JFK: November 22, 1963. My recollection...

[CurtEastPoint]

His death affected me greatly. I was 13 and can remember every bit of it as if it were yesterday. I hope I will never see a nation have to mourn as it did back then. RIP, Jack.

[AndyA]

1. I was a toddler at the time, and the memories of 11/22/63 are among my first.

I remember being in the den, when the neighbor lady from next door came over. She was crying. We had a television in the den, so my Mom and the neighbor came in and turned it on. They both sat there, watching it, in silence.

I knew something was wrong, but of course I was too small to understand what was going on.

Eventually, my Mom decided that perhaps it wasn't best to have the television on in the same room where I could see it, so they moved into the living room to watch, and I was relocated to a sitting area off to the side, where I could be seen but I couldn't see the television.

I remember not much was said, I think everyone was in shock. They just sat there watching the TV in silence.

Later, when I was old enough to realize what was going on at the time, I was thankful to at least have some recollection of that day.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. I was 10, in 5th grade

It was the first time I saw my mother cry. Also the first prejudice I encountered directed at me. We had a loopy neighbor who kept referring to JFK as "YOUR president". "I don't understand why they killed YOUR president" Because we were Catholic.

[dflprincess]

23. I was also 10 and in 5th grade

For me, it was the first and only time I ever saw my dad cry. It was also the first time I put on a tinfoil hat. When Oswald was shot I heard my dad say to my mom "Someone doesn't want him to talk."

We were living out east then and came back to Minnesota for a big family Thanksgiving that year (JFK's funeral was on the Monday right before Thanksgiving). Our Thanksgiving Dinner turned into to huge Irish wake. I think my Grandmother was the only adult who was not drinking and, not that my parents or aunts and uncles, were teetotalers, but I had never seen any of them act so goofy before. I really didn't know what was wrong with them or why my grandma got so annoyed trying to get them to the table.

[Graybeard]

3. I was in the Army Hospital, Ft. Gordon, GA.

I had been injured in Basic Training and was in a wheelchair. A cousin had sent me a large box of home-made cookies she baked for my birthday and I was passing them around to the guys in the ward.

The show that was on the TV was interrupted with a graphic that said,
** BULLETIN BULLETIN BULLETIN **

We watched it all happen the next few days. Johnson sworn in. Oswald captured and murdered. The funeral in DC.

[icee2]

4. "Time has blurred our memories, words have stilled our feelings,...

but we remember the man and the day, and feel a muted sorrow."

Harvard Crimson, 11-22-64

[goclark]

5. I was walking across the campus at USC

All of a sudden time stood still and all of us were crying and hugging each other for support.

We were hugging students we didn't even know.

I can still feel the day and the sadness and the tears.:cry:

[icee2]

7. I was in the library at Roanoke College reading the Look magazine

article about JFK which featured the famous cover photo of JFK jr. playing under his father's desk. I walked out of the library and crossed the street and noticed people going into the student union building. I asked why and someone told me what had happened and
that they were going there to watch TV coverage.

When I went home to Norfolk, I was shocked that my stepfather said things like, "good, they got the SOB communist."

[goclark]

13. It still remains one of my strongest memories

Still feel like crying.

[madamesilverspurs]

6. It was terrifying.

I was in high school, and the memories remain vivid. Hallways full of people, all stunned, many crying, some sobbing loudly, but no one was talking. At home my very Republican father burst into tears, the only time I ever saw him do so.

---

[oswaldactedalone]

8. I was in third grade at a Catholic school

just a few minutes before my Mom was scheduled to pick me up to take me to the Doctor. I was having a cast removed following a broken ankle injury from six weeks before. The Nun had been called out of the classroom just as we were changing subjects. She came back in and said we should pray for President Kennedy as he had just been shot.

No one at that moment knew how severe the injuries were. While driving to the Doctor, the announcement came on the radio that the President was dead. Needless to say, Mom and I were shocked and the Nurses and staff in the office were quite upset.

[Fly by night]

9. Ninth grade at Notre Dame High School in Chattanooga ...

Our Algebra teacher got called out into the hall in the middle of class. When she returned, she was so shaken and crying so hard that she could not continue the class.

As I remember, the principal closed the school after that period. Many of us walked down the block to the cathedral to pray. Even though the news was less than two hours old, the church was packed -- standing room only.

Like lots of others, I was also up watching Sunday morning TV when Ruby killed Oswald. Quite a horrific sight for a 14 year old.

Our country (and the world) has never been the same since.

[peacefreak]

10. 7th grade. Catholic school

We were rehearsing a Thanksgiving play when a nun came in & said we should pray for someone important. We were released from school after they told us it was the President. I remember walking home & everyone was in shock. I got home just in time to see Walter Cronkite announce that the President had just died. I'll never forget him taking off his glasses & wiping his eyes. He was just as affected as we all were.

[rasputin1952]

11. I was in school in NYC when we heard of the tragedy...

Several things happened.

We were all stunned into silence, there was some sobbing and many a teary eye. Our principle brought a TV into the room, and we watched in horrified silence as the news was given to us...Walter Cronkite, the announcement, the glasses coming of, the glance at the clock...the awful feeling that this was happening.

Parents were called to pick up kids, my younger brother and I took the NYC bus home, it was the only time in NY that i could ever recall when it was completely silent...absolute silence, it was eerie.

Upon arriving home, my mom was sobbing, my dad had tears in his eyes...both were Republicans, but this senseless death left them stunned and they, like everyone else, wanted answers.

The TV was on all day/night, we heard of a "Lee Oswald" being caught, and marveled at how quickly the Dallas PD responded to the murder of the president and Officer Tippet and caught "the perpetrator." Then we saw the Oswald press conference, he looked like a little man, and shocked us that he could possibly have committed the crime. Then came one of the most telling moments...when asked about the murder of the president, Oswald looked shocked when told he was charged with the crime...even as a youth, i could tell by the body language that he was truly shocked it had come to this. From there on in, I have thought that there was a cover-up of some kind. The only things I knew were facts were that the president was dead, Johnson was now the president and Connelly was wounded.

To this day, I believe there is more to that day than the "official" version of events.

We saw Oswald shot, on live TV; and with that, the full story would never come out. Ruby played mind games till he died from cancer...what really brought these events together, I hope to find out in my lifetime.

[Cha]

16. Thanks for that recollection..it's good

to remember what we went through and not just shove it down the rabbit hole.

I was driving along the road in Phoenix, Arizona and heard it on the radio on the way to my Mom's house in Tempe and had to pull off the side of the road. I was 19 and didn't know a thing but that I was totally devasted by the unfathomable tragedy.

[rasputin1952]

18. Oddly, that week for history we were talking about assassinations...

and how they almost always end in tragedy. One exception, TR taking the reins after McKinley was assassinated. McKinley was popular, but a staid Republican, TR on the other hand was boundless in energy and ideas.

Assassinations and assassination attempts have brought may a war and devastation in the world. We were lucky, Johnson thought it was a plot from the Communists, cooler heads prevailed and calmed him down.

It was a horrendous loss...I felt bad when Reagan got shot, and was relieved when Ford survived the attempts on his life. Truman was a target as well, I respect Truman immensely, he came down to help the guard outside of Blair House and check out the situation.

Lincoln's death changed the entire attitude for Reconstruction, the "malice toward none, and charity for all" gave way to a situation that kept the South in poverty until the advent of WWII.

Living through an assassination is a horrid thing, one always asks "what if...", and there are no answers forthcoming. JFK's assassination was essentially a coup, there were massive changes after his death...sadly, we'll never know if his ideas would have worked...:(

One other thing, when Jackie was asked if she'd like to change out of the pink outfit, she refused, "let them see what they have done", was her answer. I'm thankful for that, because that pink outfit, and the black veiled outfit stand out as testaments to man's cruelty and nearsightedness. John-John and his salute, hearts broke all over the world.

[Cha]

20. ..

:cry:

[Lugnut]

12. I was 18.

RIP Pres. Kennedy. :(

[CTyankee]

14. I was 22, a young mom, living in Greenwich Village. My husband called from his office

to tell me to turn on the TV. At first, I hoped he had just been wounded as I couldn't believe that anyone could get off a shot so close to the President. I thought it was just some random crazy wandering around waving a pistol.

The days that followed were among the most incredible in my life. Bobby's death was pretty rough and then, when JFK, Jr. disappeared and his wife's bags washed up on the beach at Martha's Vineyard I was shaking my head in disbelief. I remember thinking "I feel like I've gone through my entire life watching Kennedy's die..."

[trof]

26. Interesting. I was 22 also.

I was a brand new 2nd Lt. in USAF pilot training in Oklahoma.
The whole base went on lockdown for a few days.

[CTyankee]

27. I guess that puts us in some kind of "club." Funny how time has treated the Kennedy assassination.

So many of course were either too young or not even born when he was shot. Yet to me it is as clear as if it were yesterday...

[Inspired]

15. I turned 5 years old on November 22, 1963.

What a crappy thing to happen on your birthday.

[pink-o]

21. Well, I hope your 51st is a good one!

Happy b'day!!

[Inspired]

24. It was a good one! Thank you.

[tledford]

17. I was walking home (four blocks) from school, 2nd grade...

...in Franklinton, NC. One of my friends came running up to me and yelled "The President has been shot!" and I assumed he was full of shit, he pulled shit like that all the time. Got home to find my mother kneeling on the living room floor (she was re-upholstering the dining chairs) with the television on, crying. I don't think I really believed it until the evening news came on and they were still talking about it.

[Garam_Masala]

19. I had just started my first job when the news was announced over

over the office intercom. Actually there were 2 announcements.
First said the president was shot and rushed to a hospital.
Half hour later it said the president had died.

I remember it clearly how we all reacted.
Only one person in my 100 man office was jubilant, the rest of us
were in a state of shock.

I was glued to the TV for many days after that until the final
broadcast of the funeral. I still remember little John John
standing at attention and saluting the president's casket, and
that horse without a rider depicting fallen commander in chief.

It was the saddest moment in American history in my lifetime.

[pink-o]

22. I was in the 3rd grade and the principle announced it over the PA

With today's standard of PC and sensitivity, that seems shockingly callous. And I remember my teacher, who was a young, just-married woman with a nice temperament, throwing her book and weeping with her head on the desk. We were numb: we knew we should be sad, but we were a little too young to understand the depth of it.

I did come to understand, 5 years later when I was 13, and MLK and RFK were killed within 2 months of each other. I had just figured out the horror of Vietnam, and the polarization of "the older generation" against the youth. I hated Nixon from the get-go, knew his running platform of "getting us out of Vietnam" was a big fucking lie, (kids have great bullshit detectors) and was sickened but not surprised when I heard about Cambodia and Laos in 1971.

I can't help thinking that if Kennedy had lived and been re-elected in '64 how different it all would have been. Would we have the progressive country that we dream about every day on DU? Or would JFK have succumbed to the darker forces, like Clinton (and probably Obama, but it's too early to tell)?

[Thothmes]

25. If I remember correctly

Was in my 10:00 typing class as a sophmore in High School. Sometime after the class had started, the secretary entered the room and gave Mr. Negron
a note, then left. He call for all of us to stop our practice drill and read the note that the President had been shot in Dallas Texas. We did not go back to work, needless to say. Seem about an hour later or so that there was an announcement over the PA system that the President had died. Remember a lot of students and some of the school faculty with tears in their eyes. Another announcement a short time later said that school would dismiss at 1 pm for the day.

[RepublicanElephant]

28. k&r nt

[TrogL]

29. I was in class - a teacher came to the door looking upset

Then they brought in a TV set so we could watch developments.

[LibDemAlways]

30. I was 11 years old. School was out that day for parent-teacher

conferences, and I was on a camping trip with my girl scout troop. When the bus arrived at the campground, one of the girls noticed the flag at half staff and asked the park ranger who welcomed us what was going on. He explained that the President had been shot and killed. I wanted to go home and watch the events unfolding. Even then I knew I was missing out on witnessing history. The trip proceeded as planned, and I didn't get back until Sunday. My dad met the returning bus and asked me if I'd heard the news.

Monday, the day of the funeral, was a day of national mourning, and schools were closed. When we returned on Tuesday, I remember my teacher, Mrs. Horn, saying that that was a terrible reason for an extra day off.

Amazing how much of that I still remember very clearly. Made a huge impression.