How old were you when JFK killed
My mom was freshman college, she was a big fan of his. She shocked and upset because this date was her birthday. She told me, she always had frame of JFK on her desk at her dorm. She was 19 years old.
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I was six too; I was living in England and really do not remember the assassination, but I remember not much later the sympathy I felt for Caroline and John, and even Oswald's daughter who I believe was our age. My sympathy to you too. 
The streets of Chicago were as quite as they ever could be. Every home and apt building I past by was listening to the radio or TV of the event.
It seemed no one could get past that dreadful experience. We were all waiting for some one to wake us up from such a terrible dream. 
Had come home from the 3rd Grade to eat lunch...
Found mom crying uncontrollably on the couch...
With the TV on...
But I spent reading Shlesinger's book on it when I was nine.
my Dad, who worked at Western Union back when it did more than transfer money, was getting teletype updates faster than the radio or TV. He was calling my Mom during the day with updates as they came in over the wire.
My Mom (since passed) was working at the Smithsonian Annex (?) in Boston or Cambridge when JFK was a Senator. He came there to give a speech. My Mom said she was sitting in the balcony and at one point it seemed to her that JFK looked directly at her and smiled that brilliant smile. She said right then she knew she would vote for him for anything from that point onward. Dad had no comment!
I will never forget watching Jon Jon salute his father's casket.
My reading group was allowed to go to the school library by ourselves, were told to be quiet and not to run. I ran into my brother there, delivering a note from his teacher, and he acted like I didn't exist. Apparently the gym coach had a free period and he heard the announcement on the radio that the president had been shot. He told the 6th grade teacher who told the librarian and we overheard. We ran back to our classroom at the other end of the school, don't imagine we were quiet at all. We told the teacher and he ran out to find out more and the rest of the day was strange.
We were let out of school early soon after that, remember half of the kids in the school sitting on the floor in the gym, waiting for our buses to arrive. The next few days were quite surreal, no school and we had the television on all the time. I learned the word "grimace," when I saw Lee Harvey Oswald shot on live TV.
I remember telling my mother and she said she couldn't stand anymore. Everyone was sad and scared and visibly upset, including my parents, though I know they voted for Nixon. Things were different back then, everyone was inconsolable.
" familiar and mundane intersecting with the absurd and surreal."
is actually a good description of much of my life...
I thought the world would end.
It is a day I'll never forget.
and:
"They were the shining ones. Don't ever let anyone tell you different. A family of such wealth and privilege, that gave themselves so unstintingly to public service -- no matter the complexities, the shades of gray, the stains that have emerged -- don't, don't forget the good that was done, and was begun to be completed by others. Integration, the Peace Corps, international diplomacy."
Beautiful, and so true.
My experience and memories are probably very similar to yours, because, even though I was three years behind you,
I'm also from an Irish Catholic blue collar family, so I know exactly how you and your dad felt.
My dad was so heartbroken that, twenty years later, he couldn't even bring himself to look through a book "Remembering Camelot"
that I'd bought that Christmas of 1983.
I'll never forget the shock and everyone crying. My father had taken me to his acceptance speech at the LA Coliseum and it was amazing. My parents were fantastic Democrats and I'm grateful for their open-minded upbringing. Kennedy was so beautiful.
I read 11/22/63 recently and thought it was amazing how Stephen King brought back that time and how much we wish we could change history. Recommended!
I was born plus three years, minus one day from his assassination. My family were Kennedy lovers. I've never forgotten. Every year on my birthday I think of him and what he did for the world.
on edit: tried to make sense.
