O. T. Where were you when you heard?

[paulsdad]

Where were you and what were you doing when you heard about the JFK assassination?

I was in the 5th grade, just coming back into the school after finishing my afternoon "safety patrol" duty.

[Celtoid]

I was in seventh grade in a small town in Maine, and the bus driver told us on the way home from school. I remember the driver's name, what the mini-bus looked like, what the weather was on that day. Odd. I will probably remember 9/11 the same way.

[Walden]

My mother had just turned ten, and my father was still nine years old. They were in school. I wasn't born yet.

[Wombat]

I was a schoolboy at the time. I seem to remember being in the crowd at a major cricket match at the time the news broke.

[The Weekenders]

Like Paulsdad, I was in school but on the West Coast, so I was sitting in the lunchroom, when the very sour-faced Mrs. Lord came into the room, for once, genuinely devoid of her "control" persona and seemingly vulnerable. I think someone, the Principal or maybe her, blurted it out over the PA. I remember looking at everybody and not knowing how we were supposed to react. Kids do that, seeking clues.

The word "assassination" actually dominated my thoughts for at least a week if not a month. Such a big, important, deadly word that upset people so. Everything seems grainy about that event, like the newsprint and the early low-quality video broadcasts of those days. I guess most folks still had black and white TVs, adding to that sensation.

[cowtime]

Paulsdad,

I too was in 5th grade. In the gym doing the folk dance lessons thing(my favorite in gym next to basketball). Our principal announced it over the intercom and we got to go home early.

I spent the next few days watching TV, saw Oswald shot, and watching my grandaddy kill and butcher hogs(something I'd never seen before). I don't know which was more memorable- (I still remember how he "stuck" the pig to bleed it out after he'd shot it).

[Walden]

Like Paulsdad, I was in school but on the West Coast, so I was sitting in the lunchroom, when the very sour-faced Mrs. Lord came into the room, for once, genuinely devoid of her "control" persona and seemingly vulnerable. I think someone, the Principal or maybe her, blurted it out over the PA. I remember looking at everybody and not knowing how we were supposed to react. Kids do that, seeking clues.

I was in the school lunchroom when I heard of the Space Shuttle exploding. Kids started telling it in the lunch line. I didn't believe it. This was the first Space Shuttle that exploded. That afternoon, they set up a television set in our classroom, and all the other classes in the school came in, and we spent the afternoon watching replays of the thing exploding over and over on the news.

Some months later, when we were on our way to the Philippines for the first time, we visited a military cemetery on Oahu, and saw the flower-covered grave of one of those astronauts.

[Ridseard]

I was a graduate student at Rice Univ. living in an efficiency apartment in Houston. I had been studying, but I needed to get some groceries, so I hopped on my bike (too poor for a car) and rode to Butera's grocery store. When I got inside the store, they had a radio tuned to a local station covering the tragedy.

[Switchfoot]

I was but a gleam in my fathers eye

[Redwolf]

I was born in 1961, so I was just a wee one at the time. There are other events that seem crystalized in the same way in my mind...the explosion of Challenger, 9/11, the explosion of Columbia...but I'm afraid I was too young to remember the assassination of JFK.

Redwolf

[Zubivka]

Could I forget?

I wear short trousers, those long gray flannel English style which sting my thighs and I hate them. But I'm ok, with my 9th birthday in a couple days.

It's the evening in Paris, and my Mom brought me to a concert at the Palais des Sports. Ironically, it's the Choirs and Dances of the Red Army--they were a big hit in that time, and did an impressive show.

It is already past the intermission.

A man walks on the scene in the mid of a song, hands a paper to the conductor. The music stops, and a man turns to us for an announcement. I don't remember for sure whether he's French or has a Russian accent. He slowly tells in a few words that, in Dallas, Texas, at such and such time, the President of the United States of America, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, was mortally shot.
The theatre is packed. It was deadly silent from the start of this interruption and I don't know what word triggers a single, long, moaning sigh. Then we immediately stand up, while the Soviets start playing the American Hymn.

The evening mood is ruined. I don't really understand what it's all about, but sense most grown-ups are gloomy.

After that I don't remember exactly. The next images I conjure are from a black and white TV. There's that kid doing a military salute before a coffin. Also, a confused, dark, indoors scene where Jack Ruby kills Lee Oswald.

I've seen some find it good fashion to diss "Camelot" in the US, but here JFK was the best ambassador America ever had.

[SteveK]

I was in a surplus depot near Huntsville, Alabama. I was buying surplus equipment from the space program. Mainly electro-mechinal or electronic equipment such as relays, stepping switches, etc. There was a small black and white TV in the depot-probably an item of surplus. A guy who was working there just kept shaking his head and saying "what a terrible day". My colleage and I drove back to Tuscaloosa in total misery.

Steve

[blackhawk]

Where were you and what were you doing when you heard about the JFK assassination?

I was in Dallas, on a grassy knoll...

Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?

[waitingame]

I was in a Southdown Bus office in the Carfax in Horsham, Sussex, UK and the world suddenly seemed a sadder place.

[pthouron]

I've seen some find it good fashion to diss "Camelot" in the US, but here JFK was the best ambassador America ever had.

I agree wholeheartedly. I was in France too, at the time. Five years old, so it didn't mean much that was understandable for me at the time, except that my parents were very upset. And I do remember watching the funeral on a black&white TV set, with neighbors who did not own a TV and were crowding our living room.