DU'ers- where were you 45 years ago today?

[underpants]

I wasn't born yet.

It is interesting how people found out about JFK being assassinated or at least initially reports of his being shot.

Where were you?

[unhappycamper]

1. I was in a teletype repair class at Ft. Gordon, GA.

I remember the instructor wheeling in a TV so we could watch the news.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

96. ...

weird. I was born there - Dad was stationed there

[Graybeard]

112. I was in the hospital at Ft. Gordon,GA.

I had been injured in basic training and was in a wheelchair in the ward when the announcement came on the TV. Everything stopped and we watched it all happen for the next few days (Oswald murdered live on TV, the funeral in D.C.)

[rhett o rick]

113. I was busy dodging the draft. nm

[DarbyUSMC]

142. I was operating a teletype at base communications Camp LeJeune.

[BanzaiBonnie]

2. I was in the third grade

Our teacher told us.

[Catshrink]

23. Me too..

She came back from the office crying and announced the news. The school sent all the kids home. My mom and older sisters were also in tears and the TV was on with the story.

[Doremus]

56. That describes my day as well. n/t

[Laurab]

88. Mine, too - 3rd grade

In our house I remember the tv being on all the rest of the day, and me sitting in front of it, along with the rest of my family. I also remember somewhere in there, on that day, I realized the immortality of everyone, and started crying, saying "mom and dad are going to die someday". Looking back, it makes sense - if our President, whom we loved, wasn't safe, then no one was.....

[eowyn_of_rohan]

95. We had just come back to school from lunch

We went home for lunch in those days. I was in third grade too, Madison, Wisconsin. We had a substitute teacher that day -much nicer than our regular one... I am glad she was the one to break the news to us. Something was "off" when we came in the classroom, and once we were all seated she told us what had happened, then had us all stand and face the west with our hands over our hearts, for a minute of silence. Then she sent us back home. I don't remember ANY conversation among us- we just filed out and walked home silently. It is hard to convey what a hero he was to many or most children then, and how hard it was to process for children who, for the most part, had never experienced death.

Seems we didn't go back to school until after the funeral... not sure if we actually did or not though. I remember Mom crying and ironing in the living room with the TV on, which wasn't normal... The flag was at half mast for what seemed like a very long time...it was probably a month. I'd look at it every day walking to school and feel sad. Finally one day I thought maybe they should put the flag back up and we should all try to be happy again!

[proud2BlibKansan]

110. Yes seems like I remember being out of school till after the funeral

[eowyn_of_rohan]

130. what a sad and empty week

I think the TV was on that week more than it ever had been in our house before. Also now I seem to remember we were told in school that he had been shot- then found out he had died after we got home...

[ailsagirl]

140. It was a terrible week-- I was too young to understand all the

implications and, before too long, books starting coming out questioning the official story.

Notice how there is barely any mention of JFK on this day?? That's pretty telling. The neocons have done their best to discredit him and not make him out to be a hero in any way. True, he did fool around, but I think that he really cared about the US and wanted to do what was right. He was going to start calling troops home from Vietnam the next month, but once LBJ (such a good friend of Hoover's) took over, that plan was quietly dropped. He also wanted to dismantle the CIA because there were too many rogue elements.

Who benefited??

[NMDemDist2]

90. me too, a 'hall runner' came through and handed teacher a note. She started crying.

it freaked us all out, they got us all together in an assembly then sent us home.

My mom and grammy were glued to the TV the rest of the night.

[madokie]

3. English class in ninth grade

it was a cold day that day here in more ways than one

[peacebird]

4. I was in First grade, the nuns sent us home early and they were all crying

[lisa58]

5. Wow - 45 years? I was five and remember watching the impact on everyone around me.

[eugeneliberal]

68. I was five

I don't remember anything about the day he was shot, but I vividly remember watching the funeral on our grainy b&W television, and in particular, the kids, Caroline, and John-John saluting.

[Midlodemocrat]

152. I was, too.

I remember my mom telling me when I got home from 1/2 day kindergarten. I remember how sad she was.

She kept all the commemorative magazines. I remember watching that beautiful little boy salute his father's coffin. It still makes me cry to think about it. :cry:

[John1956PA]

6. I was in second grade of Catholic school.

It was about 1:40 PM EST when a radio feed spontaneously streamed from the classroom public address speaker. The broadcaster reported that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a motorcade and that he had been rushed to the hospital.

[MgtPA]

12. I was in fifth grade at Catholic school.

We also had the radio feed spontaneously streamed into the classroom from the PA system, and I'd always thought that was a pretty strange way of informing the kids that Kennedy had been shot...

[NoPasaran]

50. I was in the second grade too

But in a public school in Colorado. I remember them playing the radio over the school PA there as well.

[ailsagirl]

139. I was at a Catholic school, pleased that it was Friday

When one of the nuns came into the classroom and, in great distress, told us.

[Glorfindel]

7. I was 17, working at a part-time job. We heard it on the radio

I left work and went home to be with my grandfather, who was 86, in fragile health, and a huge Kennedy fan and supporter (so was I, naturally).

[glowing]

8. I wasn't born either.

[Edweird]

9. I'm 37. Your guess is as good as mine....

[mmonk]

10. At home I believe.

I remember the announcement on TV.

[FarLeftRage]

11. I was at a friend's house

after we had gotten out from kindergarden for that afternoon...

His mother was crying, he was crying and I went home to find my mother was crying too.

[MrMickeysMom]

101. Damn, your presidential poster is good!!! eom

[slackmaster]

13. At home, sitting on the floor, watching TV with my mom while she ironed clothes

I remember it too well.

:(

[tularetom]

14. I was in an engineering lab class at Cal

with a wife and 2 day old daughter in the hospital. We tried to get the prof to cancel the class but he wouldn't and I had to wait 2 hours before I could go over to the hospital. When I got there she knew nothing about the assassination.

[shadowknows69]

15. In a previous life I don't remember

[Raven]

16. I was 17 and at school. They sent us home. My parents were going

to a White House dinner that following Monday. My mother had gone into town to pick up her gown. When I got home, she was sitting at the breakfast table crying and the gown was in a lump on the kitchen floor.

[zanne]

17. I was in sixth grade. It was recess.

I went to a Catholic school to boot. The nuns came out and called us back into class. Then they told us and everybody started crying. We all sat there, speechless and lost for about an hour and then we were sent home.

When my father came home that day, he said "You never know when your time is up". He died two weeks later.

[pacalo]

155. How tragic!

:hug: from another sixth-grader at the time.

[remember2000forever]

18. My Grandmother died the same day, so it was a double whammy when my parents picked me up from school

[TNDemo]

19. Home sick from second grade.

A friend from school called and told me. I guess my mother didn't want to.

[ccharles000]

20. not born yet

[DFW]

21. I was in school in Washington, DC

My first year at the once-again-in-the-news Sidwell Friends on Wisconsin Avenue.
We were in Friday afternoon assembly, and someone had come in to get Joe Kennedy
and his younger brother, Bobby Jr. and whisked them away. No one knew why. When
it was over, I took a bus downtown to my father's office in the National Press
Building at 14th and F Streets. I saw tabloids screaming "JFK SLAIN" but as I
couldn't conceive of the possibility, I just thought it was more tabloid sensationalism.
Even at age 11, being the son of a seasoned Washington journalist, I knew all about
them. I never dreamed it could be for real. When I got up to my Dad's office, he was
very worked up and constantly on the phone, but this was nothing unusual, so I
waited until he hung up and then told him about the crazy headline I had seen in
the tabloid in the lobby. I was stunned when he told me it was true.

[wellstone dem]

162. Very interesting child's eye view of history, close up. Thanks.

[ThomWV]

22. High School History Class, Wheaton, Maryland

[MineralMan]

24. On my way to a Bio 101 lecture...

in my freshman year at college. I heard it on the TV in the dorm's common room. I went to the class, and announced the news. It was one of those huge survey classes, taught in an auditorium. The prof immediately dismissed the class, and we all went to watch the news.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. I was in 7th grade Social Studies class in a school in Brooklyn, NY. I lived in Queens but it was

the closest school for a special program I was in.

I was just 12 years old, celebrating my 12th birthday 5 days earlier.

The Principal came into the classroom and whispered something in my teacher's ear. The teacher looked upset. I see this scene so vividly in my mind's eye, as if it just happened yesterday.

The Principal left, and my teacher told us that the President was shot and that we were to go home early.

I don't think any of us on the bus ride home thought that he was going to die, or at least, none of us voiced it.

When I reached home, my Mom had the tv on and President Kennedy was dead.

The tv stayed on for days.

[nuxvomica]

26. I was in third grade. First the teacher announced he'd been shot

Then she announced he'd died. I remember hearing that a girl in another class had laughed about what happened and also that Sister Perpetuous, who was Boston Irish Catholic, was inconsolable. I figured she must've been friends with the Kennedys because she talked about them all the time.
A few days later I was watching TV in the living room alone and shouted out to my mom in the kitchen that someone had just punched Oswald in the stomach. I was surprised that everyone was so upset about that considering he was the "bad guy". It was my first impression that things weren't so black and white in the world.

[Nay]

27. I was in 7th grade Florida geography class when we found out he had been

shot. Lots of kids were crying. I don't remember if they let us out early. When I got home, my mom was crying. It was a pretty awful day.

[Cirque du So-What]

28. I was in 4th Grade

The report was relayed to our teacher, who told the class. I don't recall her actually saying the words, but I remember the reaction from my classmates, some of whom began sobbing quietly.

In what I recall as the last instance of 'newsboys' hawking papers, I encountered one at a busy intersection that afternoon on the way home from school. I gave the older, late-adolescent boy my 5¢ and took home the special edition that was rushed far & wide. I felt that the ruthless efficiency with which VP Johnson was sworn in (on the same plane in which President Kennedy's body was traveling AND with his widow by Johnson's side) was somewhat ghoulish.

[Frustratedlady]

29. I had just pulled in to a lane at the bank's teller window...

The teller kept asking if she could help me, but I couldn't say anything. I finally told her that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas and continued to listen to the report and relay the information to her. I couldn't believe it, because I had just watched their arrival and beginning of the parade before I left home. They had been OK at that point. I couldn't believe he was gone in that short time. Well, we didn't know for sure, but knew in our hearts he was gone.

I had little kids and I remember walking around all day in a daze. My husband taught school and they released everyone as soon as it was announced that President Kennedy was gone. It was like someone shut off the switch to the world. No cars on the streets, no people going about their business, no activity at all, except for what little we had to do. The rest of the time was spent in front of the TV.

Then, the capture of LHO and the shooting. It was so bizarre, you couldn't make sense of any of it. The funeral, and those little children...the same age as ours. I hope we never see another in our lifetime.

[underpants]

37. My mother tells me that she was a teacher at the time

the Principal came to each class room and told the teacher that school would be letting out in a short period of time

she didn't believe it she thought it was some sick joke

It wasn't until she got home that she realized that it was real

She had the same reaction watching Oswald get shot. She thought initially that it was pro-wrestling or something.

[YvonneCa]

145. "It was like someone shut off the switch to the world"...

...your words are exactly what I remember, too.

[Mari333]

30. 6th grade english class.

sitting in the back of the classroom. teacher came in and told us.
later on that week, i wrote a poem (i was only like 11 yrs old, remember) and sent it to the white house to help poor Jackie Kennedy feel better. the white house sent back a thank you card.
heres the poem i wrote when i was in 6th grade. i felt so bad for mrs kennedy

'A man who loves his country, a man who was widely known
has given his life for our nation, and that wonderful life was his own
a life, a life of freedom for the country he loves best
and now hes gone, God took his soul,
to his eternal rest

Now that this young Lincoln
has shown us all his love
his soul will lie restfully
in that wonderful kingdom above

and when the dawn rises over the hill
we will almost look and see
that wonderful man that we all loved
John F Kennedy,,,'


remember, i was only in 6th grade.

[Frustratedlady]

35. Well, even for an adult, that is great!

I hope you never find the need to write another of the same subject.

[graywarrior]

31. 9th grade english class

[kdmorris]

32. Not born yet

I wouldn't come along until just a few months before the moon landing. I don't remember man landing on the moon, either...

[Trajan]

33. I was also in the Second grade ....

At Saint Francis De Sales School in Lodi NJ ....

In the classroom, we were watching something educational, perhaps on NYC PBS, when Nuns came into the room and speaking in frantic but hushed tones .... Some seemed to be crying ...

The teacher came to the front of the class, turned off the TV, and then told us that the President had been shot in Dallas, but he was still alive and had been whisked to a hospital. They asked us to pray for the President ...

They then turned the radio on, with the regular school day now over, and we listened to the various reports and rumors as they came in ... (I thought it was on TV, but now understand there was no TV coverage on the East Coast until 1:42 PM) ...

We were eventually sent home, where I was glued to the TV set for what seemed like a week .... I watched Huntley Brinkley report the death, as well as Cronkite's stunning report. Overall, my parents let me stay up late and watch the coverage with them or alone until it was over, some four days ....

I watched as Air Force One landed with the body of the President in a casket, and the cortege surrounding the casket as it was removed : Bobby, Jackie, Lyndon Johnson ...

I watched the first speech by LBJ, which was such a depressing event knowing that that old uninspiring man was to take the place of the very dynamic and energetic JFK, whom our family adored.

I watched as Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and paraded before news cameras at the Dallas PD ...

I watched as Oswald was being transferred from the department garage ...

I watched as a furtive Jack Ruby slid along the side of the crowd to get into position ...

I watched as Oswald was shot to death on live TV ....

I was absolutely stunned, a seven year old watching wide-eyed and mouth agape as the man who shot the President of the United States was executed on live television .... and the shooter wrestled to the ground and arrested .....

Wow ..... The whole ordeal was a week long introduction for a young boy to the awful nature of mankind, and the viciousness of political hatred ...

The music of the funeral march is still transfixed in my head .... forlorn, sad, and heroic ...

I don't think I stopped watching until the flag was folded and given to Jackie, and the eternal flame was lit, with Bobby, Teddy, and Jackie all simply broken if still stoic, and the TV cameras finally being turned off at the grave site .....

It was an extraordinary and awful experience ....

I loved JFK even at age 7 ....

[AllieB]

34. Not born yet.

But my parents remember where they were. My mom was pregnant with my older sister and at work at RCA. My dad was at work also.

[NRaleighLiberal]

36. Seven years old and watching it all unfold on TV. Dumbstruck.

Or at least that is how I remember it. Hard to know if it is in fact what I was specifically doing on the day...or it could be that it was a few days afterward, watching the funeral procession on TV. I do remember my parents being in shock about it.

[boobooday]

38. Sucking a baby bottle

2 months old.

[morillon]

39. I was 7 months old, so I had no idea what was going on. n/t

[Golden Raisin]

40. In class in High School.

Our Principal announced the news over the loudspeaker in a shaken voice. We were dismissed and sent home. What I remember the most was the silence, other than crying, of the students in the halls as we were packing up to go home. Absolutely none of the typical sounds of a high school corridor filled with teenage students between classes. No locker doors slamming. No boisterous laughter. No fooling around. Nothing but hushed, shocked silence except for those who were crying.

[ollierozzie]

41. algebra class

The kid across the aisle was happy about it--republican insanity isn't new.
In my devoutly democratic family the TV didn't go off for days. My parents wept--and we're Norwegian, and just didn't happen.

[doc03]

46. I was in 10th grade 6th period Biology when they announced

he had been shot and in 7th period Geometry when they announced he was dead. Same here I remember a Repugs kid saying they finally killed the SOB. The Repug hate for any Democrat is nothing new. My mother said even when FDR died she can remember an old Repug women say the SOB probably poisoned himself.

[rtassi]

42. 3rd grader home sick from school because of the flu ... watched it on TV

[newfie11]

43. 10th grade at Morgan Hill California.

We were all dismissed from school.

[Lebam in LA]

44. Mrs. Stocks 8th Grade Social Studies Class

Our principal, Mr Zacker came into each classroom and told us, then sent us home.

[MrMickeysMom]

60. What a good way of handling it.

I remember names, ways of (in my case, my teacher, Mrs. Calhoun, and her "under-reaction")

The way things were handled spilled over to my "under-reaction" until many years later. Too many years later.

We still haven't reacted. It's a blip in today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette under the Almanac.

:hi:

[Lancer]

45. Turn on the TV. They've shot Jack.

Frustratedlady has it right:

It was like someone shut off the switch to the world.

I was three but remember it clearly. Watching my mom ironing (like someone else upthread) and playing with my little brother. We didn't have the TV on. My father, who was an editor at the local newspaper called Mom sometime around 1:45 and just said, "Turn on the TV. They've shot Jack."

My mother sat in front of the TV, cradling my little brother and stroking my hair all afternoon. My parents stayed up all night I think. Dad went into work Saturday and wrote an editorial about JFK. The TV stayed on until Monday. It was just so awful.

I think many Americans had similar emotions on 9/11. Even seeing horrible things as they happened, it was still so hard to believe. I remember Dad saying that when he went downtown to the office that the streets had never been so quiet. There was almost no one on the streets, and all the stores were closed.

P.S. -- the poem the poster who was 11 at the time wrote was beautiful.

[eowyn_of_rohan]

131. Look at how many of us remembering our moms ironing

interesting they chose to iron that day... suppose it kept them closer to the TV than other chores...

[geckosfeet]

47. In my third grade catholic school classroom - they rounded us up and

had the whole student body in the church and made the announcement. Then the buses came and took us home.

[Bobcat]

48. Nov. 22, 1963

I was in high school - a Catholic high school. We were in religion class and it was our turn to have mass that Friday. A girl came into the back of the chapel crying and when a priest went over to ask her what was wrong she blurted " they shot President Kennedy and they think he is dead".
The entire school was in shock. It began a terribly long and difficult weekend.

[PinkTiger]

49. I was 13 and in the eighth grade.

We heard it on the radio and at 1:30 (central) they had an assembly at school and let us go home. It was surreal.

[codjh9]

51. I was 5 years old, and my parents (my dad was a political science professor!) were very

upset, but I was too young to 'get it'.

[leftchick]

52. I was in Kindergarten class at Our Lady of Lourdes

An announcement came over the intercom from our principal in the early afternoon and everyone was let out of school early. When I got home my Mother was crying. I really did not comprehend the horror until a few days later as I watched his funeral procession on tv. Then I cried too. It was so very tragic.

:(


The riderless horse brought it all into focus for me.

[Trajan]

100. The funeral march was haunting ...

I remember how long it was ... just a tremendous outpouring of quiet grief in all directions as the cortege moved through the streets ... It was a heartbreaking sight, and coupled with the ethereal Chopin funeral dirge, was simply otherworldly for me ....

[MsLeopard]

53. 8th Grade in a suburb of DC

They let us out of school early and I went home to the first time I can remember that TV coverage was 24/7 about this one thing. That Sunday my mother took a friend and me to the capitol to see the lying in state. She dropped us off and on the way home heard on the radio that there were thousands and thousands of people there, so she thought, "What have I done, they'll be there all night."

In the meantime, my friend and I climbed on a statue across from the capitol entrance and watched the coffin and Jackie and the kids arrive. Then we got in line and were in and out in an hour. When I called my mom to come get us she couldn't believe it, but she was really relieved.

It was quite a time and I've always felt like a little part of history to be fortunate enough to pay my respects to JFK in the rotunda.

[MrMickeysMom]

54. It had barley been a year since my father died, in my 5th grade class

Someone came in and exclaimed, "somebody shot President Kennedy!" Our old hag of a teacher tried to underact, which set the scene for the rest of the day.

The rest of the day was in slow motion. My mom picked me up from school, watching for my interest and finally asked if I heard. I had no base from which to react. People died. My world was about to change.

The House Select Committee on Assassinations said the cause was unknown and admitted as much a cover-up.

What kind of cover up and why? Unanswered to this day, I don't care if you were born before or after. We still have not faced what can happen to those people who can bring about positive change.

I'm amazed there are folks who still chastise here for the lies and omissions within the Warren Commission's report.

Still wonder?

Check out the MANY, MANY archived interviews sometime today that are nicely archived on http://www.blackopradio.com/

[LWolf]

55. I was either at home

or at the babysitters, if my mom was at work.

I was 3. I don't remember.

[madrchsod]

57. walking through my high school cafeteria on the way to lunch

never forget that day....

[Iwillnevergiveup]

58. On my way to class at Iowa U.

I never made it. :cry:

[Greybnk48]

59. I was a sophomore in High School (15 y/o), home sick.

I was actually faking. My family lived on the second floor of a two story building, with our family business on the first. With the threat of having to go to school having passed, I offered to go down and clean and get the place ready to open for my dad. When I got down there I popped on the radio and within a few minutes there was breaking news that the President had been shot in Dallas and was rushed to a hospital.

I ran upstairs to tell my parents and I was crying so hard I couldn't get my breath; couldn't talk. When I finally told them they lost it. My dad was yelling "the dirty bastards" over and over and my mom was crying. We put on the tv and for the next several days that is all that was on. We watched Lee Harvey Oswald shot on live t.v.; we watched the President lying in state and thousands coming to see him; and little Caroline and John John and the famous salute John John gave his dad.

It sickens me to think of it.

[Whoa_Nelly]

61. 4th grade, in school in choir class (Oklahoma City)

The priest (it was an Episcopalian school)came into the choir room, and told us the President had been shot. Then, near the end of the class time, he came back in and said, "The President is dead. Return to your classrooms. There will be chapel in about 10 minutes." We were all crying.

...and it was my parent's anniversary.

My dad was a very red Oklahoman Republican who hated Kennedy.
They had dinner plans with friends, and went out that night.
There's more to that side of their story on that night,
and what was going on (not pretty), but not worth getting into here.

I remember being in shock, scared, and very sad.

Then, Ruby shot Oswald, and the whole thing that was already crazy got really bizarre, almost surrealistic.

I was 9. For some reason at that early age, I really admired Kennedy, had been participating in the President's Fitness Program, and thought that First Family was the best. I was probably already a Dem in the making.

I remember loving to read about them/look at their photos in Look, Life and The Saturday Evening Post magazines. I was really torn up about the whole assassination, and worried about Jackie and the kids. The televised funeral was heart wrenching.

[bikebloke]

62. Third grade coming home from school.

After getting off the school bus, some little kid was yelling, "Kennedy was shot. Kennedy was shot". So Iwent up to our flat and teh teevee was one.

[Inkyfuzzbottom]

63. I was 4 years old...

I was sick with the flu and laying in my parents bed. My mother had brought our little black and white portable tv into the bedroom for me to watch while she was doing stuff around the house. I remember it came on the tv, my mother heard it and came rushing in the bedroom and started crying. I didn't fully understand what had happened, but from my mother's reaction I knew it was bad.

[Steerpike_Denver]

64. I was busy developing fingerprints

I was born 19 days later, on December 11

[man4allcats]

65. I was just about to leave the school cafeteria en route

to my 6th period algebra class. I recall hearing some random comments among other students - something about the president had been hurt. Shortly after I entered that 1:00pm class, the principal made an announcement over the school's public address system that the president had been shot in Dallas but that the details were not then known. Thirty minutes later, the PA system again crackled to life, and the principal announced that President John F. Kennedy was dead. I was fifteen years old. Whatever naivete may have possessed me up to that point vanished in an instant.

RIP, President Kennedy. :patriot:

[11 Bravo]

66. 8th grade English class waiting for my Dad to pick me up for a dentist's appointment.

He had a little Triumph Spitfire with no radio. I met him out in front of the school, told him what had happened, and we FLEW to the dentist's office. The dentist told us that JFK had died, and that he would be unable to fill my cavity just then. I've always felt guilty about the little tingle of glee I felt because I didn't have to get drilled on that day.

[hermetic]

67. San Francisco, PX

I was 15 and my dad was in the Navy. Our family had just gotten off the plane after returning from 3 years on Guam.

They announced over the intercom that the base was going into Code Red (or something) and that all civilians were to leave the base. Mom and us kids went to a motel. I remember the entire city pretty much shut down for several days.

I also remember people saying it was the beginning of the end.

[norepubsin08]

69. I was in 1st grade in a Roman Catholic School

When the announcement was made, we dropped everything and filed into the Church to go to a special Mass to pray for the President and his family and then we were dismissed for the day. I was on the West Coast...we got the announcement at about 11:15...Mass was over by 12:30 and they sent us home. Those whose parents could come and picked them up, were picked up..others car pooled and others walked, and a bus was called in. They would never do that now-liability and all... can you imagine what would have happened to the school if something would have happened to one of those first graders walking home. My trek was a little over a mile with two busy streets to cross. When I got home the TV was and it stayed that way from about 7 in the morning til 11 at night for the rest of the weekend and Monday.

[WillyT]

70. I Was In The 3rd Grade...

in Sacramento, CA.

Walked home for lunch, found the TV on, and my mom laying on the couch crying uncontrollably.

[emad]

71. I was at my parents home having dinner with my lovely godmother

Bess Wallace Truman when the news broke on the radio.

I was five, going on six years old and pretty much in awe of my 'Aunt Bess'.

We were to have had Thanksgiving with her and the Truman clan that week and I'd been primed for weeks by my Mom and Dad for a few days of 'best behavior'.

I remember some officials calling and whisking Bess away just as the news pictures came on the TV.

I've a photo somewhere of her that day taken with a little Brownie 127 that she'd given me for my previous birthday.

Everyone was crying, my Mom's mascara all smudged up and my Dad looking like he'd seen a ghost.

[Regret My New Name]

72. I dunno, but some of my pontential older siblings were stains on my dad's sheets.

[Bluenorthwest]

73. I was very young.

But the TV was on, Mom watching on the sofa, I was on the floor. They broke in with news, and the news guy, must have been Cronkeit, came on and he had this look and before he said a word Mom stood up and said "Oh dear Lord" and then the guy said what he had to say. Mom sat down. I stood up and went to the window, to watch for my Dad to come home. To me, that was the real news, that Dads of kids like me, 'casue Jon Jon was about my age, and I had his haircut and all of that, it meant that something awful could happen to your Dad while he was at work. It happend to Jon's Dad, whom my parets called 'Jack' although his name was John, and I waited at the window till Dad came home with red eyes and every afternoon I waited at the window freaked out for him to come home. There was nothing else to be done, for all the world was sad, and even my beloved Felix the Cat could not show his cartoon face for a week. Later that week, I remember asking my Mom what a 'casket' was and she told me. I stood in the living room and saltued when Jon Jon saluted his Dad. Caroline was too little to do that. Jon Jon had to do it for both of them. That's what I thought when Caroline stepped up for Obama. She's taking her spot, now that she's old enough. It's funny, but that is exactly what I thought, now that she's old enough.

[Mz Pip]

74. 9th grade Spanish class

The annoucement came over the intercom.

[MercutioATC]

75. 4 years from being born.

My memory of that day is a little hazy...

[GreenPartyVoter]

76. Not here yet.

[XOKCowboy]

77. Mrs. Howard's Class 3rd Grade Skiatook OK

It came over the school PA and I remember the shock on Mrs. Howard's face. A little later they dismissed school early. I remember seeing some teachers crying as I was leaving...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

78. At my sister's house, on leave from the marines.

Glued to the TV.

[goforit]

79. I was three and had just moved from the US to Bogota, Colombia with my family.

One of my earliest memories. We had no TV but listen to it on the radio.
But, I knew as a three yearold would sense an impending doom.
And here his murderer made it all the way to the WH.

[Jack Rabbit]

80. El Dorado Elementary School, Stockton, California

We came in from recess at 11 am. The teacher, Mr. Chance, announced to the class "President Kennedy has been shot."

[Hissyspit]

81. No memory of the event. One year, two months old. nt

[Gregorian]

82. 3rd grade. School closed up. I came home to a mother crying in front of the tv.

I now wonder just how many schools didn't shut for the day. I was in Palo Alto, which was very liberal, being in the shadow of Stanford university.

[Paladin]

83. 8th Grade, Lamar Jr. High, Austin, TX (n/t)

[petepillow]

84. i was negative fifteen.

But my parents sat around (separately, as they hadn't met yet) the TV for many hours and days anxiously following along.

[rosesaylavee]

85. I don't remember as I was too little

I do remember watching the funeral with my entire family and everyone was crying. One of my earliest memories.

[goddess40]

99. 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.

[rosesaylavee]

159. Yeah. I was four.

I remember seeing John John and thinking he looked like my age and why was he there, etc. No clue at the time why everyone was crying.

[boozepusher]

86. I wasn't born yet.

I visited Dealey plaza last year and the area is much smaller than I had assumed. The whole thing became more "real" to me standing feet away from where Kennedy was shot looking up at the window the shots came from.

[jellen]

87. 45 years ago

45 yrs. ago I was at home in Milwaukee,thinking of starting to do Christmas shopping. A friend came over to the house to tell us about it. Obviously, the tv was off.

[RushIsRot]

89. I was 22 and in the Army at Ft. Bliss, TX in electronics training.

[medeak]

91. home for lunch watching Uncle Walter give the news 5th grade

even then was news maniac...walked home to watch the noon news. All alone and crying. My Dad called from work to comfort me.

[needledriver]

92. Third grade. Sparkill Elementary School

A stunned teacher came into the class with the news.

School was cancelled for the day.

We got on the yellow buses to go home.

To my nine year old horror, many of the kids were jumping up and down on the bus seats chanting:

PRESIDENT KEN-E-DEE IS DEAD!
PRESIDENT KEN-E-DEE IS DEAD!

Now we have kids chanting "Assassinate Obama".

How far we've come...

[MrMickeysMom]

108. That's quite strange

and I'm not sure where you hear the chants now-a-days, but I know we've come farther than that.

Where do you live?

[needledriver]

158. Oh, I don't hear the chants myself.

I'm responding to the DU threads about public anti-Obama violent rhetoric.

Burbank, CA.

[bobd0]

93. I was in 8th grade algebra class.

There were no "middle schools" in 1963. Everything was K-12 then off to high school. We began changing classrooms for subjects in eighth grade as we would do the next year in high school. Our homeroom teacher, Mrs. Spaits, came into our algebra class and whispered something in our algebra teacher, Mrs. Giordano's, ear. She was visibly shaken and turned as white as a sheet. They just looked at each other for a moment. I'll never forget the expressions on their faces. Mrs. Spaits left the room and Mrs. Giordano did her best to compose herself and finish algebra class.

We all learned immediately after school. The news spread like wildfire before we walked even the few short blocks home.

Just about everyone went straight home. There weren't many kids out playing that weekend. This was long before the internet or even cable news, of course. All we had were the major networks, ABC, NBC, and CBS, a couple of local stations, radio, and newspapers. We sat in front of the TV watching every newscast in silent and utter disbelief until the funeral. The world changed that day and it's never been the same since. And then, in a few short years, Martin and Bobby.

Anyone who tells you these were all the acts of lone gunmen is either taking you for a complete fool if you believe them or you know they are liars if you don't.

[puerco-bellies]

94. I was 5 years old, I don't remember the day of the assassination.

I do remember crying while watching the funeral.

[FredStembottom]

97. First Grade.

The Principal announced it on the PA - rather quietly and slowly. We were all sent home early (a mother in every home and a short walk away in those days).
My Mom was watching details on the big Motorola console stereo/TV.

I was just young enough to not quite "get it". I knew who was President but only in a memorized-for-school kind of way. I had no memory of Eisenhower or the election that brought JFK in.

Of course, things were so very different. I had lots of time to begin to understand what was happening because TV didn't try to shock people back then. NOW, that awful film of him getting hit would be on all the channels 2 minutes later..... traumatizing millions of children into a lifetime of scared inaction.

[Terry in Austin]

98. In high school

I was on stage crew, and we were setting up for a school assembly when we got word over the PA.

[lumberjack_jeff]

102. Playpen. Just learning to stand. n/t

[mcg]

103. Second grade,

the principal announced it over the PA. I let out a nervous laugh and wondered why I laughed. A classmate misinterpreted my "laugh" and angrily said that his father was friends with or worked for Kennedy (I don't remember which). I was very confused, I didn't understand enough to tell him it was a nervous laugh. I think they let us out of school shortly after.

My next memory is seeing my father sitting in front of the TV watching the funeral and crying. I saw standing to his left.

My parents were avid Kennedy supporters. I remember seeing Kennedy while he campaigned. We were in the back of the hall. Lots of energy.

Edited to add:

Now I vaguely remember finding out later that Kennedy died. It feels like I'm getting in touch with a suppressed memory. I don't like remembering this, it was awful. A pall hung over everyone.

[BR_Parkway]

104. In my dad's boxer's as best I can tell. Shortly to be let out a couple

weeks later to begin my initial "survival of the fittest" test.

Apparently, I passed

[Critters2]

105. I was sitting on the floor, playing with dolls, as my mom ironed and watched her "stories".

It was a really rainy day in Davenport, IA, a cold rain. So my sister and I were playing indoors. I was 5, and would start kindergarten the next fall. My brother was at school, and it was just a quiet afternoon, with my mom doing housework. All of a sudden, the news broke into her soap. I remember her just standing there, frozen as she listened. I didn't know what had happened, but I knew it was serious. To this day, I can't ignore "breaking news" on TV--even though the 24 hour news cycle sees every little stupid thing as "breaking news". To me, "breaking news" should be something important...for me it meant the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK.

[RedLetterRev]

106. I was in first grade

I remember the sobs of the teachers echoing down the halls of the old county school where my mother had attended. I hear those echoes in my mind as if it were just this morning, it was such an eerie, out-of-place sound.

I remember the confusion and my classmates crying when we saw our teacher break down. I remember the face of my future second-grade teacher running with tears as she and my teacher comforted one another. I can still hear the voice of our principal, Mr Roberson, usually strong and firm, coming over the PA broken and shaken to announce that school was letting out. I can still feel the confusion in the hallway, with us little kids being put on to the "big kids'" buses and the drivers not knowing where to let us off. I remember everyone's state of shock; even we little kids could feel that something was terribly, terribly wrong.

I remember my grandmother quietly crying as she ironed clothes, and the added confusion I felt knowing that she was a woman who never cried over anything. It seemed like forever that the TV flickered with black-and-white images of the caisson and the horse with the boot turned upside-down in the stirrup. I wondered how long they were going to parade the poor man around -- I didn't understand then how much he was loved and what he meant. At the time, it seemed to me as if some private pain of his family's were being trod upon. I didn't realize then how much national pain was being expressed.

Right now, I feel hot tears interfering with my typing, thinking of things I haven't felt since then, with 45 years of perspective and understanding of what we lost. That national pain is still very real.

[Diclotican]

107. underpants

underpants

Was not born yet, i would be more than a decade before I was coming into the light...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language.

[proud2BlibKansan]

109. In 5th grade

We had the day off of school for parent teacher conferences. It was a Friday. Our school had an after school bowling league and since we had the day off of school, our league bowled all morning. We were just about done and ready to go home when one of the kids in 7th grade went from lane to lane telling us the president had been killed. He was the school clown so we all thought he was kidding. It wasn't until we got home and turned on the TV that we found out it was true.

All I remember of the next 3 days was being glued to the TV and all the grownups were crying.

[rhett o rick]

111. If you remember the '60's you weren't there. nm

[annabanana]

119. Idiot.. 1963 was still the 50's. . . n/t

[rhett o rick]

121. Maybe you smoked too many of those bananas. Peace sister. nm

[eowyn_of_rohan]

133. that's right.

and something that only those who remember those days seem to know.

[DainBramaged]

122. Want to bet

I smoked my first joint at 11. My first date was with a Barbara Sturdy at 8. I remember Cousin Bruce introducing the Beatles on WABC in NYC. I learned to drive in 1966.


Want more?

[rhett o rick]

124. Are you sure you aren't hullucinating? nm

[DainBramaged]

129. Not since my last 28 day continuous window pane trip...........

:evilgrin:

[rhett o rick]

141. Welcome back. nm

[DainBramaged]

151. That was in 1973

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

123. lol! I do remember the 60s quite well, even if the latter part of it was

covered with marijuana haze. I never did anything stronger.

They just did a study of old rats, and it seems that marijuana improves their memory!

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=aRiIRLxtgAcE

A Puff-a-Day Marijuana Dose Helped Older Rats Remember (Update1)

By Rob Waters
Enlarge Image/Details

Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- A daily puff of a compound like marijuana, the plant blamed for ruining potheads' recall, might help maintain memory in old age, researchers who tried it on rats reported today at a neuroscience meeting.

Elderly rats remembered their way around a swimming pool and could find hidden resting spots after Yannick Marchalant and his colleagues at Ohio State University gave them a compound that mimics the effect of marijuana on the brain's cannabis receptors. The marijuana-like drug, known as WIN-55212-2, spurred new brain cell growth and reduced inflammation, the researchers said.

Inflammation in the brain may be linked to the development or progression of Alzheimer's, a progressive disease that destroys brain cells, disrupting the memory and cognitive capacity of some 4.5 million Americans, some scientists believe. Marchalant and his colleagues have been hunting for drugs to reduce inflammation.

continued at above link!

[rhett o rick]

126. I think a joint or six might slow the onset of degenerative republicanism also. nm

[rhett o rick]

127. I stole the quote from a friend that dropped acid in the day. He said once he laid on his

living room floor for a long time and his girlfriend told him she thought he was dead. He said he worried for two years about the possibility that he was actually dead. He works with the homeless in Portland now.

[Blue_In_AK]

114. Mrs. McCafferty's 1:00 English class.

I was a senior at South Houston High School and we had just come back from lunch when the announcement came over the PA that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Our teacher was crying, we were all shocked speechless. Kennedy had just been in Houston the day before. The next few days are a blur of television images and tears. That's one of the saddest periods of my life. Innocence lost.

[azmouse]

115. I was only 2 years old.

Probably playing with a doll. :shrug:

[BurtWorm]

116. I was 4 years old and I don't remember the assassination

but I do remember seeing the caisson with the casket on TV during the funeral and understanding that something big and bad had happened.

[treestar]

146. I'm your age

I also only vaguely remember the black and white TV coverage.

I did hear about it a lot growing up, though. My parents talked about where they were and how loved JFK was.

[DainBramaged]

117. I was in school on the playground when our teacher came out

to gather us all up. Mr. Boccolo, my 8th grade teacher was visibly upset, and then when we were back in class the announcement was made over the loudspeaker. Within just a few minutes, our parents started to show up at school (I am starting to cry as I type this). I lived a block away but my Mom (who is 92 and still sharp as an ice pick) was there waiting for me crying her eyes out. She had taught me about Democracy, and why we were Democrats. She said enemies of our way of life were trying to take away our freedom, and they weren't from Russia. I will never forget that day as long as I live.

I still wonder today how different the world would have been if John, Martin and Bobby had lived.

[annabanana]

118. 3 Days before my 14th birthday

William Diamond Jr. High School Lexington Mass.

Rumors were swirling around in the afternoon. There was no official announcement until homeroom at the end of the school day. I dismissed them at first, but became more and more alarmed as I watched the faces of my teachers that afternoon. Despite the New England stiff upperlip I could see they were distressed. The Kennedys were OURS, after all. We always had one of the brothers in our April 19th day Parade.

After the PA made the announcement, school was dismissed. Kids whose "at home Moms" had cars of their own came to pick them up. It was a tearful, quiet walk the 1/2 mile to my house with the other girl who lived on my block...

[upi402]

120. Talking my mother into beleiving me

that Kennedy had been shot. Back then it was untihinkable.

Now- I pray Obama doesn't get in small planes, doesn't trust the SS or FBI as a SOLE defense, and is surrounded by trusted family and friends 24 hrs a day for 4 to 8 years.

imho; Clintonistas are not his friends.
y tu Brutus?

[The River]

125. Miss Clevelands

10th grade English class in suburban D.C.
She started crying when it came over the PA.
Mostly we were just stunned.
The rest of the day is a blank.

[undeterred]

128. I was in the second grade and we heard about the shooting

during the lunch hour when I was at home. Before they let us in for afternoon class all the kids were talking about it, and I remember somebody saying, "he's a dead duck".

We had a young teacher, maybe 22 or 23, and she went and got a radio and plugged it in for us to listen at 1:00pm when they were announcing that JFK had died. My teacher said "This afternoon is history, children". She sat at her desk and wept while we listened to the radio for over an hour.

It was a serious way to handle a serious occasion. We were all stone silent, and I remember the feeling to this day. At 7 you don't know what a big deal it is- but the way she handled it made it last forever in my memory.

[alterfurz]

132. in the one phys ed hour of the year devoted to "hygiene"...

...which is what they used to call sex education. Coach was nervously trying to explain the facts to embarrassed 16-year old boys when the announcement came over the P.A. That ended the discussion, and Coach never again returned to the topic. Which may explain certain subsequent aspects of my sex life.

[emilyg]

134. At Ft. Dix .

[hyphenate]

135. In school

They sent us all home. My best friend's mom was crying. I can't remember many other details--I was seven years old.

[Tuesday_Morning]

136. Kindergarten...

We were sent home. The adults were all crying. I'd never seen an adult cry before. The sky was gray. I thought I should be very quiet.

[ladjf]

137. Ann Arbor, MI U of M. Orchestra rehearsal. nt

[roguevalley]

138. I was in school and my teacher came in crying. That would be the

equivalent of a teacher coming in stark naked now. You could have dropped a pin in the room. She said that the President was shot and we were closing the schools. I was terrified. I thought it meant that the world was ending. Truly. I thought earth was over. It was the worst three days of my life at the time and in the top three now.

It was unbelievable how quiet the town was. All the adults around were frightened. No one spoke too loud and everyone was frozen to the tv. Then Oswald was shot on tv. That was UNBELIEVABLE.

I also remember a dickhead classmate saying that if Kennedy survived he'd be re-elected due to the sympathy vote. I still hate her. Zana, I still hate you.

[Liberal Gramma]

143. I was at work in a bank

no radio, no TV at work. We got the news from customers who came in, shocked, to say the President had been shot. The next day all businesses were closed, schools were closed, and we all sat in front of the TV watching the tragic story unfold. It was a bad day for America.

[YvonneCa]

144. In school. Our teachers were all crying and they told us...

...that President Kennedy had been shot and that school was closing and our parents would be coming to pick us up. I was 13 years old. I remember it was SO sad, and it seemed everyone around me was crying. As the story unfolded, it only got worse. People...across the board...supported Jackie, Caroline and John-John. As sad as the country was, they were the ones who needed to be cared for.

I think, years afterward, many of us still feel that way about Caroline Kennedy...protective.

[jaysunb]

147. Prof DiNunzios boring World History lecture

They announced it over the PA system. I can still remember feeling very afraid....

[AngryAmish]

148. A dirty thought in my father's mind.

[jaysunb]

149. There seems to be a lot of "old" people here @ DU

:rofl: yes, I included myself in that bunch !

[YvonneCa]

165. Why, I ...

...NEVER !!! :7 Depends on your definition of 'old.' ;)

[noel711]

150. High school study hall in the cafeteria....

(stupid warehousing of students who have no classes at certain times..
do they still do that?)

A kid named Bob Munz walked up to our table and announced:
"hey, the president's been shot!"

Bob was a joker; no one believed him, we blew him off.

Bob was right.

[EFerrari]

153. On a playground watching our nuns huddle and cry.

It was as if the Earth had stopped.

[blaze]

154. I remember my teacher crying

I was in third grade.

But another post (in another thread, I think) brought back a visceral memory... that of the clop, clop, clop of the horses hooves as the funeral procession proceeded to the cemetery. Even typing the words... I can hear it. Eerie.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

156. I was 10 years old and in sixth grade.

We had just returned to school after lunch. It was about 12:40 CDT and one of the girl's in my class was late coming in from lunch and told the nun, Sister Malachy RSM, that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Well of course Sister Malachy didn't believe her and began berating her in front of the entire class, just then the principal of our school, came over the PA system and told all of us that we were all going over to the parish church to pray for President Kennedy.

We all marched over to the church and started saying the Rosary and then one of the priests told us that President Kennedy was dead and we were all to go straight home.

My grandmother was at home when I got there and she was crying inconsolably. My mom arrived about an hour later and she was in tears as well. I remember my brother Tom was watching the TV in the front room. I also remember it began raining that afternoon, a cold, damp rain. When my father arrived home at his usual time 5:00 pm, he wasn't really upset. But I think he was putting on a strong front for me. I was totally freaked out and the first question I asked him when he came home was "Daddy, why did Lyndon Johnson have John Kennedy killed?" At the time he pooh-poohed my question, but he told me in later years that my question still bothered him. He didn't buy the Warren Commission Report at all.

I remember watching the television non-stop for the next three days. Grainy black and white pictures. I remember seeing DeGaulle of France and Eamonn DeValera from Ireland at the funeral. I remember how stoic Jackie Kennedy was. She was amazing during that time.

I remember it all, like it happened yesterday. 45 years ago today I lost my innocence.

[tbyg52]

157. 4th grade in a podunk town, in the gym watching a movie

There wasn't even a movie theatre in our town, so we all saw one in the gym on Fridays, I thought. It just occurred to me I don't know the day of the week it happened.

Some kid had snuck in a radio, apparently, and the word got passed down the rows in the dark.

Eventually it got to the teachers, and they stopped the movie, said a few words, and sent us home.

I put up our Christmas tree that year while watching the funeral. It was a terrible thing for a kid. The world was all bright and shiny, like I imagine it is for kids now, and it just stopped.

[lib_wit_it]

160. In second grade in Schenectady, New York when the principal announced over the PA that JFK was dead.

That was some serious sad shit, even though I was too young to really know why.

[wellstone dem]

161. I was in 2nd grade in Catholic school in line to go to the bathroom

Steven Hanson told us that his father had called and the president had been shot. We called him a liar. It was my dad's birthday. Even now we always talk about the assassination on this day

My parents bought our first TV set so that we could watch the funeral.

[trayfoot]

163. I was in 9th grade English class when they made the announcement.

[texanwitch]

164. I just turned 10 years old and I was at home sick with a cold.

I was watching a game show and the news came on that our president had been shot.

Everything came to a stop then for 3 days.

Everybody was crying, and the country was never the same again.

[hlthe2b]

166. I usually post in these annual threads, but missed this one...

Kindergarten in Lee's Summit, Missouri--five years old

Despite being so young, I remember it well. We were told the President had been shot by the teacher and immediately sent to recess. A poignant comment on the day: all the 4 and 5 year olds decided it must have been the new-- somewhat creepy-- janitor at the school. Of course given the conspiracy theories since that day, we probably weren't so horribly out of step, rather, just a bit ahead of the crowd... :shrug:

But, it has always disturbed me that George HW Bush claims not to remember where he was on that day. I was 5 years old, for God's sakes and I remember clearly...