I was 20 when Pres. Kennedy was killed

[life long demo]

I've been watching most of the programs that has been on TV of that day and the days that followed. For me it is still heartbreaking. I still had tears watching some of the programs. One of the commenters on one of the programs, mentioned that after the murder of Pres. Kennedy, it was like the gates of hell opened in this country. Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, the civil rights marchers being beaten, some murdered. The Vietnam war, the anti-war marchers beaten, there was a US naval ship taken by the North Koreans. And many, many more.

With all that, I can't help thinking that it's been 50 years. And my God, All the Americans living now that had never really known of or seen Pres. Kennedy or MLK, or Bobby other than as history.

And it reminded me that I would have been 21 in January of 1964, so I could have voted for him. And it's still sad for me.

Thanks for listening.

[JaneyVee]

1. I wasn't alive yet but that event did seem to open the gates of hell in this country.

Both physically and psychologically.

[avaistheone1]

2. Yes,

it opened the gates of hell in our democracy as well.

[JaneyVee]

5. Psychologically, it must have been awful for our Nation. The leader of the free world being

Assassinated. It was like if that was no longer off limits or unthinkable, nothing was.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. God, are you old! I was a mere child of 19.

And I have a vivid memory of when I heard about it. I was a few minutes early for a 1:20 pm college English class & a girl in the class came in in tears with a transistor radio she had been listening to on the way to class. For the next hour the entire class just sat there listening to her radio. I dutifully went off to my next class, and it was dismissed. The next day my parents showed up at my dorm to take me home for the Thanksgiving break.

[life long demo]

7. Thanks Jackpine LOL

Actually, I was even older if you think of the fact that I was 21 almost 2 months later. LOL So I was so much older than you, you young whippersnapper. LOL

[Jackpine Radical]

10. I had just turned 19 the month before, so

indeed you are a relic, a veritable fossil by comparison.

[life long demo]

18. Hey Jackpine, you sure know how to turn a woman's head

I bet you say that to all the "old ladies". <thanks for the laugh, I needed it this week>.

[avaistheone1]

4. I was just 13 at the time.

It broke my heart then, and I am surprised that I still feel the hurt and grief of that day.
Watching the recent TV programming this past couple of weeks has brought me to tears several times.

I hope that future generations will know what it is like to live among men so inspiring as President Kennedy, Martin Luther King and RFK. If the coming generations become so fortunate, I hope their leaders will not be stolen from them as these giants were stolen from us.

[maxsolomon]

6. I was 1.5

months old.

[MissMillie]

8. My mom claims that this is the day I was made

She says that by the time 9 pm came, they had been watching the same story on all 3 channels for 7 hours and they figured they'd just go console each other.

My twin sister and I were born (prematurely) 8 months later.

My dad claims that mom got shot twice, that there was a lone gunman and that no grassy knoll was involved

[avaistheone1]

9. Are you trying to be humorous?

[madrchsod]

11. i was 17...

i was in the high school cafeteria when i heard some girls crying and found out he`d been shot...

[KurtNYC]

12. "ask what you can do for your country" really told people how much

he thought that EVERYONE has something to contribute. He tried and mostly succeeded in bringing out the best in people. If we had had 2 terms of JFK and then Bobby, the US would be a very different country today.

[RebelOne]

13. I was 24 that day.

The first time I ever voted was for Kennedy. I knew I was picking a winner,

[Glorfindel]

14. I was 18, and yes, it was as if the gates of hell opened

I got to vote for LBJ in 1964, though, since I lived in Georgia at the time.

[MillennialDem]

15. I was negative 17. :p

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. I was -7, but my father worked as an errand boy for the Milwaukee Journal

He tells some amazing stories of watching the news roll in on that day.

[Martin Eden]

17. I was 6 (2 months older than Caroline)

I remember the funeral on TV but don't have a recollection of when I first got the news, which would have been in my 1st grade class if the principal saw fit to notify us in school.

Sadly, I think the great promise of the 1960's was lost on that day 50 years ago. A generation of young people ready to ask what they could do for their country became alienated from the Establishment.

The biggest unresolved question (unrelated to the assassination, unless it was a motive) is whether JFK would have continued to escalate our military involvement in Vietnam, or if he would have been smart enough to draw the line well short of where LBJ took us.

[frogmarch]

19. I was 19, and I remember vividly

when Walter Cronkite broke into regular TV scheduling (I was watching "The Edge of Night" soap) to say President JFK had been shot. Later, when he announced the President had died, I was shocked and horrified, and it took me weeks to grasp the reality of it all.

I later happened to see Ruby shoot Oswald "live" on TV.

Awful times those were.

[DavidDvorkin]

20. Same here

My first vote was for LBJ in 1964.