Where were you when John F. Kennedy was assassinated

[TheCowsCameHome]

..and what were you doing?

I was driving to work after a lunch date with my fiancee in New Haven, CT.
While stopped at a busy intersection, the light turned green and hardly anyone moved. A few folks got out of their cars and stared in disbelief as news came over the radio. It was surreal. An awful day.

(One guy I worked with was a miserable redneck from North Carolina, and he had stated openly once before that if he and Kennedy ever went into the woods hunting, only one would come back out. At work that afternoon one of the guys grabbed him by the throat and said "Harris, if I were you I'd keep my &^$%#*& rebel mouth shut today, do you understand me?&quot

[Wintryjade]

1. In my crib?

[Sugarcoated]

9. Me, too.

[PurgedVoter]

39. I had probably climbed out of my crib

I was an escape artist from early on.

[LakeSuperiorView]

50. Probably filling a diaper, I was exactly 11 months old.

[BootinUp]

2. Staring at a mobile probably. Nt

[Bfd]

13. Lol. Awww.

[grantcart]

3. Third grade. I saw the janitor go to the flag pole and take the flag to half mast

And told my seat mate that I thought the President had died.

The announcement was made 30 min later.

The only other thing I remember was Ruby killing Oswald live on TV.

[underthematrix]

4. I was 13 years old in the 8th grade.

The bell had just rung ending second period. I had walked to my locker to get my books for third period. As I was closing my locker someone screamed and then I heard gasps and crying. Someone said President has been shot. Everyone was sent home. Everything seemed especially silent as I walked the ten blocks home with scores of other children. There was no laughter, no taunting, no fights. Just the numbness and silence.

[CurtEastPoint]

10. Same here. 13. And remember it like yesterday.

[mitch96]

35. Same here, 14 years old in 9th grade

I was outside of school and everybody was rushing around in a frenzy, some were crying...
Very surreal.. Numb was a good word for the feeling...

m

[gblady]

5. In high school choir rehearsal

Someone came in the room and said he's been shot, and the director just kept rehearsing. It wasn't until they announced his death over the intercom that they closed school for the day. I remember feeling stunned and very confused by the director's behavior.

[Taraman]

6. Eighth grade home room.

My teacher was called into the hallway and came back weeping. "Everyone go home."

I still tear up, remembering. That was a hard week.

[COLGATE4]

7. Sitting in a frat house getting ready to drive over to Saratoga for some dates.

[Tikki]

8. 9th Grade Science class...the teacher was, also, the one with...

the radio allowed in his class...so we listened and listened.

President John Kennedy had been to our community some weeks before he was brutally murdered.

That visit was still fresh in many of our minds and hearts.


Tikki

[LoisB]

11. High school senior. Walking across the quad to my next class. Suddenly everyone started

Screaming, running, crying...announcement made and we were told to go home but it was a while before anyone left school. I think we were all just kind of milling around, directionless. Shock, disbelief, and an incredible sadness permeated throughout the entire student body. Innocence lost.

[Bfd]

12. 5th grade history class. I was wearing a purple dress, white sweater, & brown shoes.

The news came from the principal, over the grey metal loudspeaker that hung above the front blackboard & next to the door in the classrooms.

Our teacher told us to all sit quietly & read until she returned to the room. Then she left for about 20 minutes, came back & we had recess.

[MsLeopard]

14. 8th grade math class

The door to the room had a window and other teachers kept coming up and looking in. Finally our teacher went out to see what was up and came back and told us. That day was the first time I ever saw TV with no commercials, and they kept it up all weekend.

[GeorgeGist]

15. High school chemistry class.

[Awsi Dooger]

16. Quiet play time at nursery school in Miami

I was 4 years old and watching the girl who sat next to me play with some building blocks. It was midday on a Friday. Since I wasn't directly involved in an activity I think I was the first one who saw our two female teachers move toward each other and speak briefly at the front of the room. That must have been when one of them shared the news with the other.

Immediately they asked everyone to return to our seats. Then there was a period of quiet confusion. I don't know how long it took but it seemed like 20 minutes or more that we sat there while nothing was happening except one teacher leaving the room several times and then returning. I guess the higher ups were receiving word that schools would close early and everyone would be sent home.

Finally we were told to stand up, that school was finished for the day and we were going to walk silently to the back of the school yard, the same place where our parents always picked us up. I remember being very confused at what was going on. My parents were teachers and must have been doing the same thing at their schools, so I was among the last to be picked up. My grandmother came and got me. I remember holding the teacher's hand as we waited.

My dad always insisted that I watched all the coverage, asking questions, etc. My friend who is one year older has full memories of that day and also of Ruby killing Oswald.

But at only a few months beyond my fourth birthday I guess not everything stuck with me. I always remembered that strange day, and specifically that it was a Friday and then a long time before we returned to school. I assume Thanksgiving was the following Thursday so we didn't return for 10 full days.

It wasn't until perhaps 15 years ago when I saw my school picture and the plaque with the year 1963-1964 that I put it all together and realized it obviously was the John F. Kennedy assassination. Tragic day that changed the course of history but since I was alive and not a toddler I am glad that I at least have some specific memories of where I was and what I was doing.

[TheCatQueen]

17. I was only 15 months old

So I was probably either playing or napping at home in El Dorado, Kansas.

[oswaldactedalone]

18. 3rd grade

I had broken my ankle six weeks before and it was the day I was go to the doctor to get my cast off. We had finished one subject and were getting ready to start another while I was watching the clock to leave class to meet my mom in the parking lot. Someone came to the class and asked the teacher (a nun as this was Catholic School) to step into the hall. She came back in and told us the President had been shot. She asked us to silently pray for the President then my friend and I started saying that we knew the President was strong and would be OK.

At that point, it was time to leave class and while I waited outside I started to get scared wondering if anyone close by had shot the President. Totally unrealistic thinking as we were hundreds of miles from there. As we drove to the doctor they said the president was still alive but in critical condition.

I’m not sure at what point we found out he had died but by the time we got home, we were glued to the TV for the rest of the night. I was allowed to stay up late and watched Johnson’s brief talk at the airport all the way through Oswald being brought out to the press and him finding out he had been charged with the assassination.

[DFW]

19. I have been asked this before

We were in Friday afternoon assembly in school in Washington. Around two PM (1 PM in Dallas), someone came in and took RFK's two sons, Joe II and Bobby, Jr., and quietly escorted them out. They were Kennedys, no one thought anything huge about it. Something was always going on with them.

One Fridays, I used to take a bus downtown to the National Press Building at 14th and F. My dad's office was on the 12th floor. There were always newspaper sellers in and outside of the building. I rarely paid attention to the headlines, but this time, they were impossible to overlook. There were half-page screamers: "JFK SLAIN!" I knew there were sometimes sensationalist headlines, but thought this was really going too far. You just didn't joke about stuff like that. I never made the connection with Joe and Bobby being taken out of assembly.

I took the elevator up to the 12th floor. My dad was really agitated with two phones in his hand, one at each ear. I began to think uh-oh. NOTHING brought him out of his cool except the Yankees being behind in the eighth inning of game 7 of the World Series. Finally, when both phones were silent for a few seconds, he confirmed it for me. The only things I could think of were "who?" and "what now?"
When we got home, I looked at the autographed photo of JFK that my dad had Pierre Salinger get JFK to make out to me for my 11th birthday (earlier that year). I tried to imagine him saying "goodbye, sorry." We were glued to the TV for the rest of the weekend, like most of the rest of the world (except the guys who had planned it).

Even then we all understood the world would somehow never be the same.

[TrogL]

20. In school. A teacher came to the door looking upset

Everybody was brought into the gymnasium where TVs had been set up. The principal announced what was going on and we watched the coverage on TV.

[phylny]

21. Kindergarten classroom.

I remember our old teacher, Miss Kenny, crying at her desk listening to a red transistor radio.

Odd the things we remember with clarity, isn't it?

[meow2u3]

22. In the back seat of my parents' car

My mom was listening to the radio when we got the news of JFK's assassination. This was my first memory; I was just 3.

[bluestarone]

23. Sophmore high school

Study hall!

[Basic LA]

24. On a Navy crash boat crew in N.Carolina.

I was 17, fresh out of boot camp.

[LeftInTX]

25. Second grade

My first thought was Caroline who is a year younger than me.

[VMA131Marine]

26. In utero

5 months from being born.

[hibbing]

29. 2 months from being born n/t

[Doreen]

27. Not alive yet.

[NastyRiffraff]

28. I was in school

The nun who announced it over the PA could hardly speak for crying.

[regnaD kciN]

30. In my second grade classroom...

One of the administrators came in and whispered something to our teacher. A few minutes later, she broke down in tears and told us the news, asking us all to pray (as you can imagine, no one was enforcing that particular law that day). Shortly thereafter, we were all called to assembly and then released early, with our parents already there to pick us up.

[wasupaloopa]

31. I was a senior in high school in civics class

There was an announcement over the PA system telling us the President was dead.

The teacher’s jaw hit the floor it seemed.

It was a Catholic boy’s school and without a word being spoken kids and teachers left school for the church across the street.

[Raine]

32. Elementary school

principal came in told the class then he went out and lowered the flag.

[moonscape]

33. I was in Jr High but Mom had taken me

out of class for the day to go to the largest city near us for a Dr's appt. After the appt, we went shopping. We were in a large dept store and I was around the corner from Mom (the good old days when that was safe!) They announced on the loud speaker that he had been shot and was dead and I still remember feeling panic.

Found Mom and asked her what it meant, what would happen now? - and wanted reassurance that everything was going to be okay. I had been a Kennedy supporter. In school, kids were strongly for Nixon or Kennedy during the election, mostly based of course on who their parents voted for. My parents were split leaving me free to choose the one who was better looking and looked nicer

[doc03]

34. Sixth period Biology nt

[DeminPennswoods]

36. 4th grade

Can't remember what class or teacher. There must have been a PA announcement, but I don't recall it. It was near the end of the school day, around 2 o'clock. I remember walking home from the bus stop and it being a fairly warm day. Mom met me at the front door. The TV was on and that's all we watched. I remember Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald live on TV. Mom kept the issue of LIFE magazine with JFK on the cover and other news of the assination which I still have.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

37. 2nd grade Pine Shadows Elementary in Houston Tx

I was in Ms. Brown’s class and remember walking in a line down the hallway, and many of us were crying. It felt like doomsday.

[MuseRider]

38. Sitting across from Fred Phelps Jr.

in 5th grade. While we all sat quietly doing a drawing our teacher had assigned to us to keep us busy while we waited to see what was happening we all drew typical kids pictures. Lots of hills with the sun in the corner and a house, flowers a tree and a family with their arms in the air (I do not know why that was how we all seemed to draw our families). Fred Phelps Jr. drew a picture of a guy with part of his head blown off with blood spraying. Always a disturbed family.

[badhair77]

40. 6th grade

Word that he was shot had spread thru the school. The teacher sent a boy to her car to listen to the radio. We learned JFK had passed before we left for the day. Incredible sadness everywhere. I remember the funeral, the procession and the burial.

[yardwork]

41. I was three. I have clear memories of how the adults reacted.

[Satch59]

42. 4yrs old, playing on the floor while

My mom and grandma were watching “As the World Turns” and it was broken in by the news. I just remember both of them crying and of course didn’t understand it but remember being scared because they were crying... My older siblings came home early. I remember watching the funeral with everyone also...and will always remember the music the band played in the procession.

[Progressive Jones]

52. I have pretty much the same memory, Satch59.

I remember my Mom being real upset. Not crying, but raising her voice, with an angry expression on her face. Then she got on the phone for a long time. My Dad worked the afternoon/evening shift, so he had just gotten up for the day. He just sat there staring at the TV, oblivious to me asking him what was happening. I could tell something was very wrong, and the men talking on the TV were very serious. My Grandma and Aunt lived there, too. When they got home from work, they were both very upset. They both went to church that night (the Catholic church in the neighborhood had a Mass that night).

When the funeral was televised, I remember my Mom explaining to me about the little boy I saw on the TV screen who lost his Dad.
I felt bad for him. That's also the day I heard the entire explanation of the whole matter from my parents.

One more memory that is silly, but it sticks with me. One of the local TV stations ran The 3 Stooges every afternoon. Me and my Dad always watched it before he went to work. Of course, it was preempted by the JFK murder/funeral coverage, but I was getting a little bent out of shape about it after a few days. LOL.

[Thekaspervote]

43. It was my 14th birthday...

[50 Shades Of Blue]

44. 6th grade Catholic school classroom - remember like yesterday!

My school's secretary was listening to the radio in her office, and when the news broke, she put it on the PA system to each classroom. Nobody could believe it. My teacher then put on the TV at the back of the classroom. We watched in disbelief for the rest of the afternoon and went home in a state of shock.

As the first Catholic president, JFK was a big deal to us, which definitely magnified our reaction.

My family went downtown that Sunday to the Capitol where he was lying in state, but the Secret Service cut off the part of the we were in literally right in front of us and we couldn't get in. So we wandered over to the Library of Congress where a guard told us Lee Harvey Oswald had been shot. It all seemed so surreal.

Schools were closed the day of JFK's funeral, November 25, 1963.

It's a time I'll never forget.

[dameatball]

45. Mr. Fletchers 7th grade science class. We had heard something was up in the hallways, but it wasn't

until that class that we heard Walter Cronkite make the announcement. The real world came shockingly home that day to an entire generation. I will never forget it. There was no science lesson taught that day. We all just sat glued to the television and everyone was eerily quiet.

[Celerity]

46. 32 years away from being born

[libdem4life]

47. High School Geometry class. 10th grade. Teacher told us. We all went home. Shocked.

Surreal...we'd just gotten a TV in 1960 for the debates and it was on...the whole thing, over and over and over again. Like reliving a bad dream. We were Republicans, but I remember just disbelief and sorrow.

Today, it seems like pure evil tore out the liberal heart of America for decades...then, and Bobby, too. That I watched live. Seared in memory.

Now look what we have. Sorrow.

[demosincebirth]

48. Delivering goods to McKesson Robin warehouse in Oakland. Everyone stopped working to listen to a

small radio on a desk in the warehouse. Sad, sad day.

[ooky]

49. In my fifth grade classroom. Teacher went out for a minute, came back in, crying,

told us all to put up what we were working on and get ready to leave, school was letting out early.

[dem4decades]

53. 5th grade also and it went almost exactly like your day.

Except a student came into the classroom and told the teacher he had heard the news while in the office. The teacher went out of the classroom and like yours returned crying.

If someone wasn't alive at the time i doubt they could believe that weekend. As i remember it was a weekend of funeral music on all the radio and tv stations. With news reports in between. I don't remember any regularly scheduled programs that were broadcast.

[ooky]

54. Yep. Only 3 TV stations back then, and it was

pretty much news and funeral for about a week straight, including the news of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald. No school. An entire nation in mourning.

[redstateblues]

51. Sophomore in high school.

[Lugnut]

55. Attending cosmetology school...

One of our instructors came running out of the office yelling and crying. It was a Friday and I had a client in my chair for her weekly shampoo and styling. They let us go home when we finished what we were doing. My family and I spent the weekend watching TV.

It was surreal. There was almost no traffic on the streets anywhere in our neighborhood. Everyone was glued to their TVs. My dad was watching when Jack Ruby shot Oswald on Sunday morning on live TV. I will never forget that time period.

[rusty quoin]

56. I remember it and didn't know what to make of it. I was too young.

My introduction into Massachusetts politics was when his younger brother Bobby was running and I asked my dad could I buy this paperback of mostly pictures of Bobby reaching out to people from convertibles. My dad let me buy it, and it was soon after he was killed too.

I will always remember that morning when my dad told me Bobby was shot. What a decade.

[MrScorpio]

57. I was too busy being two years old.

[Kablooie]

58. I first heard it about during lunch in 7th grade. (Pacific Time)

We had been told he was shot but I don't think anyone knew that he had died.
Some of the kids started joking around about it.

When we got into math class right after lunch the teacher was furious.
He laid into the class telling us how serious this was and that we should be ashamed making fun of it.

We then suddenly realized the import of what had happened.

[JohnnyRingo]

59. Grade school classroom.

They announced on the PA.