47th anniversary of JFK assasination

[cab54]

Where were you? When you heard?

I was in Mrs. Brown's 4th grade class, and she was crying when they put it over the PA system. We all looked dumbfounded (we were 9!)so she asked us, "Why aren't you crying, do you realize what's happened?"

When I got home from school, my Mom was ironing and crying and watching it on TV.

Everybody watched it all weekend.

[Syn D]

Not born yet..

[pat in east texas]

I was ironing a shirt and listening to the radio. The station broadcast from the Rice Hotel in Houston, where the presidential party had stayed the night before. The reporters were talking about all the security measures at the hotel, which made their getting around difficult, when the station manager interrupted them with the news that President Kennedy had been shot. I turned on the TV to CBS and heard Walter Cronkite announce that the president was dead.
The television coverage, as I remember it, from the first news of the assassination and through the funeral, was probably TV's finest hour. It was a thorough, respectful and intelligent coverage of the events, without irrational talking heads and blaring commercials.
Thanksgiving that year was very subdued.

[dcompton]

47th anniversary? This makes me feel really old. I was in high school then. I had no interest in politics so I guess I just took it in as information. I saw some of the tv coverage, but don't remember paying much attention to it, even though it happened right "next door" in Dallas. I was in Fort Worth. I was just very focused on my school work and much more interested in that.

[Dixie]

I was not quite 4 years old, but I remember it very well. I was sitting with my mom and she was watching a soap opera (Love of Life, maybe?) Walter Cronkite broke in and announced the president had been shot. I remember a couple of days later, turning on the tv to watch, 'Captain Kangaroo' and instead the funeral procession was being aired.

My parents were big Kennedy supporters, so there was a great deal of sadness in our house, both with JFK's death and his brother RFK's about 5 years later.

[fernykins]

I was 7 it was a very sad day. Fern

[mom21ofeach]

I was not born until 1965, but my parents were dating at the time. They had planned to go to an activity with a church group, but the event was cancelled. Instead, my dad stayed at my mom's house with her parents and 8 brothers and sisters and watched the events on tv that night.

[ilovechocolate]

I, too, was in 4th grade. Our teacher left school as soon as we students did that day, which was odd. Then when I got outside where Mama was waiting to pick me up, I heard some "big boys" (7th graders) yelling, "Extra! Extra! Read all about it! President Kennedy is shot!" I got in the car and Mama told me that he had indeed been shot. We went straight home and I remember watching the funeral activities for the next several days.

[valerian]

I wasn't born yet so don't remember it...

[pinetree]

Mrs. Moon's 4th grade class. We had a tv in the room and watched it until it was time to go home.

I remember seeing everyone crying. The entire country was in shock.

[forHISglory]

I was in high school: Spanish class. In fact, I can even recall the exact seat I was sitting in. A girl had gone to the cafeteria to get some milk for her ulcer, and she came back saying the President had been shot (she heard it on the radio in the cafeteria). We told her it wasn't funny. She insisted it was true. Then the intercom came on, and the principal said the President was dead. We were in shock. Our teacher began to cry. School was dismissed, and when I arrived home, my parents were crying. They were not Kennedy fans, but this surpassed any of those differences. I remember watching TV and seeing the black wagon, the horse with no rider and the boots turned backwards, and little John-John giving a salute. Years later, I saw that black wagon in Washington DC, and the whole scene came flooding back.

[cab54]

I know what you mean, FHG. It didn't seem to matter which party you backed, or which candidate you voted for. It rocked the nation, you could see it in grown-up's eyes.

It made me feel a little off-balance and frightened, 'feeling' the tone and mood of the adults around me. I knew it was a big thing. My Mom later bought the book "The Torch is Passed", which I poured over.

I remember little John-John's salute, also. DH and I later visited Dallas once, and I stood in the street at the place it happened, and went up to the museum that is now there, with the window Oswald had been in, and walked up to the grassy knoll (as far as you can). It all came flooding back for me, too.

[cab54]

I forgot to mention that when I was 10 (about 10 months after it happened), my grandparents took me to DC and Arlington, and we saw his grave (the way it looked then, with a mound and 4 servicemen's caps on it--- and the flame.) I can still remember it well.