Where were you on 11/22/63?

[Jersey Devil]

I was a senior sitting in the Bergenfield (NJ) High School auditorium waiting for our teacher, Martin Winkler, to start our Play Production class. The back doors to the room were open and you could see teachers running through the halls to the administration offices right down the corridor. With no teacher there and the commotion in the hallway we were wondering what was going on.

Suddenly Mr Winkler appeared at the door, out of breath and clearly upset. He walked a few rows down into the auditorium and burst out, “President Kennedy has been shot. They think the Vice President may also have been shot. I’ll be back”, and left the room again. The room went deadly silent and I remember a foreign exchange student, a girl whose name I can’t remember, gasp loudly and cover her mouth with her hands as her face went red. I recall thinking how odd it was that the loudest and most visible reaction was from a foreign exchange student.

Finally our teacher came back and told us that President Kennedy was dead. The rest of the afternoon was a blur, with students and teachers going to class but not really talking, many, if not most, with tears in their eyes.

After school no one quite new what to do, how to deal with it. So I went to football practice to prepare for the game we had scheduled the next day. I dressed for practice, just a jersey, helmet and no pads on the day before a game, and went out on the field when the enormity of what happened hit me all at once. The coaches didn’t know what to do either, telling us to take a lap around the track before starting calisthenics and our walk through we always did the day before a game.

I listened, said nothing, just took off my helmet and walked slowly back to the locker room where I changed and then walked home. No one said anything to me. Of course there was no game the next day and for the next several days we were glued to the TV. I remember sleeping and my Dad waking me up to tell me “They are going to show the guy on TV” (meaning Oswald). I got up and in my pajamas saw a live murder on TV.

Things would never be the same. Youth, innocence and Camelot were over. It is hard to believe that was 50 years ago. To me it seems it was just yesterday.

[hopemountain]

1. i was in the 5th grade

at a small country school in rural california. there were 60 students in the entire school.

the radio announcement was broadcast over the intercom. i burst into tears - i so admired president kennedy.

the school bus was silent. when my sisters & i & the neighborhood kids walked to our cul de sac, we saw that all our moms and other neighbors were waiting for us & all sitting on our front porch. all of us kids just burst into tears again. we were afraid for our country. in those days, bomb drills and air raid drills were practiced regularly and the treat of attack by the russians via cuba and to the north across the arctic was very real.

over the next few days the tv was on all of the time.

it was devastating to an 11 year old girl's idealistic world.

[Skittles]

2. I was a schoolgirl in Peterborough England

[bullwinkle428]

45. Were you an Army brat, Skittles?

[Skittles]

75. USAF

[bullwinkle428]

99. Cool! So it runs in the family!

[LiberalEsto]

3. Girls' locker room at Schuyler-Colfax Junior High

in Wayne, NJ -- not too far from you.

We were changing after 7th grade gym class. I think someone - maybe the principal - announced it over the P.A. system. Girls started crying. I was utterly shocked and speechless.

[kestrel91316]

4. First grade. Our family was living in Japan because my dad was stationed there with the USAF.

We were on Thanksgiving vacation in Baguio, Philippines.

[Art_from_Ark]

29. The news about the Kennedy assassination

was the first news story in Japan transmitted via satellite relay between Japan and the US.

[kestrel91316]

54. I never knew that.

[Art_from_Ark]

62. I read about it in a Time-Life book on Japan

And my former boss in Japan recalled how everyone in his neighborhood gathered around his family's TV to watch the news about the assassination.

[Borchkins]

5. 5 months old

sitting in a bouncy seat while my mom hung laundry in the backyard. She learned of the shooting from a neighbor.

[Freddie]

6. Second grade

Our class was next to the school office and there was a door in between. The school secretary came in and asked our teacher to come into the office (that had never happened before). Teacher came back and told us President Kennedy was shot and in very serious condition. A few minutes later the secretary summoned the teacher again. It was almost the end of the school day and I remember the weekend with no cartoons, the funeral parade. The Philly Inquirer Sunday paper published a full-color portrait of the President for framing soon after and most families I remember had it framed and hanging in their living rooms. My Catholic friends' parents had the portrait next to the Crucifix.

[tomg]

7. I was a freshman at

Bergen Catholic high School ( I was from New Milford, next to Bergenfield) sitting in Brother Dornboss' algebra class. At first, we heard the announcement that the president had been shot from our teachers. This was an Irish Christian Brothers school . It was later announced that the president had died at the very end of the day ( just before 3).

When I went home, we were having our first wall-to-wall carpeting installed. I remember my mother telling me much later in life that she had wanted wall-to-wall for years and had waited for it to be installed forever. she always identified it with President Kennedy's assassination and came to hate it.

[CTyankee]

8. I was a young mother in NYC. I had just returned to my apartment with my baby son

and the phone rang. My husband was at work and heard the news and told me to turn on the TV.

I put the baby down for his nap and started watching. I initially thought JFK was grazed by a bullet. No idea it was so horrible. I watched the next few hours in complete shock...

[tenderfoot]

9. Mom's womb

eom

[localroger]

43. Entering my third trimester

Fortunately I was far enough along that I can clearly remember hearing the news.

[bullwinkle428]

44. ME TOO!!! Born in April, 1964!

[get the red out]

104. Me too

[adirondacker]

110. Same here. Interesting to see how many of us there are on DU.

I was 3 months away.

My first news memories were Vietnam war footage. I can remember Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather reporting the death count and MIA's. Armstrong setting foot on the moon was another memory.

[HereSince1628]

10. Watching WGN's "Bozo's Circus",

Ringmaster Ned made the announcement and the broadcast switched to the news room.

I was nine years old, and already a veteran of "Duck and Cover", the Anti-Commie John Birchers, the Suez Canal Conflict, the Bay of Pigs, and the Missiles of October.

November 22 gave me precocious insights and distrust of the ways of the adult world that have never been proven wrong.

[ancianita]

28. Hear hear...

[lunatica]

11. I was a 15. A student in the American School in Monterrey, Mexico

The Kennedy's were very popular all over the world. Mexico loved them too.

My aunt was a simultaneous translator in English and Spanish. The TV station hired her to translate everything that was happening on those long days after Kennedy was killed.

My father was in Dallas that day and he was stopped from boarding the plane home and detained because he was born a Russian and had no citizenship. Mexico never gave him the citizenship he tried to get. Once they had Oswald my father was allowed to return home.

It was very hard to wrap our minds around what happened. Jackie was right to have the world watch the funeral. We needed to say goodbye. We needed to have it sink in.

[Paulie]

12. Egg

Why do I feel like Mork from Ork all of the sudden.

[Kingofalldems]

13. 10th grade Latin II class.

[warrior1]

14. 3rd grade in Northcrest Elementry, TX

just outside of Waco.

We got the announcement over the intercom.

[grantcart]

32. Also third grade. I saw the janitor walk to the flag pole and take down the flag and for some

knew that the President had died.

It was the strangest feeling.

About 40 minutes later somebody came by and informed the teacher and a few minutes later we were excused.

I stayed glued to the TV and watched in shock when Oswald was murdered in front of us.

[warrior1]

34. I remember hearing the gunshot

When Jack Ruby shot Oswald. I was out in the family room and I heard the gunshot from way over there it reverberated through the house. Yes I remember watching all of that too.

[scheming daemons]

15. half in my dad's ball sack, half in my mom's ovaries

Wasn't born until '67.

[HipChick]

16. I was a twinkle in my Dad's eye...

prob wasn't not even thinking about coming to this crappy place called Earth..

[hedgehog]

17. Home sick from 4th grade - sitting on a couch upstairs reading

when my Mom called me downstairs with the news.

We didn't call it Camelot until after it was over.

[pscot]

18. In my room at a small army airfied near Bad Hersfeld Germany

I was laying in my rack listening to jazz on AFN radio when they broke in to announce it. It was early evening. The other guys were in the ops shack and I ran across the hangar to break the news. I went downtown with friends later. The Germans were in shock as much as we were.

[MANative]

19. I was three years and three months old.

I don't remember the day of the assassination, but my first cognitive memory was of my mother sobbing the sofa while I played on the floor in front of the tv. I remembered the horse from the funeral procession, and it made a huge impression on me, partly because it was also the first time I remember seeing my mother cry. We were in Massachusetts and my grandfather was a local public official who had known JFK pretty well. My mother had worked for him while he was a senator, until she left to get married. We have numerous photos and letters which I treasure.

[msongs]

20. a jr. high kid on an air base in england. it was maybe 8 or 9pm? all the dads had gone on alert at

the base. did not really mean much til the next morning. for us kids it was just pretty much an interesting uproar in our daily lives. then again we were in england and never really heard much about what was going on back in the states.

[joeybee12]

21. Kindergarten...don't remember it at all...remember watching Bobby's and MLK's

funerals on television, but I have no memory of JFK...my grandmother died a week earlier and I do remember that, though.

[pnwmom]

22. We were just sent home from school early -- I don't think we were told why.

Walking home, I heard about it from another kid.

[GeorgeGist]

23. Chemistry class with Mr. Allore.

Eleventh grade, Catholic high school. The guys were stunned. The girls were crying.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. Home on leave from the marines.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

31. Then you know that David M. Shoup was opposed to a land war in Asia and resigned a few weeks

after the shooting.

[Jawja]

25. I was in Mrs. Andrews

Class in 7th grade at Big A Elementary School in Toccoa, GA. Our Principal, Garland Smith, came to the door and said something to Mrs. Andrews, She was upset; and announced that the President had been shot. We went to the multi-purpose room where Chet Huntley was on the tv.

[ancianita]

26. "Dressed out" for PE in my Florida high school. The news came over the intercom. Half the class

dropped to the floor wailing and weeping. School was dismissed in an hour. No one could function. We watched TV non-stop for days as the ugly coup unfolded on breaking news, live coverage and the nightly news. I watched Oswald get shot on live TV. Tearfully watched the national funeral, the weeping crowd, John-John's salute.

Back then we didn't have to worry about the integrity of television journalism, or government's owners. We had nothing near the info access now afforded by computers, but we did theorize a LOT about Lyndon Johnson's role in keeping the Viet Nam War escalating and starting a draft. We had no inkling of the assassinations that yet lay ahead.

That date started a dark time. For decades after, we couldn't face that that was the date at which the "good country" that we were born into was turning into a bad country. Sex, drugs and rock and roll kept up our spirit of resistance into the early seventies. We knew to stay vigilant for underground, alternative news sources about the machinations of our public figures, and we came to doubt "the official story" style of presentations that began with The Warren Report.

I myself never believed that any film could capture those times and the broken spirits that we carried, but Oliver Stone's JFK nailed it perfectly for me. Whether the archives on the Kennedy assassination open in my lifetime or not, I'll go to my deathbead believing that Johnson and the military were complicit in Kennedy's murder.

[Katashi_itto]

27. Nonexistant

[ellenfl]

30. 8th grade spanish class in a portable classroom at boynton jr. high school in boynton beach, fla.

it was announced over the school's intercom. i can still picture it.

[LiberalElite]

39. me too

[Hekate]

33. I heard it in the hallway on my way to Chemistry class, 11th grade

Someone must have had a transistor radio -- they said he'd been shot in Dallas. It was early in the day in Hawai'i.

Later we heard that he'd died. Still later, we had an assembly of the whole school out by the flagpole in the courtyard, and the best trumpeter in our school band played Taps as the flag was lowered to half-staff. (He was Filipino-American and I still remember his name, but it's not my business to toss it about on an internet board.)

Stunned, stunned, stunned.

As you said: Things would never be the same. Youth, innocence and Camelot were over. It is hard to believe that was 50 years ago. To me it seems it was just yesterday.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

35. In first grade

I didn't know what a president was till then. Up till then JFK was some guy I'd seen on TV now and then.

[Jamaal510]

36. I was -26.5 years old back then. nt

[CK_John]

37. Just pulled into the EE parking lot for my Matrix Algebra class, went in, told the class and left.

[LiberalElite]

38. 8th Grade in the Bronx

The school had just been renovated over the summer and among other things a public address system had been installed. Previously if the principal had something to say to the whole school she had to go from room to room. So, the principal used the new P.A. system to announce that President Kennedy had been shot. At least one girl screamed. Then we were sent home. My best friend had a birthday slumber party scheduled that night and I didn't feel right attending it but I did.

Little did we know this was to be just the first political assassination for us Boomers.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

40. Eighth grade math class in a Minnesota junior high school

My school had two lunch periods, and I had first lunch.

As we were in the middle of math class, the geography teacher, who had second lunch and had been listening to the radio in the teachers' lounge, came down the hall, spreading the news to all the classes.

We sat stunned for a few seconds, and then the principal's office intercom started playing the news reports from WCCO, then THE most prominent radio station in the Twin Cities. Bits of news came out every few minutes. When it was announced that JFK had died, some of my classmates burst into tears.

Then the radio was turned off, and the principal came on the intercom and announced that we would all be going home as soon as the buses could be assembled and that any of us who lived within walking distance of the school were free to leave.

I lived about three blocks from the school, so I walked home. I came in the back door into the kitchen, where my mother was doing something or other, and I started to explain that I was home early because Kennedy had been shot. She said that she knew, that my brother, age 10, who was home sick with the flu, had been watching TV and had yelled out, "Kennedy's been shot" when the morning soap operas were interrupted with the news.

That weekend, the TV coverage was all news interspersed with biographical films of the Kennedy family. My father was a Lutheran pastor, so we all went to church as normal on Sunday, although my brother stayed home, being still sick. When we came back from church, it was he who told us that Oswald had been shot.

Monday was the funeral. World leaders, including such oldtimers as Charles DeGaulle and Hailie Selassie, attended. Even the Soviets sent their foreign minister. The funeral was presided over by Boston's Cardinal Cushing, who to me sounded annoyingly like W.C. Fields. The coffin was carried on a catafalque proceeded by a riderless horse.

That afternoon, we had a memorial service for Kennedy at our church, basically the Lutheran funeral service without a burial. My parents were (old-style sensible) Republicans and had voted for Nixon, but in those days, there was this idea that you respect the office of the president, whether you liked the individual who held it or not.

The following spring, we traveled south and east, with a stop in Washington DC. Among the things we saw was Kennedy's grave with the eternal flame, guarded by Marines.

[Sancho]

41. I was in a school yard...

and I heard about it on a handheld transistor radio (AM). I was listening to WTMA.

No one knew if we were going home...some teachers were crying. It was cool outside (windbreaker weather) and we all watched TV as soon as we got home. There were three broadcast channels (B&W TV was all we had). My parents kept changing channels.

We were living in Charleston, and my father was in the reserves. He thought maybe Cuba had something to do with it and was prepared to report for duty.

It was so scary. We were scared a lot about a nuclear attack anyway, and we had a bomb shelter in the back yard. Mom checked the supplies.

[Douglas Carpenter]

42. 3rd grade Wright Street Elementary School - Corry, PA

[Liberal_in_LA]

46. was too young at the time to remember it. I do recall when Reagan got shot.

[BKH70041]

47. On The Grassy Knoll

We had one in our yard. I used to love to play on that thing.

[petronius]

48. That would have been during my previous life, so I imagine I was

a hero, or a king, or an emperor, or something awesome like that...

But a mere 4-5 years later my parents met!

[NaturalHigh]

49. About seven years away from being born.

My mom has told me all about her memories of that day, though.

[NYFlip]

78. Me too

My parents told me about their memories

[Sognefjord]

50. My birthday.

I was a sophomore at a Lutheran college in Iowa. I was in the student newspaper room (I was an editor) when I looked out the window and noticed some normally sedate faculty members running to the student union where there was a TV in the lounge. I went down to see what was wrong and soon found out. It was my birthday and on that day I turned 19. The assassination I should mention ended a pleasant period of my life, a period of time which began in the fall of 1957 and ended 11/22/63.

[southerncrone]

87. We share a birthday...forever tainted.

[Sognefjord]

89. It was a dark day we shared.

I have a friend whose birthday is December 7th!

[alfie]

90. I also turned 19 that day`

My birthday party ended up being my friends and me sitting on the floor watching the TV. It was for sure the end of my innocence. To me Kennedy was bigger than life. Thoughts of his death are part of every birthday I have had since then.

[southerncrone]

112. Even if we tried to forget on our birthdays, society would not let us.

And we really should never forget. As many have stated, it was the end of innocence...the end of Camelot. Just like the King Arthur legend, the land became barren. I contend that we, as a nation, have never recovered from that shock--a 50 yr case of PTSD. 9/11 was another event which just re-enforced it for those of us old enough to remember, and became the PTSD event for the next generation.

[Sognefjord]

114. We had a small birthday party. We all felt we were in a bad dream.

[elleng]

51. College sophomore,

political science class, prof discussing WWII and propaganda, "Kill a JapaNazi" meme.

[redstatebluegirl]

52. In second grade.

Our teacher Mrs. Adams answered a knock on the classroom door, she went into the hallway, when she came back she had tears in her eyes. She said the President was dead.

When i got off the bus, my mom was on the porch in tears. Funny I remember being allowed to watch more tv than usual that week. My parents were so sad, my grandpa said the country would never be the same.

[Bennyboy]

53. I was playing football with my friend Miles

Not sure why, but that was an off day for school. me and miles dressed up in our full on uniforms and were playing at his house in the front yard, when his Mom, My Mom and all the other ladies came pouring and sobbing out of the houses. I was 8. I knew what was going on and have been interested in it all ever since. I wrote many papers in school about the assassination and various theories (none of which suggest a single shooter)............

We knew what was going on, my parents were huge supporters (they would become republicans not long after however) and we did stuff like the 50 mile hike that the President promoted.
the moment that changed everything that week. All of a sudden the NEWS was important.

[handmade34]

55. 4th grade Mason, Michigan

we were solemnly sent home…

[840high]

56. At an Army post.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

57. my mother was barely born in 63

[Thirties Child]

58. I answered the telephone

It was UPI, saying Mr. Thirties needed to get ready to go to Dallas.
Why?
The President's been shot.
OMG.
Mr. Thirties was at the gold stamp store to turn in our stamps for a waffle iron. I paged him there. He didn't go to Dallas but that's how we learned about it.

That's how I learned about an awful lot, not from the newspaper or the news, but a telephone call from the UPI bureau in Atlanta.
The church in Birmingham has been bombed. Jack needs to go in.
Three men are missing in Philadelphia Mississippi. Jack needs to go in.
Martin Luther King has been killed. Jack needs to go in.

We had one car in those days, and the car would go in, and in some cases, not come home for several days. One night after the King assassination but before the funeral, I woke up about 3 am to find Mr. Thirties in the bathtub. He had an hour and that's what he needed most, a bath. Otherwise he slept on a couch in the office. He cried as he wrote the lead of the funeral story.

[northoftheborder]

59. At home, watching "As the World Turns", interrupted by Walter Kronkite with the awful news.

[GP6971]

60. Ridgewood, NJ

Stayed home from school and was watching the TV and they broke in with news. Called my father who immediately came home. Had a newspaper delivery route at the time and the papers were usually delivered about 3PM........the paper recalled the edition and the papers weren't delivered until about 5 PM. All my customers were waiting for me at the door when I showed up to delivver the paper.......EVERY one of them.

[RobinA]

61. 1st Grade

Came out of school to get the bus and noticed the flag in front was at half mast. I asked a teacher why and she said to ask my parents. I asked another teacher and she said it meant that someone important had died. I figured my Grandmother died, seeing as how she was so old (she was 50 something). I was pretty upset. On the bus I found that the President had been shot. Needless to say, I was relieved that it wasn't my Grandmother. I remember the horses in the funeral and the dirge. I later became obsessed with Caroline and John-John, cause they were my age and I knew that if my father were ever shot at work I would be really upset. I couldn't figure out how they could ever handle that.

[krispos42]

63. Going to Catholic high school in Brooklyn

Nestled safe in my mom's ovary.

[The Straight Story]

64. My mom was buying a freezer

She was at, or near, Lazarus (an old store here, bought out by macy's iirc).

She bought the freezer that day and it ran until after her death in 2004. I think it finally bit the dust in 2006 or so, not the motor though - the lid had been cracked by something in the garage.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

65. I was at my grandmother's house having a bath

I remember my grandparents discussing that President Kennedy had been shot.

[dmr]

66. 6th grade -

Mr. Pitkin was upset with the class for some reason, and cancelled recess on us. It was cold, dark & misting rain/snow.

His wife was the school's art teacher. She came in crying and whispered in his ear. They both scurried out. He returned with a transistor so we could listen to the news reports.

We were all stunned; many of us started to cry. I cried. I was confused and scared. It was hard to understand. Why would anyone murder such a nice man? Shoot, my parents had a huge framed picture of him hanging on the wall.

We were sent out to the playground, but just stood quietly in the cold, misty day.

They sent us home early (most moms didn't work). When I got home, mom and dad were crying and watching David Brinkley on TV.

President Kennedy was shot on Friday. It was a long and sad week-end. School was cancelled on Monday, the day of the funeral.

On Sunday, while mom was in the kitchen cooking, my dad and I watched when Jack Ruby murdered Lee Harvey Oswald as the police were escorting him out of the police station.

Funny thing, just a few moments before I asked: "Daddy, why are they letting all those men (reporters) get in their way?"

"Damn if I know, makes no sense to me." he replied. Then bang, he was shot.

I had profound sadness for Caroline and John Jr. Thanksgiving was that week, and Christmas was just around the corner, and all I kept thinking about was they didn't have their daddy to carve the turkey and hug them on Christmas. I felt so incredibly sad for their loss.

That holiday season was not joyous one for me. It affected my sleep, and my grades. We lost our president to violence. We're we safe? These were the days of bomb drills in school. Yet, the biggest thing for me was the unhappiness of Caroline and John Jr.

About 2 or 3 months later the Beatles appeared on Ed Sullivan. Life continued. I stopped obsessing about the Kennedy children and I became a Beatlemaniac.

Thanks for listening.

[kwassa]

67. and Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV, and I saw it .... age 11.

along with the rest of America. We had been glued to our TVs for days.

I heard about Kennedy getting shot as we were getting dressed in the locker room after gym class. 6th grade.

This kid, a notorious liar, told us that our very macho gym teacher was crying in his office because President Kennedy had been shot.

This was two impossibilities. It turned out he was not lying.

It really was incomprehensible. Political assassination was unknown. There is no word to describe how shocking and devastating this was.

[Iggo]

68. Still getting used to being two years old.

[trackfan]

69. I was in pre-school. Friend's mom, in her car, with my mom, came to take us home, and were crying.

I asked why they were crying, and they said that it was because President Kennedy had been shot.

[Art_from_Ark]

70. I was pre-school, but I still remember some things

I was with my mother at a neighbor's house playing with the neighbor's kid (I still remember the house, and the family's name was Robinson), and the phone rang. When Mrs. Robinson hung up the phone, she had a strange look on her face that even I knew meant that something bad had happened. "The President's been shot" she said, and then she turned on the TV. I cannot remember any of the live news about the assassination because it was still "grown-up talk", but I do remember the funeral and the somber voices of the commentators, and learning a grown-up word: caisson.

A few years later, my elementary school music teacher taught us an old army song: "As the Caissons Go Rolling Along". Every time I heard that song, I remembered the Kennedy funeral. Shortly afterward, she changed the song to "As the Army Goes Rolling Along", but I still sang "caissons" instead of "army".

[doc03]

71. I was a high school sophomore. I was in Mr. Joseph's 6th period biology

class when they announced over the intercom that JFK was shot. Then in Mr. McNabb's geometry class they announced that JFK had died. I remember a lot of the girls were crying on the bus home. I remember one kid (from a Republican family) saying they finally got the SOB. Even then there was a lot of hate on the Republican side, they called him a n--- lover, a communist etc.

[Behind the Aegis]

72. I hadn't been born.

My partner was being born.

[Blue_In_AK]

73. Senior at South Houston High school

Mrs. Mccafferty's English class. Unlike George HW Bush, I remember like it was yesterday.

[Throd]

74. 3.4 years from birth.

The details are fuzzy.

[Az_lefty]

76. sitting in 4th grade class in small Bay Area town

Someone came in and whisperd something to our teacher Mrs. Bowlin. After he left she went to the blackboard and wrote "the president has been assassinated". She went back to her desk and started crying. Took us a while to figure out what assassinated meant.

[OriginalGeek]

77. I was at the Obstetrician's office

Inside my momma's belly*...My grandpa had taken her there for a pre-natal check up. I came a couple weeks later.





*Euphemistically speaking.

[LibDemAlways]

79. I have an uncanny knack for being away from home

when sad events happen. I was on a cruise when my father died 4 years ago. On 11/22/63 , a Friday, I would have normally been in my 6th grade class. However, that happened to be a parent-teacher conference day and I was on a Girl Scout camping trip. Our bus pulled into the campground in the early afternoon and one of the girls noticed that the flag at the entrance was at half staff. A ranger came out and started right in on the campground rules. The girl who had noticed the flag asked him why the flag was lowered and he very matter of factly stated that the President had been shot and killed. The weird thing is I don't recall any displays of emotion or shock. I grew up in a very Republican area and the enormity of the event just didn't seem to register. The trip proceeded as planned and it wasn't until I returned home Sunday and watched the tv coverage that I felt the gravity of what had happened.

[FedUpWithIt All]

80. My mother was in 2nd grade

She told us that the teachers went into the hall and most were crying. It frightened her pretty badly.

[roody]

81. 5th grade

[Thor_MN]

82. One month from my first birthday

I remember Bobby being shot, obviously not JFK.

[davidpdx]

83. I was not born yet

not until over a half a decade later. I do remember where I was when Reagan got shot though.

[Gravitycollapse]

84. I was -26 years old. My mother wasn't even born yet.

[southerncrone]

85. Third grade making a mosaic of the Holy Ghost. It was my 8th birthday....

Birthdays have been haunted by this ever since. People almost always make comment about it whenever I must give my birthday. Like it is cursed. I imagine those w/ 9/11 birthdays get the same treatment.

I attended a Catholic School & JFK was a BIG deal to Catholics, since he was the first Catholic President. One of the nuns came in & told our class. We were immediately instructed to knell down in place and begin praying. I think we prayed the rest of the day. I remember my "party" w/family was not very joyful. The church community was in a funk for months afterward. We prayed about it everyday for ages. Of course, after the Oswald/Ruby incident, it just got weirder.
Even at that tender age, I knew this was a very important event in the annuls of humanity. I was correct. We must never forget.

A mysterious thing in my family: My brother was born on the day JFK was inaugurated. My sister was born on the day he was buried.

[2naSalit]

86. in the 2nd Grade

at a public school near NAS Brunswick, ME. The school principal came on the loudspeaker from the office, we were one of the most technically advanced schools in the state at the time, and made the announcement and then dismissed all classes for the rest of the day, sent us all home. Most of us were military kids who lived in the off-base housing. When I got home, my dad was sitting in the living room crying, I had never seen him cry before. He and his parents knew the Kennedys, he grew up about a mile from the family compound on Cape Cod. It wasn't just a Commander in Chief loss, it was personal. Sadly, about two weeks later his father, my grampa, passed away too. So we went to the "Cape" to go to his funeral and sent flowers to the "compound". It was a pretty dark time in New England for us... the villagers were not so distant back then, small population and a community environment. My grandpa was a businessman there, he was acquainted with most everyone in the township of West Barnstable.

During my grampa's funeral, I couldn't help think about the Kennedy kids, we were close in age. I was devastated by my loss and thought about how they must have felt losing their dad that way.

I still remember walking home from school feeling numbed by the news, I was young but my parents openly discussed politics in our presence and we kids were not unaware of what was going on in the world having just returned from Key West during the missile crisis... my dad was directly involved with that whole thing, my mom made my older sister start teaching us foreign languages before we started learning them in school.

[DesertFlower]

88. i was working in a law firm in downtown manhattan.

i was just returning from lunch with 2 co-workers when someone in a car had the news on. we went upstairs and they had the radios on. one of the women i had lunch with had recently lost her husband to a heart attack. he died in her arms. when we heard it was true, she fainted.

the subways were empty that evening coming home from work. i guess most people went home early. i couldn't stop crying.

i was 22 years old. i still cry about it.

[beachbum bob]

91. I was in fifth grade and we came in from a recess and all the teachers were crying

They made an announcement to us minutes later that the President had been shot.

[HockeyMom]

92. My 15th Birthday in NYC (34th St.) Catholic School

Mother Superior came on over the PA system. Everyone in class started crying. They let us go home early and I walked home because I couldn't deal with the subway. People walking down the streets were dazed and some were openly crying.

When I got home, my Mom was sitting in front of the TV with the bowls and pans all around the kitchen for my birthday cake she had been making. We both watched the TV for hours. My cake was never finished.

Every 50 years since, I always relive that day. How could I not?

[ConcernedCanuk]

93. Grade 7 in my homeroom class in Oakville ON

.
.
.

Teacher had been called to the office, of course the class started to get playful and loud.

Mr White, a large imposing man with a stern attitude returned, looking oddly disturbed;

went to the front of the class and informed us that JFK had been shot.

One student mimicked a machine gun rat a tat tat and the teacher almost tore his head off (verbally).

Mr. White through teary eyes related the news.

We were quite privy to US politics as our teacher was a history buff - myself I had recently completed a class presentation of the Cuban Missile Crisis with news clippings and analysis - so our whole class was more informed than most of JFK's push for peaceful resolutions to conflicts.

Was a sad day, not just for us,

but for the whole World.

CC

[bhcodem]

94. Small town school

in Seniors' AP English class.

[KamaAina]

95. Ask Mom.

I was with her. And the TV reception was pretty bad in there, so I missed the whole thing.

[hamsterjill]

96. I was five, and heard it on television.

I remember running to my parents to tell them, and I don't think they actually thought I knew what I was talking about until they came to the living room and heard it themselves.

I can remember the utter sadness everywhere....

[jmondine]

97. I don't have an alibi

An old Emo Philips line. See, Rand Paul? That's called "crediting a source".

[spanone]

98. 6th grade. catholic school. Kennedy was a catholic. it hit hard.

[Surya Gayatri]

100. Freshman year at university, first semester. During lunch hour in the dorm cafeteria,

heard alarmed rumors that something had happened to the President.

Went to the TV lounge immediately after lunch where we saw Walter Cronkrite deliver his famous line: "The President is dead".

Went home to my parents place that weekend for Thanksgiving vacation. Got back from church on Sunday the 24th and saw Oswald's murder live on TV.

Was thrown into depression by the prospect of Lyndon B. Johnson as President. Couldn't bear the radical change of style from "Camelot" to "Clodhopper".

Fortunately, LBJ turned out to be much better in terms of civil rights and health-care legislation than I could have imagined. Too bad about his ill-judged war of choice.

[woodsprite]

101. My bassinette (7 mo old), but that hasn't stopped me from reading everything I

could about JFK over the years. I grew up with a bookcase full of history books on JFK and Abraham Lincoln.

[benld74]

102. 1st grade

[redwitch]

103. 2nd grader in suburban NJ

Teacher left the classroom for several minutes and came back to tell us the President had been shot, quietly gather your things as school is ending early. I walked home and found my mom in the backyard hanging laundry, crying. I sat on the couch with my dad and also saw Oswald shot. I remember watching the funeral procession on our black and white TV. Sad times indeed. I was only a little girl but I loved President Kennedy.

[War Horse]

105. Born in 1970. Very interesting read nonetheless.

[raccoon]

106. Just as I walked into 7th grade math class some students were talking about it.

Then the principal came on the intercom and told us the President had been shot.

[CherokeeDem]

107. Study Hall in the Library...

I will never forget the librarian... her initials were MAD and we called her Mrs. Mad, behind her back. She was the stereotypical librarian, tolerated not a peep from anyone... we didn't like her, but really were scared of her.

Then a teacher came to the door and motioned her into the hallway. I could see them from where I sat and watched the shock on her face at what was being said. When the librarian came back into the room, she was crying.

A few minutes later we were called to assembly and the principal told us the President had been assassinated. School was dismissed early and I remember my mother was crying when she came to pick me up. I had a piano lesson that afternoon and my teacher was so upset, she and my mom just hugged and decided to cancel the lesson.

The next three days were a blur... I remember Lee Harvey Oswald being shot on live TV and the funeral. Will never forget Black Jack, the horse.

Sad days and sad memories.

[elfin]

108. Buying a blue book for a history exam at Univ. of Michigan

Announcement of the shooting over speakers in the book store (Ulrichs for those who know Ann Arbor) where I bought the blue book.

Midway through the essay exam, the proctor entered to announce that "The President has died.You have 15 extra minutes to finish the exam."

Went back to the apartment gathering where we got blotto while watching black and white TV.

[Hangingon]

109. Denton, Texas

Sitting in a poli sci class. Last class before I headed home to Dallas for the weekend.

[PCIntern]

111. 5th Grade: Newtown Friends School, Newtown, PA

As I've written on many a JFK post over the years here, the third grade teacher was thrilled to her very core. Turned out her family was hardcore RWers from Maryland, one of whom later served for a while in the House, and was an 'early' RW reactionary.

[ladyVet]

113. Most likely at home with my mother and siblings.

I was only five years old, so not in school and not many memories of those years, none at all of JFK's assassination.

[William769]

115. 13 days from being born. nt

[BigDemVoter]

116. In a baby bassinet--3 weeks old!

[LWolf]

117. I have no idea.

I was 3 years old.

Your scenario is familiar, though; something similar happened in my classroom, although I wasn't a student by then, when the Challenger exploded. The principal came in, pulled me out, and informed me that the shuttle was gone, and the first teacher in Space was gone, as well. We weren't watching on tv; we didn't have the technology at that time. It was a big deal, though; human tragedy, plus the shuttle had been built right down the road, and was a source of local pride.

Most recently, I was pulled out of my classroom by the principal to be informed of that day's events at Sandy Hook.

JFK? I grew up hearing people talk about it, but I don't remember. I DO remember RFK; I was old enough by then.

[OldHippieChick]

118. Waiting on 9th Street for my Dad to

pick my friend and me up to go home for lunch (Wyoming). We were giggling when we got into the car and my dad had the radio on. He told me to "shut up" for the first time in my life. I knew it was something very serious.