45 years ago today, JFK was assassinated in Dallas, where were you?

[rasputin1952]

I was in school, a TV w/a squeaky wheel was brought into the room. We watched silently as Walter Cronkite informed the world that JFK had died.

We were dismissed early. It was one of two times I can recall NYC being absolutely quiet. Even the sound of the city bus was muffled. I could not hear birds, cars, wind in the trees...absolutely nothing. It was eerie.

When my younger brother and I got home, my mother was flustered, unbelieving of the news that she had heard. She was no fan of Kennedy, but that day, she wept, as did my father.

We stayed glued to the TV for what seemed like ages. We saw Oswald's "Press Conference"...I can still recall I decided at that moment he didn't kill Kennedy, his facial expression and body language upon hearing from a reporter he had been charged w/murder of the president spoke volumes.

We saw Johnson being sworn in, Jackie standing there in the blood splattered dress.

We saw Oswald murdered on live TV. We saw the caisson moving toward the grave where the president would be laid to rest. We saw John-John pull away from his mother and offer a salute to his father.

We saw Robert & Ted Kennedy solemnly standing at graveside...the lighting of the Eternal Flame.

And today, 45 tears later I wonder what really happened that day...and I sit in the early morning rain...waiting for answers.

[trueblue2007]

1. I was a little kid like you in school when I heard JFK was killed

One of the most haunting pictures in my memory.....The picture of John-John saying goodbye to his daddy.

Still brings tears to my eyes.

[rasputin1952]

4. That was one of the most poignant moments in the whole affair...

It was about as human as human could be...:cry:

[Gman]

2. We saw JFK drive by us in San Antonio 45 years ago yesterday

He waved at us standing there in our Catholic school uniforms. The thing that struck me most and I still remember is how red his hair was. None of the pictures at the time did the color of his hair justice. I was in 4th grade. He was on his way to Brooks AFB to dedicate the school of aerospace medicine, his last official act.

Then, the next day, as we were playing on the playground at lunch, the news spread. It seems so long ago now, the way the world has changed. And the world changed on that day.

I've been telling my wife since before election day, that they got John, they got Bobby and they got Martin. It was all the same people. And those same people will at some point be coming for Obama. It's all the same people. The RW haters. Names and faces have changed, but it's all the same people.

[rasputin1952]

15. I'd have loved to see him in person...

I did see Jackie many years later in Macy's. She was older obviously, I could almost feel her grace and dignity...we were about 6 feet apart.

[ronnykmarshall]

94. Oh wow!

I would have loved to have met or just seen Jackie in person.

[rasputin1952]

99. It was brief, and I wanted to say something, but I thought that might be

a little too much. It was she though...:D

[ellacott]

17. I didn't know he had red hair

I was in 2nd grade and the principal came to our class and told us. We were let out of school early.

[Gman]

33. It wasn't really red as much as it was a bright chestnut

is about the only way I can really describe it. A bright brownish red. Before I saw him I really thought his hair was a routine brown. The sun was brilliant that day and probably highlighted the red.

[ashling]

31. I saw him when he was in Houston

on his previous trip to Texas. I was in Cub Scouts and my mom was our Den Mother. Our troop was lined up along the road out from Hobby Airport for an honor guard when he arrived. I remember his hair too.

:cry:

[Honeycombe8]

3. I was in elementary school. The announcement of JFK's death suddenly came on over the loud speaker.

system. It was Walter Cronkite, I think, announcing that the President had died after being shot.

We were in class, when suddenly, without warning, the loud crackling of the speaker system came on....I looked up at it, installed near the ceiling, and Cronkite's voice (I think it was Cronkite...someone like that), came on loudly and clearly.

I don't remember our reaction after that. I just remember the announcement. It was probably mainly for the teachers' benefit.

[rasputin1952]

6. From youtube..Cronkite announces the death of Kennedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CjWbemTNcw

[Honeycombe8]

7. Thx! nt

[demokatgurrl]

30. There's more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDTo83XTBSg&feature=related

Amazing, it's like going back in time. God, save us from more of this.

[rasputin1952]

53. Thank you...I went for the shorter version, just to get it here...

the longer version is far more poignant...:(

[Borgnine]

5. Twenty years away, to the day, from being born.

That fact always made me very fascinated by the assassination, even from a very early age. I've probably read all the literature and watched all the documentaries and films several times, and finally visited Dealey last year.

[peoli]

9. yeah but where was your SOUL?

[quantass]

129. According to the constitution blacks dont have souls.

[rasputin1952]

10. I was stationed at FT Sam Houston, San Antonio was close by...

Some friends and I wanted to go to Dealy Plaza, but we never made it. I'd like to go there someday, I here it is much smaller than most people imagine.

[Borgnine]

21. It's a very weird sensation being there.

It's a cross between hallowed ground and a gaudy tourist trap. They've marked an "X" on the very spot JFK was shot, so if you can stomach poor taste it's definitely worth a trip.

If you've ever studied the assassination in the slightest, it's interesting in how it feels like you've already been there when you do arrive. You're basically plopped down right in the middle of your own mind, if that makes sense. Very little about the immediate area around the grassy knoll has changed, so everything is exactly where you always pictured it. You definitely get chills.

[rasputin1952]

35. The 'X' may be tacky, but historically, it's extremly important...

Someday...I'll get down there...:hi:

[Hepburn]

41. In about 1985, I went there for the first time and...

...just like you said, the place is a lot smaller, I would even say tiny, and it looked very different than from the pictures and videos I had seen. Surprised me what it looked like.

[Seen the light]

22. We share the same birthday!

Happy birthday! I was born 22 years later, on the 22nd. Last year I turned 22. And I think it was on Thanksgiving too, so that was pretty neat.

[1Hippiechick]

106. It happened on my husband's birthday. Hubby is 63 today. Always a pall over his birthday. We

can't help it....the day is spent recalling 1963.

[rasputin1952]

131. I just dawned on me...Happy Birthday!...

:hi:

[Longhorn]

8. I was in third grade in Battle Creek, Michigan. There was no official announcement.

But some kids had heard about it and were telling us as we walked home from school and my sister and brothers and I didn't believe them. Then we found out it was true when we got home. I remember watching television all weekend seeing everything you mentioned. It was strange because my parents hated Kennedy so while they certainly weren't happy that he was assassinated, they weren't overcome with grief. I felt like I had to hide how upset I was. :shrug:

[sufrommich]

11. I was in first grade. Our teacher told us and school was

dismissed early.I ran all the way home and my Mom was sitting on the floor crying.I thought the world was ending.

[Auggie]

12. I was six. Our school was closed that day for some reason, so I was spending

the day at my Grandmother's house. She was making me lunch when the news came over the radio. She came running into the living room and said "Oh my God! Someone shot the President!"

I remember bits and pieces of the funeral -- most of what others have posted here.

More than anything, it pains me to imagine what the last 45 years could have been had it not happened. No Nixon. No Watergate. Maybe no Reagan.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. Tenth grade biology class, right after lunch. Physics teacher came in & told

our teacher one of his students had a radio on during lab; at this point it was just shots have been fired.

OUr teacher turned to us and said "if this is another one of Crafton's sick jokes, I am going to kill him' But we knew, the look on Crafton's face said it all.

A few minutes later, Crafton was back to tell us JFK was dead and we just sat there stunned.

I think I wept for days. I remember the world leaders marching to the grave behind the family and just being overwhelmed at the sight. . Churchill, Adenaur, DeGaulle, Selassi, King Hussein, Prince PHillip, etc

Thanksgiving Day, my grandmother had draped black chiffon over her portrait of JFK she kept in the den.

On edit. fittingly our county Democratic Election night party was held in the hotel where JFK spent the night before heading to Dallas.

[Amimnoch]

14. heh, still years away from being a little floatie in my fathers testicles. N/T

[tekisui]

16. I was an ovum in a 4th grader.

My mom was in the 4th grade at the time.

[Hutzpa]

18. A Foetus;

to answer your question;

would never know what it felt like, but share the deeper sentiments
and History.

He helped shaped America and the World for the period of time he spent
as President and to this day people are still relieving his methods
and approach.

[ensho]

19. in the Library of Congress doing research

when I came out life seemed to be going on as usual. I thought the whole country should have shut down until the murdererss were caught.

but life when on as if.

I was shocked and dismayed.

[cliffordu]

20. 6th grade.

[BootinUp]

23. In my crib, crying. nt

[scrappydo]

24. JFK's presidential campaign was the first campaign I worked on....

when the news came that he had been shot and subsequently died, I was pregnant with my first child. I was cleaning the house that day - making the bed, in fact, when the news first came. I thought I had not heard the announcer correctly. I was shocked and dumbfounded when it was announced that JFK had died. The bed went unmade, the house did not get cleaned until days later. I can even remember what I was wearing when I heard the news. I literally sobbed for days.

[watrwefitinfor]

48. My God, we don't forget the little things, do we?

I was a young mother in Daytona Beach. My two little kids were napping. I was sweeping the floor and had the tv on with the soaps making background noise when someone, not Cronkite, came on and said shots fired in Dallas, the president has been shot and rushed to the hospital. No more details except that all the onlookers run toward the shooter who was hiding on a grassy knoll.

Then came Dan Rather from the hospital steps where it was a madhouse. I think that was the first time I'd ever noticed Rather. He was so young, too. And just tore up, you could tell.

Then came Cronkite with the news that Kennedy was dead.

I had just stood there, staring at the tv all this time, waiting. When word finally came I went outside for some reason. Others were coming out and we were hollering at each other across the yards and streets - did you hear, the president is dead.

Wat

On edit: I had forgotten until now that I stood there all that time leaning on the broom in front of the tv. Transfixed. Even the color and shape of the floor tiles in the apartment just came back to me. I guess I could remember what soap I was listening to if I really tried. Memory. So harsh.

[Tammie]

25. In the first grade

I remember the announcement coming over the loud speaker and the nuns running around hugging each other and crying. We prayed then we were sent home.

[demokatgurrl]

26. I was in school, second grade. We were sent home.

It is also my mother's birthday. That put a damper on birthday celebrations for some years.

[grantcart]

27. 3rd grade - I saw them lower the flag and I knew even before the announcement

[ashling]

28. I was in Miss Reid's 6th grade Social Studies

when Chet Huntley came on the loudspeaker saying that the President had been shot. When I got home my mother was crying.

We traveled to Mississippi for Thanksgiving with My uncle's family in Starksville. We came back through Philadelphia, Ms to go by my grandmother's gravesight (she had died that Easter weekend) and I remember my dad getting so mad because th flag at the Post Office was not at half staff.
:cry:

[connecticut yankee]

29. I was a young mother

waiting for my baby to wake from his nap. I was reading, when my husband called to tell me the President had been shot.

I turned on the TV, and was glued to it until the announcement of JFK's death came on. My older boy came home from kindergarten and asked why I was crying.

I went outside because I had to share my grief with other people. We lived in an apartment house complex and the street were filled with other young mothers. To my disgust, all they talked about was what Jackie would wear to the funeral, that Lady Bird was "dancing in the streets," that Rose hadn't "slept with the old man in years," etc. etc., ad nauseum.

I couldn't listen to it anymore so I went upstairs and sat down and cried and cried until my husband came home. Then we cried together.

Although I'm not ordinarily a TV watcher, I sat glued to the set until the funeral.

I can't remember when I stopped crying, but everytime I see that photo of little John-John saluting, my eyes water.

[rasputin1952]

40. Shock is a weird thing...some people will go to "odd" places

when very disturbing news hits. Most of those you ran into were most likely unable to cope w/the immediacy of the situation. But there are those who really were "dancing" in the street". I recall reading that after Lincoln was carried from Ford's Theater, and individual made the incredibly stupid remark, in a crowd of highly emotional people, that he was "glad the bastard was dying". It took more than 20 DC police officers to drag people off of him, he was nearly beaten to death.

Kennedy was not universally liked. I never liked Reagan, but I gave out and "Oh Shit!" when he was shot. I can still picture the news clips of the women and girls looking shocked, there they were, horn-rimmed glasses, babushka's and tears, covering their faces, their mouths and looking like the world had just come to and end.

For me, it's as if a cloud went over the nation, and only on the rarest of occasions has the sun broken though. I'm looking at Obama as a break in that cloud, a return to something we lost 45 years ago...a future.

[SoxFan]

32. Four years away from shufflingonto this mortal coil

[H2O Man]

34. School.

I remember that afternoon, the ride home, and my family's reactions.

[chieftain]

36. I was a junior in hs. Our Social Studies teacher, Mr. Ryan

answered a knock at the door and we used this as an opportunity to all start talking. He yelled at us to be quiet which was completely out of character. He then shared with us the bad news that he had just heard. It hit us so hard and it was so unbelievable. So many of us had taken so much pride in seeing a fellow Catholic break the religious barrier. So many of us took personal delight in the wit and wisdom of our fellow Irish-American. I had seen JFK speak in a shopping center parking lot during the campaign. JFK was both a bigger than life figure but also a member of the family. I still remember the numbness that we felt as we sat there waiting for news of whether he lived or died. What a sad, sad time, that I don't think we have recovered from to this day. Johnny we hardly knew ye.

[catnhatnh]

37. Ask G. H. W. Bush.....

his story is WAY better than mine.

[rasputin1952]

43. Yeah...A LOT of questions about that...

I can't believe he was not involved in some way...at the least, he knew something was happening, as his notes and contacting the FBI has shown.

[Lucky 13]

38. I was sperm and ova.

[Hepburn]

39. Sophomore in HS, age 15 year, in Trig class after lunch....

...and I can even tell you what I was wearing...a matching yellow, Villager sweater and skirt. Black velvet head band in my Jackie boufant page-boy hair-do. Woven natural brown leather, wood stack heeled loafters. The moment is caught like a picture in my mind. I can even see the math teacher ~~ who was an elder in the Mormon church across the street from my HS ~~ sitting in stunned silence, wearing a dark blue and white plaid shirt, removing his eyeglasses, tears running down his face.

There is about 10 minutes of time in kind of a frozen loop that has run in my head since November 23, 1963, and I don't think there is anything I can do that will ever make that go away. Anytime I think about the JFK assassination, that loop starts to run.

I can still hear the voice coming over the PA system ~~ the principal had turned on the radio and I can still hear the announcement about President Kennedy being dead. I also will never forget watching TV live when Ruby shot Oswald.

[rasputin1952]

42. For me, it is an endless loop as well. It takes hold every year at this

time.

All of the events that happened, from the first notification...until he was laid to rest.

So many questions, sso few answers...Ruby, shooting Oswald, the first live murder ever shown on TV.

How?...Why?...The whole thing boggles the mind...:(

[DevonRex]

52. I remember seeing Oswald getting shot, too. My parents had tried

to limit how much I saw, but they had thought it was a good thing for everybody to see Oswald going to jail. And then Ruby killed him. And there wasn't any sense after that for my parents to shoo me away from the TV. I had already seen something horrible.

[sufrommich]

58. I wonder what the time span was between Kennedy and Oswald's

death . By that time at my house,my Dad was home and my uncle was over. My uncle was the only one watching TV when it happened and yelled "Oh my God, someone just shot him!".My parents wouldn't let me come in the TV room. I'm sorry any kids had to see that live,it must have been beyond frightening.

[DevonRex]

61. I have no idea of the time frame, strangely enough. Maybe it's because

it was all so surreal. Everything right before Kennedy was shot is crisp and clear. Everything after for me is just pictures flashing across my mind with nothing to peg them down in time.

It sounds like you and I must be about the same age. We were old enough to have pretty clear memories but too young for the grownups to let us be exposed to very much. I have the scene of Oswald being brought in and the crowd that was around him. And then absolute Chaos. My father yelled the same thing, "Oh my God! Somebody shot him!" And that's when I realized what I had just seen. Until then I didn't know what it was that I had seen. I think my father said son of a bitch because my mother shushed him.

[rasputin1952]

63. In one of those odd quirks of fate, Oswald died in the same room

Kennedy did. I still wonder if that shot should have been fatal. The autopsy reports I've seen don't go into great detail, but generally speaking a gut-shot can be dealt with pretty routinely even back then. Of course, if an artery were involved, it would be a different story. From all accounts, Oswald was alive when he arrived at Parkland.

Kennedy, even w/the traumatic wound to his head, was still breathing when he arrived at the Parkland's ER. I have no doubt that the docs there knew the fatal nature of the wound, but tried to keep him alive in spite of the mortal aspect of the wound.


I still have to wonder how any of this happened. The SS detail going to clubs the night before, the open windows; no security of the building roofs; security was beyond lax, it was nearly non-existent. This is particularly important since there were open death threats, as well as those that were known before but not disclosed.

I hope I live long enough to see the existing documents...but I am almost positive that many of them will come up "missing"...:(

On edit: the autopsy report for Oswald does state that "major blood vessels had been damaged and could not be repaired"

Oswald was shot 2 days after the Kennedy Assassination.

[Hepburn]

66. OMG....

....I had no clue there were others that had that endless loop of the sights and sounds of when JFK was shot.

Yeah, Ruby and Oswald....I to this day have the table I was sitting at and doing my nails when I saw this happen live. The table? Had been my grandmother's center post dining room table. My dad had cut it down and refinished it to be a coffee table for our family room. Against my parents wishes and rules, I was sitting at the table doing my nails ~~ using polish remover and I jumped when the events took place. The polish remover got spilled.

Yep...on this table to this day is the place the finish was marred by the polish remover. I have never had that table refinished. Kind of a weird part of history to me...can't say why...but for some reason, I cannot bring myself to have the table re-done.

[rasputin1952]

71. Personal artifacts from that time are very special...

My mother saved the clothes my younger brother an I wore to school that day, and I still have the Lincoln bust I took to school earlier, and kept in my desk, for some reason, it seemed like it was to go home that day, I'm looking at it now. It came from Gettysburg many years ago. Another odd thing that day...we were supposed to recite the Gettysburg Address, some did earlier in the Morning, I never got the opportunity. Seems like those words..."a government of the People, by the People and for the People, shall not perish from the earth", hold a special place on occasions like this.

[DevonRex]

49. I do that loop, too. Oh my. Read my post below. I didn't know anybody else

did this. It's amazing the things that are simply imprinted on our brains. The sights, the sounds, right down to every tiny detail.

I even remember opening the pomegranates I was picking, and pulling each little berry out and eating it, all the while wondering why people bothered with them since there wasn't that much inside.

[Hepburn]

67. Wow....

...that makes a few of us that still have this sooooo strongly imprinted in our minds.

I can sit here, right now, and replay so much of those days. Forty-five years....instant recall. I understand completely the pomegranate story you carry. I have bits and pieces like instant replays going on in my mind everytime I think of that day.

:cry:

[rasputin1952]

72. Like other spectacular historical events, it leaves an indelible

mark. For Sociology, I asked the WWII generation where they were when they heard about Pearl Harbor, only one could not recall, this is out of several hundred.

I'll never part w/the things I have from that day, it just wouldn't be right.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

44. I've posted this on another thread on this topic Ras

But I'll post it here again just so hopefully you can see it.

President Kennedy's assassination was seventeen years before I was born, therefore I do not remember it. But my late mother did well. She was born and raised in South East Asia in what was then a developing country. She was not American or indeed western nor did she ever go to America during her lifetime. The news she got about American politics was through the BBC radio and the newspapers.

She told me how much she loved President Kennedy, how handsome he was and how much hope he inspired in her, even from several continents away. She can remember hearing (I think on the radio) about his assassination and she said that she cried when she learned of his death

A few years later Bobby Kennedy visited her country and she described the excitement over his visit when he came.

I include this anecdote to emphasize this point that President Kennedy's assassination not only shook and devastated America but it shook and devastated the world. I'm sure there were many people from obscure parts of the globe like my mother who mourned and grieved for a President several continents away who had given them so much hope and inspiration during his brief time in office. America may have lost a wonderful and visionary President but the world also lost a wonderful and visionary statesman and peacemaker and the world is the worse off for it

[rasputin1952]

47. Thank you for posting that...

:hug:

[DevonRex]

45. I was playing in my front yard in Harlingen, Texas. It was a beautiful

warm and sunny day. I had been picking pomegranates from the bushes by the driveway. I remember how bright it was and how beautiful the bougainvilleas by the front door were. I walked into the house and saw my mother sitting in a chair pulled right up to the TV. She had a stunned look on her face and she never, ever watched TV during the day. So I knew something bad had happened. I just didn't know what.

I will never forget that day. I can still count the steps I took from the side yard, across the front yard, and up the steps into the house. I can still remember the contrast from the bright sunny day to the cool dark living room. And I remember that I didn't hear the usual noises from the kitchen and then I heard the TV playing softly in the den.

I remember the black and white images on the screen and that my mother let me watch for a few minutes and then told me she couldn't let me watch anymore. I remember wishing that I hadn't come in from the gorgeous brilliance of the day. Because it was ruined.

[olegramps]

46. I was on a train on my way to Washington

I was out of the Army and was to interview for a State Department job. I remember the people coming down to the train and telling us of his assassination. I knew two people in the Polish Embassy and I went with them in their delegation to the foot of Arlington. I will never forget the sound of the drums that echoed across the mall as they proceeded toward the cemetery. It was a horrible experience that to this day saddens me to even write about.

[L0oniX]

50. I was on the play ground at my grade school. We all had to come in when they cut short the break.

[kestrel91316]

51. With family, vacationing in Baguio, Phillippines (dad was in USAF).

We saw the US flag at half mast at some official building but didn't know why. When we continued on our stroll and got to the miniature golf course a young Phillippino guy we knew came running out, yelling to us that the President had been killed. I can still see him running across the grass in his white shirt. I was 6.

[all.of.me]

54. In PE with Mr. Pinto on the playground in 3rd grade.

The principal came out and pulled Mr. Pinto aside. He came back to us as a group with the grim news. I don't know how much of it we grasped at that age, but it was not a good day.

[Historic NY]

55. Catholic grade school....I never ever forget...never.

[peace frog]

56. I was in 6th grade

in a very small east coast Florida town. We had just come in from lunch when our teacher (who was also the school's principle) brought in a radio, saying, "The president has been shot." We listened in stunned silence to the radio reports and shortly after 1:00 pm the announcement came that he was dead. After that, the whole school gathered outside to watch the lowering of the flag, then we were dismissed from classes. My mother was waiting for my sister and me (we usually rode the bus); all three of us were white-faced and in shock. We drove home in silence. I don't remember crying until I saw Jackie crying behind that heavy black veil she wore at the funeral procession, and then again when John Jr saluted the passing casket. It's hard to explain the horror of it all to anyone who didn't experience it personally.

[Drunken Irishman]

57. I wasn't alive, but I've heard the family stories.

My mom was a student at the Kearns-Saint Ann Catholic School here in Salt Lake when it happened. She remembers being in class and then the National Anthem began playing over the loudspeaker. At first she thought they were going to announce we were going to war, but instead, said that Kennedy had died. Since this was a Catholic school, and Kennedy was the first Catholic president, it was extremely tough, especially for the nuns. My mom remembers the nuns crying and shrieks when it was announced. Then they let them leave early and my mom returned home, where my grandma was there watching television.

The family loved Kennedy, but grandma was a strong woman and rarely cried. I don't know if she cried over this or not, but I remember her telling me she was vacuuming the living room carpet when she saw Oswald's shooting. Stunned her.

A few years later, my mom, older and in high school I think, was sitting in the kitchen watching the late returns for the California Primary when they broke in and said Robert had been shot. I think she then went and woke everyone up in the house, who all had been sleeping at that time.

:(

[peace frog]

75. I watched Oswald's execution on live tv

My mother ran into the room when she heard me gasp aloud and asked, "What happened?" "Somebody shot him," I replied, and it was then that a suspicion began to take root. It was all just too convenient: someone killed the alleged assassin while he was in police custody? in a supposedly secure area surrounded by police officers?? It was like watching a really sordid tv drama - which, of course, it was.

[Alameda]

101. Yes, I was sitting with my granfmother watching TV.....

when Oswald was shot....we both sat there in shock....speechless....

[mr1956]

59. I was in the 2nd grade in Cleveland Ohio

Mrs. Patrick's class. She told us the President had been killed and we were dismissed. I too remember how eerily silent the city was as I rode the bus home. I had to go through several ethnically different neighborhoods to get home but for once we were all as one in our grief. Young, old, black, white, Jews, Gentile... there were no words, just a stunned feeling of sadness and loss. That's what has stuck with me most.

Hard to believe its been 45 years and we still don't know what really happened that day.

[goddess40]

60. I was the first class to have no one know what they were doing that day

I was three at the time and when I got to be in high school we had a teacher that asked every year what you were doing on that day and we were the first group to not have anyone remember. My brother is a year older than me and he remembers my mother crying.

[DevonRex]

62. I wasn't in school yet either but I'm a couple of years older than you.

And I remember the most minute details, almost like a home movie. Amazing what a difference a couple of years can make when you're that little.

[Berry Cool]

64. Yeah. I was barely two, so memory function hadn't set in yet

and I don't remember. But I suspect that had I been three or four, it would have been my very first and most profound and vivid memory, precisely because of the nature of it.

[hamsterjill]

65. I was four and watching television

I ran in to the next room to tell my parents, and I don't think they believed me at first. Once they realized it was true, I can remember the shock and sadness on their faces.

[my3boyz]

68. 9 yrs before I was ever conceived! nt

[madamesilverspurs]

69. High school in Colorado,

study hall in the auditorium. Vice principal ran down the aisle and grabbed the mike to make the announcement. A girl sitting two rows ahead of me muttered that "it's about time" and the guy sitting in front of her turned around and slapped her across the face. No one said anything to him about the slap. We all just sat there until they told us all to go home.

Five years later I was going to college in Los Angeles.

The 1960s are just painful to remember.

[AtomicKitten]

70. I was 10 and the nuns told us to hit the deck to pray.

[ronnykmarshall]

95. Hit the deck!!

I'm sorry that is so funny!

[AtomicKitten]

97. here's another olde tyme "hit the deck" directive:

[rasputin1952]

103. LOL...I remeber those...and the CD turtle too...

Bert... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_tKAg5KIuQ

[AtomicKitten]

108. lol

:hi:

[tigereye]

113. yup, we did that too!

It seems so, so ridiculous in retrospect.

[AtomicKitten]

115. as ridiculous as smoking sections in the same room - oy!

:hi:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

73. My dear raz...

I was in college, my sophomore year...

I had just gotten out of class and was heading for my dorm for lunch, when I heard. The newsstands were full of papers announcing it, but they did not yet know that he had died.

I lived in a private dorm run by the Catholic church, and we had a chapel on site. Mass was said there every day, and that day Father Healy said a Requiem Mass...

It was SRO, and I was there too...

I just could not believe it. I had wanted so much to vote for him, and had he lived, I would have been able to...

I too wonder what really happened that day...but I doubt we'll ever know.

It was the beginning of terrible times for our beloved country...

K&R

:cry:

[rasputin1952]

74. After 45 years, the sun may yet shine on our nation...

We shall see. It would be glorious to recapture those days when we all thought we could do anything, and shine while getting to the goal. Kennedy was inspirational in that way, he gave us challenges and we rose to them. Since his death, there have only been brief times when we could look to the future with any real hope. Our nation has been led by some who would rather see it beaten into the ground than become what it could be.

Maybe, w/this new administration, we can move forward again. Just getting rid of bush, sending him back to TX, in shame and dishonor, should take us up a few notches. The climb is steep, and long, but we have to start if we ever want to regain what what we had, then climb ever higher. To the point where we have true Justice, true Equality and true Dignity.

[opihimoimoi]

76. Yo Raspy....I remember the day....my foreman informed us and we all left work..sad day for all of us

I was about 23 or so....

But now...Obama picks up the Colors to advance America,.......


Let us dare hope for success...He is the breath of fresh air long needed throughout the Land...

Come, we go help the Man....

[rasputin1952]

80. Yes we will my friend...

:pals:

[opihimoimoi]

85. Come, we listen to Sue Aston play her violin...She welcomes home 3 women soldiers from the PUB WARS

Truth, Reason, and Sanity.....they have come home....finally after 8 fucking years....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOIjd0fBPX0

[rasputin1952]

90. That was beautiful...bookmarked to favorites...here's one that

is about as heartrendering as I've ever seen:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTZFIcqnQMg

[opihimoimoi]

121. Awesome...sad and a reminder of our work, hopes, and prayers to try and eliminate Misery of Children

Come, we go help....

[FKA MNChimpH8R]

77. Seven years old and in third grade

After lunch, the principal got on the intercom and called all the teachers to her office. A few minutes later, our teacher came back and told us we were dismissed for the day. We had no idea what was going on. When I got home, a few blocks away, I saw a grim Walter Cronkite say that President Kennedy had been killed by gunfire. I was sad, but being seven, I was also mad that my afternoon shows and cartoons weren't on.

[Beacool]

78. I'm Obama's age, so I was too young to remember anything.

Though I do remember clearly when Reagan was shot and when the Challenger blew up, both times.

:-(

[Jawja]

79. I was in my 7th grade class

in Big A Elementary School in Northeast Georgia.

[southernyankeebelle]

81. Remember

Today I was writing a check and I notice the date and said OMG JFK died today. I was in study hall in school. I don't think I have ever gotten over his death. He left a lot of unfinished business. My mom named my young brother after him and my brother died 2 yrs ago at 39 yrs old. That was hard for me also. He was a fine man. A wonderful family history.

[rasputin1952]

83. I am sorry for your loss...

:(

:hug:

[RichardRay]

82. Junior in high school, English class taught by Mr Rooney

in Natick, outside Boston. The announcement came over the public address system, we were all called into the school auditorium for a brief follow up and then sent home. My father worked for the Christian Science Monitor, he didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning. He woke us up (my brother, mother and me) and we talked for a little while and went back to sleep.

Nobody could figure out what had happened - we lived in the United States, this didn't happen here.

[Doctor_J]

84. In my second grade classroom. The pricipal

announced it over the intercom. I watched the weekend events on my grandma's TV, including Oswald's murder.

[malik flavors]

86. 1/2 in my father's nut sack, 1/2 in my mother's ovary.

[gauguin57]

87. I was sitting in a green 1956 Chevy Belair with my friend Cindy. My mom told me.

I think we had a half-day of school (pre-scheduled) and my mom had come to pick us up, and went into the school to check on something about her library volunteer hours, and heard the news, and came back to the car very shaken.

I was 6 years old, and just remember feeling very confused. When adults around you are crying and freaking out, it gets very confusing to a little kid.

[greatauntoftriplets]

88. I was a freshman in high school.

Just before lunch break, this girl told me that she had heard rumors that the president had been shot, but she didn't believe it. I immediately felt a lump in my stomach?

I went down to the student lounge where the television was turned on and the room packed. Went to English class as usual, where we sat in silence listening to church bells toll. Then we were sent home early and were given the day off to watch the funeral.

Hard to believe that it's been 45 years.

[rasputin1952]

89. There are times when i wonder..."what could have been"...

of course, we'll never know for sure...but things would have been different...I like to think for the better...:)

[eshfemme]

91. I was not even in existence. My parents hadn't even met yet.

[ronnykmarshall]

92. I was two years old.

My mom told be that we had just dropped my grandmother off to get her hair done and went to visit my grandfather at work.

It was on the radio and mom said my grandfather (a FDR democrat was very upset).

I don't remember any of this since I was just a wee little lad at the time.

[HannibalBarca]

93. I was -18...

[1Hippiechick]

96. I was in high school. The entire school went to the auditorium where TVs were set up. You could

have heard a pin drop. And, I will never forget Walter Cronkite's voice breaking as he said "The president has died...." A lot of shock, sadness, and tears that afternoon in my HS auditorium.....

FYI, I just saw this week on TV a documentary in which the results point to Oswald being the killer. Very scientific-looking test with an auto w/replica dimensions, road elevations, fans to simulate the wind speed that day, dummies angled precisely in the limo as JFK and Jackie. Replica was fired upon from grassy knoll angles and school book deposity angle (a cherry picker was used to raise the person to the height of the school book depository floor on which Oswald allegedly shot Kennedy). There was film footage supposedly tracking the splatter pattern when Kennedy was shot, and that was compared to the splatter pattern on the test dummy. And, there were photographs of the limo after the assassination, showing the splatter pattern. And, people who were in Dallas on the day of the assassination who saw the limo after the assassination indicated that the test results were almost identical to what they saw in Dallas that day.

Bottom line: according to the video that I watched, Oswald was the lone killer. All other theories of the grassy knoll, someone in a manhole, etc., were debunked, according to these tests. First thing I have seen that remotely comes close to verifying that Oswald was the shooter, and he acted alone.

[galaxy21]

100. I believe it was Oswald and no one else

I think people like to believe in conspiracies because it makes them feel better about JFK's death. Maybe its better if it was some elaborate conspiracy by the C.I.A, the F.B. I or the soviets or the mafia. That's less scary than the thought that some random crazy guy could do all that damage.

You know if Reagan had died in 1980 after Hinkley shot him, there would have been countless conspiracy theories (it was the C.I.A, the Russians..etc)But we know Hinkley was just a crazy guy who loved Jodie Foster.

The whole thing is so random and tragic. It was a crime of oppertunity: Oswald only decided to do it after he read the route of JFK's limo in the newspaper the day befpre.

[rasputin1952]

107. I don't think the CIA/FBI or others of that vein did the deed...

I think it was RW maniacs that ordered the hit, outside of the government, acting on some notion that Kennedy was some kind of evil entity. There were/are plenty of maniacs to go around, (from all sides), and these fools had been talking about assassinating Kennedy for quite some time...Chicago & FL had been broken up before the act could be accomplished. The plans there were almost identical to what happened in Dallas.

Maybe I'm way off base...but there are simply too many loose ends...:(

[rasputin1952]

102. I saw that as well, it was very well done and apparently very

scientific. However, there are just too many holes in th official version...and that video of Oswald at the Press Conference still haunts me. One other thing a nondescript individual goes into a theater, w/o paying...this brings a horde of Dallas police officers to the theater for an individual who had gone home, changed his jacket, allegedly killed a police officer w/a revolver, (but 4 automatic casings were found at Tippet's murder scene). The Dallas PD hadn't even gone to Oswald residence yet, and somehow they "knew" this was the guy? I can't buy it, at least not yet.

I have a thought that another gunman was either on top of the building catty-corner from the TSBD, or, the building next to it. That would explain the shot from the rear. One other thing, my dad brought a Manlicher-Carcano back from WWII, (identical to Oswald's), it was an incredible piece of crap. This of course, does not rule out Oswald's rifle being an exception, but if the vast majority of M-C's were garbage, it would be plausible to think his was also...lot of "Kentucky windage" there.

I don't think we'll ever know the truth, and perhaps that show was a reproduction of the truth...but the government really messed up by locking documents and evidence, (as well as destroying evidence), like in the limo). They fed CT's and it will be so for a very long time...:(

[Perky]

98. I was two and a half and living in Cambridge.

I remember my mom screaming when the news broke. My dad weeping. They were grad students I rembeber getting bundled up and going with our next door neighbors to their catholic church. I remember the the row of nuns in their habits in the pew behind us weeping. I will never forget the anguish on their faces. It was my ealiest retained memory and it was indelible,

[1Hippiechick]

104. Camelot died that day....BUT...Camelot is rising out of the ashes like a phoenix w/Obama's election.

ARTHUR:
It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear.
The climate must be perfect all the year.

A law was made a distant moon ago here:
July and August cannot be too hot.
And there's a legal limit to the snow here
In Camelot.
The winter is forbidden till December
And exits March the second on the dot.
By order, summer lingers through September
In Camelot.
Camelot! Camelot!
I know it sounds a bit bizarre,
But in Camelot, Camelot
That's how conditions are.
The rain may never fall till after sundown.
By eight, the morning fog must disappear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!
I know it gives a person pause,
But in Camelot, Camelot
Those are the legal laws.
The snow may never slush upon the hillside.
By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.
In short, there's simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

[yowzayowzayowza]

105. Drooling and defecating on myself at 7 mos old, tho...

I do seem to recall a serious bout of constipation. ;)

[rasputin1952]

146. LOL...I know "adults" that do that now...

w/o an disease processes involved...Just think Limbaugh, Hannity and those that sit around at Free Republic!...:D

[tigereye]

109. I think I had just come home from kindergarten wearing my little Pilgrim

outfit and the mailman told my mom and a friend what had happened. I really don't think I understood what had happened, but I knew it was very serious.


:hi: Ras! :pals: How are you, my friend?

[rasputin1952]

110. Fine...but I miss you!

:hug:

[tigereye]

116. we should pm occasionally - I miss seeing you around as well!

How are things? Are your school/job things going well? Did you graduate? I can't remember.


At my end, my son is now 3 inches taller than me (not that that's hard), we both did some door- knocking and placard- hanging for Obama, it's really cold here with snow early (unusual for where we are), and my husb. hurt his knee.


Oh and the kid's school had a field trip to DC the week after the election. That was really cool! We saw Obama's motorcade going to visit Bush at the WH.


:hi:

[rasputin1952]

118. Cool! Sorry about the knee w/you husband...

around here, yesterday morning it was down to 9F, but today was better.

I'm on a new mission at school, last semester begins in Jan. P/T job went down the tubes, boss still has business, but has over $40,000 in acct's receivable...no one has the money to pay him, so I start a new job Tuesday, nothing much, but when I graduate, things will get better.

I'm hanging on by a thread, but I'm still in there...:D

As always, my PMbox is always open, few people use it though, I think I might scare people...:evilgrin:

Hoping for nothing but great things for you, now and in the future...:hug:

[tigereye]

133. can't think how you would scare anyone...with your good heart -

I'll try to shoot you a pm now and again...

:hug:


9 degrees! Guess I shouldn't be complaining. We were only down to 20! :rofl:

[Hansel]

111. 4th grade taking a history test

Our elderly teacher, Mrs. Weatherly, had been called down to the principal's office. She came back and slowly entered the classroom. She had tears in her eyes. She softly said "I have terrible news. The president has been shot." She could barely compose herself, but managed to say "Put down your pencils. The buses are here to take you home."

[rasputin1952]

147. There is something ironic about taking a history test, and then living

through one of the most historical events imaginable at the same time...it is almost symbolic.

[Thickasabrick]

112. 3rd Grade in Charlotte, NC - will never forget it.

[ramapo]

114. I was in third grade

I remember the day like it was yesterday

[gmoney]

117. I have an alibi

I was about 5 months old...

[TheCentepedeShoes]

119. A sophomore

in HS, getting into a cab to go to a dentist appointment when the driver said dispatch had just radioed to him that JFK had been shot. I don't recall what we said to each other on the way over. I asked him to pick me up in whatever time I thought the appointment would take and by that time we had each learned that JFK had died.

[ddeclue]

120. not born yet...nt

[oldmant]

122. Where was I

I was out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean underneath the water in a US Navy submarine called the USS Trutta. We were operating with a surface ship which signaled us to surface to receive communication. I was the radioman on watch and I still have a copy of the message I received from the squadron headquarters which stated that President John F. Kennedy along with Texas Sen. John Conley had been shot while riding in the president's famous bubble car. I had to ask them to repeat the message because I didn't believe it. They did and it was confirmed as being authentic. It was a very sad day for all of us!

[rasputin1952]

124. WOW...you still have the msg...that is something that would hold a great

deal of intrest to historians...:patriot:

I was 11 at the time, it devastated everyone I knew, adults, kids neighbors, shopkeepers...literally everyone I came across for weeks after the tragic event.

Welcome to DU!...:hi:

[oldmant]

125. yes

Yes, I still have the message.  It is one of the items I have
that reminds me of the past.  Life was tough in a lot of ways
in the sixties but it sure was a lot less complicated.  It is
my hope that there never will be another reason to have a
similar message send again.

[rasputin1952]

128. I agree wholeheartedly...it has been devastating every time this

nation has seen an assassination. With Lincoln, it was even worse. The entire South was blamed, and Reconstruction took a horrid turn for the worse. Andrew Johnson tried to do the right thing, but he had no where near the leadership Lincoln had. "With malice toward none, with charity for all, let us bind the nation's wounds..." Those words are fitting even today.

I can't stand bush, but I'd never think that violent turnover of government is a way to bring about change. I could not stand Reagan but when he was shot, all I could think of was "God no, not again!"

[ourbluenation]

123. i was a 21 day old infant in an orphanage. n/t

[Donald Ian Rankin]

126. Behind the grassy knoll, with a sniper rifle.

N.T.

[bklyncowgirl]

127. I was in school.

We had communion practice that day (Catholic School) we were in church and I remember a nun came in all upset. We were brought back to the classrooms and the principle, Sister Elizabeth of the Trinity, announced that the President had been shot. I remember all of the nuns were crying.

School must have been closed for the funeral because I remember watching it on TV.

[rasputin1952]

130. I went to a Lutheran school, where the Principal was also the 7th/8th

grade teacher...he was a bigot, despised Catholics...but that day, he actually came around and said they should never have assassinated JFK, he thought it was because he was Catholic that he was shot. He later changed that notion, but for once, he said that all people, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, Moslem...and everyone else should come together over such a tragic event.

[Norrin Radd]

132. Born in 73, but i can relate my late mother's recollection

which she told us many times. She was in the lunch room at her work at a G.E. plant, and happened to be staring at the clock when the news came over the radio, so the time was burned into her memory.

[NancyG]

134. Study hall freshman year high school.

Someone came in and announced it and we went home. I remember lots of it on television.

[trayfoot]

135. I was in 9th grade, sitting in English class when they made the announcement.

[kwenu]

136. I was a potential horny urge that hadn't been expressed yet by my parents. LOL!

[MrSlayer]

137. Unborn.

My parents weren't even together yet.

[illuminaughty]

138. Thank you for this....all the posts and people referring to loops

of memories. I have a strange false memory of that day. For years, I remembered being in my fourth grade class with that particular teacher until I did the math...I was in third grade and the two teachers were night and day from each other.

What makes that weird is that I'm famous for my memory...you know, one of those women that guys can't stand because I can remember every word said at what time, all the details, etc., lol..

I was chosen to play Caroline Kennedy in a local high school skit and I even remember the lines. This was after he was first elected. Maybe it was so painful I had to block it out, I don't know. Parts of that weekend fade in and out.

In August, I drove home from Galveston to Kansas City which is a good 13 hour drive. I decided to stop at Dealey Plaza. I've traveled the world but had never been there. It was 106 degrees late in the afternoon so there were very few people in the actual Plaza. The Book Depository Museum was like a religious experience. Every nationality imaginable walking around with headsets from one display to another. Tears flowing down their faces. I have to say it is ONE thing in my life that looked exactly as I imagined it. It is surreal standing there looking out those windows of the sixth floor. I've absorbed as many books as possible on the subject over the years and my Rorschach test for anyone is if they say Oswald acted alone. Do that, and you've lost your credibility. Period. And it's amazing to hear how many people still hold to that. Bill Maher being one that comes to mind.
It feels like there was barely a mention today on this 45th anniversary. So I'm off to watch JFK for the umpteenth time.

[rasputin1952]

142. Most people like to look for the easiest possible explanation...

I think that's why so many believe Oswald acted alone. Even if he did, there are far too many holes in the story for it to hold much water. Explanations abound, but for Oswald to pull off 3 shots, w/the rifle he used, and for the everything else about the case that doesn't quite add up, I'm no where near convinced he acted alone. Some hings like why so many from the Dallas PD converged on the theater for a single theft of services charge, after a president has been shot in the city, just don't add up. Neither does the press conference, not a host of other things, the "pristine" bullet, tippets murder , supposedly Oswald's revolver was used, but 4 automatic cartridges were found at the scene.

Maybe we'll never know. I have my suspicions that in 5 years, when the evidence is released, much of it will have gone "missing", tampered with or perhaps people just won't care any more.

[Whisp]

139. forget exactly how old I was...

I could do the math but will pass.

grade school. one room schoolhouse in the cold country prairie canada, don't actually recall the moment of the news, but on the way home -nieghbors picked up a bunch of us from school in their car, which is a bit odd, maybe school was let out early? and one guy said, boy o boy, she (Jackie) is sure going to sue that guy good!

I internally laughed, not even knowing anything about lawyers or lawsuits. she's gonna sue... omg even I knew that was stupid funny.

so that's it for me, a snowy ride home in a desolate prairie - that moment is sewn forever in me

but George Bush Sr. isn't sure whre he was.... o yah.

[Zavulon]

140. In a crib, probably.

I was only three and a half months old.

[Smuckies]

141. Wasn't alive nt

[Condem]

143. Just short of four years old......

My first lasting memory of my life. I remember my mother ironing and sobbing watching the funeral.

[Dulcinea]

144. Not born yet.

I didn't come along until 2 years later.

But I do clearly remember where I was & what I was doing the day the Challenger exploded, & of course, 9/11. Those are my generation's "where were you when" moments.

And I told my daughters (ages 5 & 7) that they'll always remember when Obama was elected.

[Jersey Devil]

145. I was in my high school Play Production class

in the auditorium, just after lunch, and we were all seated in the theater seats there waiting for our teacher who was not in the room. Just across from the auditorium were the administrative offices of the school's principal and we could see teachers running in and out of the offices, some crying and quietly talking to each other. After about 10 minutes our teacher came into the room, walked up onto the stage and told us that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas. The room went completely silent and I distinctly remember a girl who was an exchange student from Norway gasping and falling back into her chair.

The rest of the school day was a blur with no one knowing exactly what the proper thing to do was so at the end of the day, as usual, I suited up for football practice and the team assembled on the field as usual. The coach told us to run a lap around the field as we always did to start practice. and that's when it really struck me. I took a few steps, then I stopped, turned around and slowly walked silently back to the locker room, changed to my street clothes and went home. No one said anything to me. I remember one coach looking in my direction sadly and nodding as though to give me permission but no words were spoken. On the way home, toting my bag of equipment over my shoulder, I cried quietly and wondered what kind of evil person would do such a thing.

[rug]

148. I wasn't there, I swear!