They Say That Everybody Remembers Where They Were, When They Heard About The Shots In Dallas, So...

[WillyT]

If you are old enough to remember... where were you?

Me... I walked home from Alice Birney Elementary School (I was in the 3rd Grade) for lunch, to find my mother sprawled across the couch sobbing uncontrollably. I asked here what was wrong, and she just pointed to our B & W Zenith TV...

We sat glued to that TV for the next four days.

:shrug:

You?

[TheCowsCameHome]

1. Driving to work,

through a very busy city intersection. The light turned green, but most traffic stopped and drivers got out of their cars and began talking with one-another in disbelief.

At my place of work, we had a rebel from North Carolina who had stated several times previously "If Kennedy and I went into the woods hunting, only one of us would come back out"

That afternoon, at the start of our shift, one co-worker grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him up against a wall and stuck his finger in face and said "Not one fucking word out of you today, do you understand me?"

It was a bad day.

[csziggy]

2. I was in fifth grade. They called us all to the cafetria to watch the coverage

Until the principal sent everyone home. The cafeteria was the only place our school had a TV. That same year they had brought us in to watch the World Series and those two things are forever joined in my memory.

[The Straight Story]

3. I'm not, was born in '65. But my mom told me what she was doing

She was in downtown Columbus buying a freezer. That freezer ran until about 4 years ago.

[49jim]

4. I was a freshman in

Long Beach NY middle school. (grades 7-9) I heard about it in 7th period "shop" class. (Wood shop) The teacher had a radio in the room. It was announced by the school principal during the 8th period.

[Fumesucker]

5. Ninth grade, home sick from school laying in front of the TV on the couch..

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

6. 8th grade, North Junior High, Colorado Springs

I was coming back from lunch and was supposed to go to science class but we were told to go to a large study hall where we were told the shocking news over the intercom. One of the worst days of my life.

[Blue_In_AK]

60. Hey, I went to North Junior High in Colorado Springs!

I was there in 1958 for seventh grade. They built Horace Mann the next year which is where I finished out junior high.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. 5th grade. We were off school that day due to parent teacher conferences.

We had a Friday bowling league and that Friday, since there was no school, we went bowling in the morning. We were just about finished and some of the kids were leaving to get on the bus when Steve Allen, a kid who was ALWAYS in trouble, started yelling that the president was dead. I didn't believe him because he was always kidding around. So we got on the bus to come back to school and a few kids were talking about it but most of us didn't believe Steve. It was when I got home that I finally found out what had happened.

The next 3 days we sat and watched TV nonstop. And that was unusual back then, since there were only 3 channels and no channel was on the air for 24 hours daily. I was watching when Ruby shot Oswald.

I remember seeing my mom cry and that upset me since I had never seen her cry before.

We didn't have school that Monday. We sat in front of the TV all day.

We also had a neighbor who was a bitch and she made a nasty comment to my sister and I, who were Catholics, something about "YOUR president" being dead. I asked my parents why she wouldn't consider JFK HER president too.

Just a lot of really sad memories. And the beginning of LOTS of unanswered questions.

[deminks]

8. 5th grade. Just walked back to school from lunch. Teacher came in and told us.

[Major Hogwash]

9. I heard all 4 shots.

There were some people who said they heard 3, but that's because 2 of them were fired so close in time to each other that they sounded like just 1.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Demeter]

10. School library, 3rd grade

looking for fairy tales.

[tularetom]

12. Walking out of an engineering materials lab at Cal

Getting ready to drive to Alta Bates Hospital and see my 1 day old daughter.

[WCGreen]

13. second grade at St. Clemens school.....

As you can guess, there was a lot of praying and crying.

I remember that day in Black and White...

[RagAss]

28. .

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Not born yet

:hi:

But at ten I read Death of a President.

[annabanana]

15. William Diamond Junior High School, Lexington Massachusetts

He was one of ours, in Massachusetts. Everything came to a complete halt. Rumors had been circulating through the afternoon. We got the news "officially" over the PA System during closing Homeroom. Most fell into a kind of silent shock.

[bigmonkey]

55. I was at the Bridge Elementary School in Lexington, MA.

They sent us home without a word. When I got home my Mom told me, and I didn't believe her until I heard it on the radio myself. I remember leaning toward the radio to listen closely. We also spent the next days watching the TV.

[MADem]

16. I was in Europe. We didn't have a televison.

The neighbor did, though, and we spent a bit of time over there. The coverage was pretty remarkable--there was quite a bit of mourning going on across the pond as well.

[Gman]

17. At lunch recess in 4th grade

[Booster]

18. It was my 21st birthday & had gone to lunch w/my best friend.

[onethatcares]

19. fourth grade, St. Margarets Parochial School

Reading PA. my emotions made me giggle, got my ass chewed out by the nun. Went home and watched it all unfold in black and white.

I always wondered how they figured it was Lee Harvey Oswald and that he was in the movie theater in Dallas. I watched as Jack Ruby shot Oswald too.

[HockeyMom]

20. My 15th Birthday

in Sophomore Geometry Class when it came over the PA in Catholic school. My Mom had started making me a birthday cake, but when I got home from school (early) the pots and pans were all over the kitchen and she was crying in front of the TV.

In so many ways, I will, and can't, ever forget it.

[graywarrior]

21. 9th grade English class

[Joe Bacon]

22. Third grade, Fourth Ward School, Ambridge PA

2:33 PM, we were released from school. Frank the Custodian adjusted the flag to fly half staff. He was crying...

Mom and Dad in tears when I opened the door.

[prairierose]

23. 4 th grade..we came in from recess....

and the principal announced it over the intercom. They played radio news over the intercom for a time and then sent us all home. I will always remember the horror and grief. We spent several days glued to tv watching all of the coverage.

[Brigid]

24. I was in kindergarten.

I was in the morning class. I think I remember my mother talking about it when I came in from the school bus.

[williesgirl]

25. At work (1st job) when switchboard operator started crying. Friend called her to tell her

the news. We couldn't get to a radio fast enough (no TV's at work). Everyone was crying. Our CEO closed the company the day of the funeral so everyone could watch or pay respects in their own way.

[lib2DaBone]

26. It wasn't the Mafia who killed Kennedy....

..it was the same "one percenters" who are in charge all these years later.

Kennedy was going to issue money WITHOUT the FED.

The Fed profits from constant war.. The FED had Kennedy snuffed.. plain and simple.. it was an inside job.


Kill Kennedy Cover up and lies
Attack the USS LIberty Cover up and lies
Gulf of Tonkin Cover up and lies
OKC Bombing Cover up and lies
911 Cover up and lies
Iraq Cover up and lies
Afghanistan Covr up and lies

etc,etc,etc,etc

[BiggJawn]

27. Poppy Bush said he dosen't remember where he was...

Yeah, like he was going to say "I was in Dallas, standing in a storm sewer catch basin, with an M-1 Garand rifle, chambered in 6.5mm Carcano, waiting for a limo..."

[kath]

34. Yep - perhaps the ONLY person over the age of 5 or so that day who doesn't remember..

veddy interesting...

[musette_sf]

36. ...

[Homer Wells]

29. I was in Study Hall

in the 10th grade at Robinson High school in Tampa, Fla.
Announcement was given to us by Mr. Bustello and school was dismissed for the day.
I was so pissed off by the school later as they and one other school went and had the normal Friday night football game.
The rest of the schools in the city cancelled their games!
Still makes me see red after all these years.

[CherokeeDem]

30. Never forget it....

In the library, I remember when one of the teachers came to the door,she was crying, and motioned the librarian to the door. The librarian returned crying and a few minutes later, we were all summoned to the auditorium where the principle told us that the President had been shot. They were sending us home and within about fifteen minutes, my Mom arrived. We went home and were there in time to see Walter Cronkite announce the President was dead. I was stunned...as everyone, my parents and I were glued to the TV for the next several days. I remember watching when Ruby killed Oswald...it was horrifying. The funeral...I cried through the entire funeral. It was so sad then, and still sad now.

[RagAss]

31. 5 years old...shopping with my mother after school at Korvettes....

Oddly enough, I bought my first toy gun that day....it shot styrofoam balls.

Upon exiting the store a woman in a red kerchief came up to us crying...and blurted out the news. "They killed Kennedy !"

[txwhitedove]

32. In 8th grade Chorus. They put the radio on intercom and we listened to

the news for a long time, went through ups and downs of "he's dead", "no, it's not confirmed", until it was finally horribly confirmed.

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. I was in Third Grade sitting at my desk when our teacher walked in crying.

She told us what happened, the principle walked in a few minutes later and we were all dismissed to go home. When I got home, my mom was crying hysterically. It was a day I will NEVER forget. :(

[libinnyandia]

35. I was in Mrs Kloster's 9th grade English class. I was helping my

brother build a fence when I heard about Robert Kennedy.

[JDPriestly]

37. I was in college observing a high school class in order to fulfill

requirements for an education course. The teacher seemed very confused about what happened. Everyone cried. I was stunned and simply could not believe that what I was hearing was true.

I and our entire nation lost our innocence on November 22, 1963.

Nothing has ever been the same since.

The trust has never been regained.

Corruption today is greater than ever.

Although he championed human rights and Medicare, Johnson could not live up to Kennedy's charisma and could not win the trust and love of the people.

Kennedy's assassination lead to a conservative takeover of the country. If it wasn't a conservative coup, it certainly had the effect of a conservative coup.

We have never been the same.

What a loss.

[Graybeard]

38. U.S. Army hospital, Ft. Gordon, GA

I was in a wheelchair sharing a box of cookies sent from home for my birthday. The TV was on in the ward and the screen suddenly showed -

BULLETIN/BULLETIN/BULLETIN

Everyone returned to their beds and we watched the most unforgettable history unfold all that week-end and the weeks to come. The terrible news of JFK's death, LBJ takes the oath, the DC Funeral, the murder of Oswald.

[SteveG]

39. Sitting in a Doctor's office

I was in 8th grade in a new school, and had been in a fistfight in the locker room that morning. The phys ed teacher didn't get there until it was over, and everyone supported my story that I had slipped, knocked off my opponents glasses and landed on the floor with my right hand breaking the fall. (He started it, and we both wore glasses). Later in the morning my hand began to swell badly, I was sent to the nurse, who took one look at it and called my mom to come and take me to get it X rayed. I was sitting in the waiting room for the doctor to do the X-Ray when the news came over the radio. I remember the details of that day more clearly than just about any other day in my life. I also remember watching Lee Harvey Oswald being killed by Jack Ruby on TV as it happened.

[RebelOne]

40. I was at home with my infant son.

My uncle, who was a trucker, stopped by to tell me the news. I didn't have the TV on, but then turned it on and got the news.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

41. 2nd Grade. I'd brought my transistor radio for Show+Tell.

The tea.chers huddled in the hallway listening to it. Our teacher eventually walked back into the room and said "Students. President Kennedy is dead." We didn't understand fully but knew something horrible had happened. We were sent home soon and our (mostly stay-at-home) mothers explained it to us.

[msedano]

42. college freshman...

November 22, 1963

QEPD JFK.

I overslept that morning, skipping Zoology 1A. Freshman year ambiente in Sequoia Hall, Casitas dorms overlooking the Goleta swamp, was hazardous to early morning class attendance. Radio news blared down the hallway, the disquieting narrative slowly intruding on the dream. Dallas. Kennedy. Kennedy. Kennedy has been shot.

I stride two doors down to the day room where Walter Cronkite reports soberly on the color t.v. Shot... sped away...the hospital. No news.

The professor walks into the Chemistry 1A lecture hall, sets down his briefcase, looks up at the seated amphitheatre, asks, "Is he dead yet?" and begins the day's lecture on Boyle's law, or whatever.

When the class exits onto the plaza, its thorny coral trees blaze their red blossoms or should have, and drip spent blossoms on the shoulders of sobbing coeds who lean onto one another's shoulders for comfort. Kennedy is dead. Ask not...the bell tolls for Camelot.

Half my dorm flunked out that first semester. Some joined right away; we heard others had been drafted to go off to JFK's war in Vietnam. My roommate flew helicopters. I wonder about Kaufman, Sterling, Tony the debater who was so eager to go.

http://labloga.blogspot.com/2011/11/where-were-you-reading-your-stuff-aloud.html

[JimWis]

43. My first year in Technical School, I was probably 19, I walked

back to my apartment for lunch and my roommates told me what happened. At first I said - "yea, sure". But then found out it was for real.

[jimlup]

44. I was 5 er eh had just turned 6...

I heard the news when my dad came home from work (he came home early that day but I didn't know that then) and he told us that the president had been shot and killed. He was quite shaken by it. Though even I knew it was a big deal - I was too young to realize the full gravity of the situation.

[Obamanaut]

45. Working on the flight line, Eglin AFB, Fla. nt

[SnohoDem]

46. Second Grade, Shreveport, LA

We had some sort of local phone system, sort of like an intercom, so we had wall phones in the classrooms. Our phone rang, the teacher answered it, and started crying. She hung up, told us what happened, and school was dismissed.

Ahhh - northern Louisiana - it's almost East Texas! There were little pricks on the school bus chanting, 'The n***er lover's dead! He got shot in the head!' Even as a seven year old I found that disgusting. I had no strong emotional reaction to Kennedy's death - it just wasn't relevant to my life - but I couldn't believe someone would celebrate it.

[SheilaT]

47. I was in high school,

and when I got out of my fourth period class (French), my best friend was there and told me. A lot of kids carried transister radios to school in those days.

My mother would have been one of the last people in the country to hear. She never watched TV in the daytime, and we had no telephone at the time. She was a nurse, and when she got to the hospital at 3pm, she was completely floored by the news, because by that time he'd been dead for several hours and Air Force One was on its way back to Washington.

I did once have someone tell me that his family was on a camping trip that weekend. They left Friday morning, got back sometime Monday. I can't begin to imagine how weird that must have been.

Oh, and Walter Cronkite was broadcast in black and white back then, so it's interesting that someone remembers it as being in color. There were very, very few shows in color back then, certainly not the news. The entire four days of coverage was totally in black and white. I remember several months later seeing color photos of the funeral, and they looked so odd.

[phylny]

48. I was in my Kindergarten class. Our teacher, Miss Kenny,

was listening to a red transistor radio, crying.

I remember watching the funeral on TV as well.

[marlakay]

49. Second grade they lowered the flag and

My parents both cried...everyone was sad for a long time...then we got excited about his brother only to have him get killed to crushed everyone's spirit.

[Critters2]

50. I was 5, not yet in school. It was pouring rain outside, so I was playing with dolls

in our family room. My mom was watching TV and ironing, when they broke in with the news. My mom just kind of fell into a chair, and began to tear up.

I remember watching the funeral, especially the riderless horse. That made a real impression on me.

[hamsterjill]

73. There's something about that horse, isn't there?

Even on the clips that I see today, that horse has always made an impression on me!

[WildNovember]

51. At school. I remember. Everything stopped and we listened on the radio.

It was scary because the teachers were crying and the routine was broken.

[emilyg]

52. Ft. Dix.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

53. Home on leave after a tour of duty in Japan.

My completely apolitical older sister sobbed all day.

[RZM]

54. Wasn't alive myself, but this story has always stuck with me

It comes from the memoirs of Anatoly Dobrynin, who had been appointed Soviet ambassador to the US the year before and served in that job all the way until the Reagan era.

http://www.amazon.com/Confidence-Moscows-Ambassador-Americas-Presidents/dp/0812928946/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322027773&sr=8-1

Dobrynin was apparently in the chair at a dentists' office in suburban Maryland when the news hit. The dentist went into the other room and heard the report, then came back and informed the ambassador what had happened without sounding especially broken up about it. Dobrynin said the dentist then opined that he didn't wish Kennedy dead, but thought that he 'paid too much attention to the rights of blacks.' The story has always stuck with me for some reason.

The book is actually a very interesting read, though it's filled with the usual bunk you see in Soviet memoirs ('I was actually working for reform behind the scenes the whole time' etc.)

[Lugnut]

56. I was 18 years old.

I graduated from high school in June and was going to cosmetology school. One of our teachers walked through the clinic area crying and announced that the president had been shot. It was normally a busy day at school because Friday was our open clinic day when walk-in clients could use our services at cost. Once the announcement was made the client flow stopped. The administrator turned up the radio so we all could hear the latest news. We were all dismissed before 5PM and sent home.

My dad was glued to the TV that Friday. My whole family joined him for the whole weekend. On Sunday morning after church Dad was in front of the TV. Mother, my sister and I were in the kitchen getting dinner ready when Dad started screaming. Jack Ruby had just shot Oswald point blank when he was being transferred by police and Dad was hysterical. Our TV was on constantly until the funeral. It was the first time television stations were broadcasting 24 hours a day.

On every anniversary of this assassination my memories are crystal clear. I don't know anybody who doesn't remember where they were on that day.

[Douglas Carpenter]

57. 9 years-old third grade Wright Street Elementary School - Corry, PA

The beginning of our recess break - I heard one of the other teachers walk up to Mrs. Olson (our teacher) and say to her - "he's gone now - it's over." Then Mrs. Olson informed our class that the president has been shot and it is a very sad day for the country.

[Angry Dragon]

58. Gym class - junior high

[Blue_In_AK]

59. Mrs. McCafferty's fourth period English class

at South Houston High School. I was a senior. The announcement came over the PA, and Mrs. McCafferty fell apart. It was an awful moment. I cried for the next week.

[pinboy3niner]

61. 10th grade

They piped the news audio into our classrooms, and there was sobbing throughout the school. The same later, at home, in our Irish Catholic family, as we were glued to the news on our black-and-white TV for days.

Six years later, my little brother and I were soldiers in Vietnam.

A friend, Bill, had been presented his Special Forces green beret personally by JFK. Bill had quit a one-hit-wonder rock band to enlist in the Army and join Special Forces. A lot of Special Forces vets would later place a green beret at the JFK Memorial at Arlington. After some years, Bill placed a beret--the one presented to him by JFK--at the panel where Bill's brother's name is engraved on the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial.

Besides the JFK assassination and Vietnam, we went through other assassinations, and Watergate, before the war had ended.

Later I was doing an internship on Capitol Hill during the Carter Administration, and while walking back to the Hill from lunch one day I found myself standing on a street corner, waiting for the light to change, and I saw that the guy waiting with me was Teddy Kennedy. He was alone. When I recognized him, I glanced about furiously looking for the security he surely must have. Not seeing any security, I was struck with a feeling of fear and panic. After living through the assassinations of Jack and Bobby, many Americans feared for Teddy.

My memories of JFK are mostly from TV. But once, when I was a kid riding my bike down Balboa Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, a motorcade passed. I learned from the news that night that it was JFK, taking Soviet Premier Nikita Khruschev to Disneyland.

Living through that turbulent time, filled with traumatic events, it was hard not to be profoundly affected.

[Bonobo]

62. Ask George Bush SR. where he was.

He CLAIMS he doesn't remember.

[xiamiam]

66. The ONLY person ever who doesn't remember where he was..yeah right

I was thinking about this yesterday ..jfk, 911, cia...lot of conspiracy stuff to wrap ones head around..but not remembering where you were or what you were doing when you heard?

i was standing at my locker in jr high school just outside of mrs fruths homeroom when i heard..locker door was open and then we went in and listened over the intercom loudspeaker..I dont remember much else about mrs fruths homeroom during that year, but i do remember that day

[sarge43]

63. Personnel shop, 544 Recon Tech Gp, Offutt AFB NB. n/t

[RFKHumphreyObama]

64. My mother was Malaysian and she lived in Malaysia at the time

But even she cried when she heard the news that JFK had been assassinated. I remember watching a documentary over here in Australia interviewing people and asking them what they were doing at the time and I seem to recollect that all of them could remember the event. I think it's different for us who came later to grasp how much of an impact his death not only had in the United States but worldwide as well

[NNN0LHI]

65. There was a knock at our 3rd grade class door and the teacher left for a minute

She came back in crying and told us what happened.

Then the janitor rolled in a huge black and white TV as big as a stove on a stand and hooked it up.

Then we all watched the live coverage. Other than the TV there was no other noise except for some of the girls crying. I didn't really understand death back then very well.

Watched Oswald get shot on live TV the following Sunday morning as we were getting dressed for church.

Don

[hifiguy]

67. I was in third grade at the time.

Our teacher was called to the office suddenly. She returned, pale as a ghost, and dismissed the class. I walked home with a friend, and shortly after I got home I heard Walter Cronkite say that it was confirmed that the President had been killed.

[REACTIVATED IN CT]

68. I was at home sick. I was a junior in high school in NYC

(Hunter College HS) . My mother came up to my room to tell me the news. I could not process what she was saying. It was unthinkable. We too were glued to the TV for the next 4 days.

[Bragi]

69. At a Catholic highschool in Toronto

I was writing an exam. When I came out of the gym where we wrote it, everyone was huddled and whispering, and that's when I learned JFK had been shot.

I immediately went home to watch it on TV. I think that's when I learned that he had died.

I don't recall much about my thoughts after that, other than a feeling of total strangeness, because they very idea of a President being shot was unthinkable back then.

Needless to say, after the JFK assassination, and once they killed RFK and MLK, it was pretty clear to me that things were not as they seemed.

I think the importance of that day in my own development and political views has only become apparent to me many years later.

I still read about the assassination and the Kennedy's. This past year I read "Brothers" by David Talbot, and recommend it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

70. I was in my high school sophmore algebra class.

That was just a huge shock wave that blew thru the school. Absolute silence.

[hamsterjill]

71. I was five years old and I heard it on the radio.

Ran in the house to tell my parents, and they weren't sure whether to believe me or not. Then utter disbelief and sadness...

[DianeK]

72. The principal of my elementary school came into my

3rd grade classroom and said, "Boys and girls, the President of the United States is dead."

Then turned and walked out. It was and incredible thing to hear for a child that age. School was promptly dismissed and I went home and sat in front of our little black and white tv for days with my family.

[librechik]

74. I was in the Safety Patrol in 5th grade at McKinley Elementary, Denver

My best friend, Janet Wood lived right next door to the playground and usually walked home for lunch. Mid lunch break she ran back over to the playground and grabbed me and a couple others and dragged us over to her house where the TV was playing the awful news. A dreadful silence descended over the school just the AV tvs set up in the classrooms, tuned to the non stop news reports. For the rest of the day teachers and students tried to understand what had happened. We are still trying.

[madmom]

75. I was 10 years old and was with my cousin, whose father was in the arny stationed in

Germany. We both started crying our eyes out because we "didn't have a president, who would run our country and how would her dad get home" We were very naive but also very concerned.

[malthaussen]

76. As it happens, I have no memory of the event

I was seven years old, so I would have been in second grade. My mother was working in the ER in a Pittsburgh hospital at the time. I have absolutely no memory of that assassination, or of the MLK or RFK killings. Strange, but there it is.

-- Mal