JFK assassination

missy · Post by **missy** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:01 am

I was 5, and home from kindergarten by the time it happened. I do recall watching the funeral on TV (and a relative that had a statue of "John-John" saluting).

brewerpaul · Post by **brewerpaul** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:03 am

I'm 55 and I was in art class. An announcement came over the PA that the President had been shot, and a while later they announced that he had died. We were all sent home early. I had always thought that Presidents being assasinated was something that only happened a long time ago before we got civilized...

SteveShaw · Post by **SteveShaw** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 7:32 am

I was 12 and I was watching a news magazine programme on the telly in my home in Radcliffe, Manchester at the time. It was early evening and I distinctly recall the presenter suddenly shuffling paper and saying that he'd just received a newsflash to say that President Kennedy had been shot and injured and that he'd update us as soon as more news came in.

Steve

Tyghress · Post by **Tyghress** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 8:15 am

I'm 48. . .I have no recollection of the event at all.

Random notes · Post by **Random notes** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 8:47 am

I'm 52 now; at the time, I was eleven and in the hospital right after an appendectomy. The TV was always on, and I remember seeing it on the news. I hobbled out into the hall holding my stitches and yelled "The President's been shot!" The nurses just looked at me stunned for a moment, so I yelled it again and they all crowded into my room to watch the rest of the bulletin.

I was home for the next week or so and the TV had nothing but commentators and shots of the President lying in state the whole time.

Roger

(P.S. - Lamby is not 6 - she's 26. Trust me.)

susnfx · Post by **susnfx** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 9:09 am

I'm 52 and I believe I was home sick watching tv when the news bulletins started. I recall only one specific news report during the next day or so of watching non-stop: when told of the President's death, a classroom of elementary school children in Texas cheered. I've never forgotten that. I'm as appalled at that today as I was when I heard it all those years ago.

Susan

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 10:31 am

RandomNotes wrote:P.S. - Lamby is not 6 - she's 26. Trust me.

When you're cute and woolly you can get away with that sort of thing.

djm

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 12:31 pm

Joseph E. Smith wrote:I was crawling around on the living room floor in front of the TV, when I noticed my mother gasp and sit down on the sofa. I am 43.

Good toddler memory JES. I'll be 44 in a few days, and have no recollection of it, but I did watch the space walk, and was in a college drawing class when they announced John Lennon's death on the radio.

jim stone · Post by **jim stone** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 2:27 pm

I'm 63. I was on a civil rights picket line in California.
It was an extremely unpleasant day.

jbarter · Post by **jbarter** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:41 pm

I was 8 at the time. I was at the cinema with my mother (can't remember the film) and the manager flashed up a hand written notice saying that the president had been assassinated. He was so flustered that he first put the message on upside down and everyone was twisting their heads trying to read it. We all left the cinema expecting Candid Camera to be there and it took us all quite a while to realise that it was actually true.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 3:49 pm

I'm 63. I was sitting in a Mandarin class at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA. Our homeroom supervisor walked into the classroom, told us what had happened, and then told us to go back to the barracks.

We were all stunned. A couple of friends and I sat around on our bunks with our guitars, singing "White House Blues" (about the assassination of President McKinley).

We were given several days off, so we went to a civilian friend's house in nearby Pacific Grove. We played a lot of music, but the TV was on all the time, mostly running the same news over and over.

We slept on the sofa, and in big overstuffed arm chairs. I think someone went out occasionally to get hamburgers and cokes. At some point, we were watching a live broadcast of Oswald being brought out of the jail, and saw Jack Ruby walk up and shoot him. We were stunned again.

I remember that one of the things that disgusted me most was hearing that elementary school children in Dallas had cheered on hearing of the assassination. Now I live within spitting distance of Dallas.

dwinterfield · Post by **dwinterfield** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 4:40 pm

I'm 57. I was a sophmore at Boston College High School in history class. First there was an announcement that he's been shot. A little later, I was in chemistry class when the PA said he'd died. We were sent home. For me that meant the mid afternoon commuter train. Because it was mid afternoon, it was one "Bud-liner" car. It was absolutely jammed because most Boston businesses closed early. I road in the front compartment with the driver (and probably 30 other people in a 6X8 space.) There was absolute silence.

Whole family glued to the tube all weekend. Watched as Oswald was shot. It was one of the first world-wide, real time shared experiences because of TV.

Daniel_Bingamon · Post by **Daniel_Bingamon** » Sat Nov 26, 2005 9:59 pm

Just short of 2 years old at the time. I don't think I even knew what a President was.

amar · Post by **amar** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 3:14 am

Half of me was in my mom's ovary, the other half not yet produced.
I'm 39.

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:43 am

emmline wrote:
Joseph E. Smith wrote:I was crawling around on the living room floor in front of the TV, when I noticed my mother gasp and sit down on the sofa. I am 43.
Good toddler memory JES. I'll be 44 in a few days, and have no recollection of it, but I did watch the space walk, and was in a college drawing class when they announced John Lennon's death on the radio.

It is amazing what memories I have. I didn't know who JFK was, or why he was killed. But I did know my mommy was very upset.

I was doing homework the evening when the news hit the radio waves Lennon had been shot. I wore a black armband to school the next day, and my history teacher asked me what it was for. I told him, and he asked me who John Lennon was.... I found that an amazingly ironic question from a (then) 40-something man.

He must have grown up listening to polkas on the Iron Range.