to the outside that had NEVER been opened before, but Miss Verner opened it and allowed us to go outside for a few minutes. Then, school was let out for the day.

I always rode home on the public bus system, and the buses arrived early at 3:00 PM to pick us up. The bus was uncommonly quiet that day. No cutting up, no joking around. The bus driver must have thought we were all drugged.

I think it must have been an teacher inservice day or something, because we had a half-day of school. My mom went to check her schedule for volunteering in the school library, and came out, shaken, telling my friend Cindy and me (sitting in the Chevy) that Kennedy was dead.

I think it rocked our young worlds so much because it was probably the first time we'd really seen our parents cry.

We were Catholic, and Kennedy was like a GOD to all our Catholic relatives (years later, my grandmother gave me a poster of JFK and Bobby ascending into heaven with angels and clouds and eagles all around them!). So, I know we went to church a lot over the next few days to pray for Kennedy's soul and for his family.

When I was little, I loved and admired Caroline so much, because she was MY AGE (and had a pony, Macaroni) and lived in the White House! I was very sad for "my friend" Caroline.

My right-wing brother was almost two.

why it was totally silent except for the lone television in the corner and every single person staring at it. I saw a friend and walked over & said "what the hell's going on?"...about 50 people glared at me and went SHHHHHH!

It was about the time JFK had arrived at Parkland...obviously it didn't take me long to get the picture. I skipped the rest of my classes that day. :cry:

parents back yard...wondering what the fuck had happenned...still wondering....

Obviously dont remember but thats what I was doing.

I was posted right across from the Junior High School office - I think I was the first kid in the school to find out because I overheard them talking about whether to make an announcement on the PA (they did).

I was in the third grade and came home for lunch...which included watching that classic Chicago kid's show. On the way back to school, I ran into the "neighborhood bully"...who came up to me and said "ya know, Kennedy was shot in Texas". The first image in my mind was JFK riding in a Stagecoach with sagebrush outside the doors and a bunch of bad guys in black bandanas shooting inside the coach. I didn't want to believe him and hurried back to school.

Once I got to class, I knew something was up...teachers were scrambling all over the hallways (this was about 1:00pm) and there was a buzz in the class about the rumors of Kennedy being shot. Finally, about 1:30 or so, the teacher came in and told us that JFK had been shot and apparently killed. I remember things being in suspended animation for the rest of that warm day.

When I came home, my parents were already wired to the TV and I still have many vivid memories of watching all that TV coverage, including Oswald's shooting. On Monday, we had a half-day at school where all of us gathered in the multi-purpose room and watched the burial.

The memories of that time are still very vivid...and I credit with my own awakening.

word that comes to mind, no matter how many messages were processed about the shooting and subsequent death of the President.

I'm a guy, there were "Womens Dorms" back then, I was visiting.
Speakers on each side of my head, when we heard.
It is amazing how this stuff sticks with you.