November 22, 1963. Where were you?
I was in school and they a student came in the classroom with a note for the teacher. We were told that John Kennedy was dead. There were gasps, but the teacher continued on after that.
My Bubba, who had just turned 16 at the time, recalls, “Fifty years ago, I was on Main Street in Dallas, just 4 blocks from Dealey Plaza watching President Kennedy’s motorcade. I was right on the curb and both the President and Jackie waived at me, my mother and my auntie. In 1960, I made handmade JFK pushcards and passed them out on my paper route in Dallas. That was the beginning on my political activism. I will never forget the excitement of waving to my President and First Lady and the horror, shock and grief of learning of his death.”
I found this in his closet when we were moving in together. I had it framed and it has held a place of honor in our home since that day. It’s an original.
Where were you?
November 22, 1963 was a Friday just like today, and my Friday classes at Indiana University in Bloomington, where I was a junior, were done before noon. I actually napped through the event, and awoke about 3 p.m. to find fellow dorm residents wandering the hall like zombies, totally shattered by the news.
Even more memorable to me was returning from church on Sunday, watching the dorm TV and seeing Ruby shoot Oswald. On top of the assassination, that became almost too much to process.
Thanksgiving time is always one of reflection for me. The following year, on the Tuesday evening before the holiday, I received a phone call at school from a doctor who lived just down the street from us. My father had died suddenly of a heart attack.
1I was living in Scotland attending Edinburgh University. It was evening there and I was on my way to a debate society meeting which would usually have had a hundred students or so. People kept coming in and coming in until the large hall was full. I think I was the only American. Everyone asked me what I thought. I had no idea what I thought except that I realized what it meant to be a foreigner. I have no idea how the news spread. There was no television. We relied on international editions of Time and Newsweek for US news and they were always a week behind the event.
2Doug and I were newly weds living at Tech Village, the married-student housing for Texas Tech. We had finished lunch. We had no TV, so our little kitchen radio was on. We were listening to coverage of the President’s visit to Dallas, the description of the motorcade as it turned onto Elm Street. Suddenly, the reporter said, the motorcade sped up without warning; something was wrong! The car carrying the President was on the way to Parkland Hospital. The reports were sketchy, little more than rumors. Then finally, the voice of the radio announcer (which over the years has melded into the image of Walter Cronkite on TV) “The President is dead.”
We had bought pine boards to build a bookcase with cinder blocks that weekend. On Friday, we worked outside, brushing on, then wiping off the dark stain with the door open, listening to the radio. All the stations in Lubbock had changed their programming from Country, Rock or News, to playing funereal dirges. We stained the wood and we cried together.
On Sunday afternoon we drove to Doug’s parents’ home in Floydada. We walked thru the garage into the den in time to hear Doug’s mother: “They shot him on live television!” Confused, we learned of the second killing in Dallas: Lee Harvey Oswald gunned down in the bowels of the Dallas jail system on his way to ’a safer location’. We waited for the re-play. Re-plays were not ‘instant’ in 1963.
3I had gotten home from 1/2 day kindergarten and went in my parents room to watch tv. I don’t remember what I was watching, Walter Cronkite broke in and said the President had been shot.
I walked my 5 year old self to the kitchen where my mom and the neighbor lady were drinking coffee and said the president has been shot.
They didn’t believe me and I thought oh ok and went back to the tv.
4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZfRyWPZAII
I try to remember the 60s as a time of peace.But…….
5I was a senior in high school in Tyler. The football team was to play in the district playoff that night (Longview?) and we were all let out of class to see them off and cheer them on as they left in the bus. The players were all really solemn-looking as they drove by. Someone was telling everyone the president was dead. It confused me at first, but eventually I realized what had happened. I still wonder why the game wasn’t cancelled – except that it was Texas.
6I was watching on that Sunday when Oswald was killed. That is a really vivid memory. I couldn’t believe I was seeing a murder in real time!
I was in high school. The superintendent came in and announced the news, and we sat around for awhile, not really knowing what to do or what it all meant. We had never known of an assassination in our lifetime, only those of the previous century. Kennedy wasn’t at all popular in the Panhandle, and I don’t recall anyone being much in favor of him, only a lot of people making fun of him and his accent. Things haven’t changed much up there, as far as I can tell. It’s still a redneck stronghold, and probably always will be.
7I was all of 2 years old, but the story goes that my beloved Mom was in her rocking chair, tending to my baby sis, who was weeks shy of turning one, watching “As The World Turns”, the soap opera. Mr. Cronkite announced the horrible news. My Momma started crying, and I asked her why….I have no memory of this, of course, but it IS in my SOUL, somehow. Maybe that is why I hate guns, I wonder? 🙁
8I was a freshman and I had just walked into the cafeteria of the Home Ec Building at Cornell University when the announcement was made. Instant silence. Such a shock. That an assassination could happen in real time–instead of in history. Numb fugue state.
9I don’t remember when or how I was told, too young I guess. Only knew that the President was a very important person and that he had died. What I do strongly remember is that it was so quiet, the grown-ups were so quiet and serious. I knew something important was happening because my young aunt (who was living with us for a short time then) kept the radio on when we went to bed that night. Something that was not ordinarily allowed. And I remember the horses in the funeral procession. Odd to realize that I was so young then and that I am now older than JFK ever had the chance to be.
10I was in Mrs. Spahr’s 9th grade World Geography class in Mayfield KY, next to last seat in the window row.
11It was my first year teaching. A student from the other 6th grade classroom ran by my room, crying. She told me what had happened, and my whole class joined the other class – they were the only room with a tv – black & white. The kids were a little unsure of the significance of the event. One boy thought it meant Nixon would now be president.
12Also watched Ruby shoot Oswald on live tv. Couldn’t believe that had happened.
The world was so different then.
I was in first grade in Wichita Falls, TX. We were in the library when the principal made the announcement over the loud speaker that President Kennedy had died. Our librarian burst into tears and I was instantly frightened. I didn’t know what it meant, but I knew it was BAD.
13One of my hospice patients, Rev. Louie Saunders (Christian Church – Disciples of Christ), was the minister who presided at Oswald’s service. He was, I think, president of the local ministerial association and had gone to Rose Hill cemetery to support the 3 ministers who were slated to provide the service of burial. None of them showed up, so Louie went back to his car, got his bible, and presided over the burial of Lee Harvey Oswald. He reminded the few mourners that they weren’t there to judge, but to lay a human being to rest. Rev. Saunders was a man of incredible graciousness and wisdom.
from a friend on Long Island, a retired history teacher:
I was walking down the corridor just after school (North Babylon HS) when a student, the only other person in sight, said to me rather flippantly “The president just got shot” and I said “That’s not a nice thing to say. Where is this supposed to have happened?” He said “Dallas,” and I instantly thought God help us—it’s probably true.” I was thinking of the crazed mob of rich biddies that had literally assaulted Adlai Stephenson with picket signs (he wasn’t hurt) just days before.
14John
I was in the US Army stationed at a small medical supply/hospital depot in Vitry le Francois France. That night was the monthly “Hail & Farewell” dinner for all ranks. The CO was seated at the head table and a runner from the Officer of the Day came in and handed the CO a note, he was visibly shaken and then announced that the the President had been shot…20min or so later the runner returned with the news that the President was dead. He adjourned the dinner and asked that we all go home. An hour after arriving home we were called to return to the base in our “alert” gear as if we were about to go to war. The following morning around 6AM the CO addressed the troops and read the formal notification from the new Commander-in Chief. I recall that the French were more upset at the news than most of the Americans were. All the tricolors were tied to the staff with black bunting and many men wore the black armbands.
15It was a very sad time and will never be forgotten.
I was 19 and stationed at a naval air station in Kenitra Morocco. We couldn’t believe it. I agree with Squire Al that the locals (French, Spanish and Moroccan) were more upset than most Americans. It was a bad, bad time to be from Texas. The paper(s) reported that there were celebrations in the Dallas schools after the assassination. No one doubted it.
16Half mile or so from the plaza.pulled to side of freeway to see them on the way to lunch add speach.. Radio on everything OK though many of us worried there might be some kind of misbehavior. Announced that the group was now on the way. Lady parked car on median jumped out and screamed. Moments later the limo flew by with Service man crouched
17over the back seat. Then announcement of shots fired at the plaza, and president and party on way to Parkland. Went blank and do know to this day how I got home.
I was a high school sophomore, and in biology class. We heard the news announced over the school’s speaker system. The principal told us the president had been shot, and then dismissed classes for the day.
18I was in 8th grade attending Sacred Heart parochial school. We always prayed the rosary after lunch. Our teacher came in the room and told us our president had been shot. Later we learned he had died. We made our way into the church. There were lots of tears especially from the girls. One of the boys turned on the tollers (electric bell ringer) soon the Catholic Churches downtown Houston had their bells tolling the death of our president.
19Geezer that I am, I was 19, and in my next-to-last week of AF Reserve active duty at Carswell AFB in Ft. Worth, and one of a mob of base personnel that JFK passed by and shook hands with before flying off to Dallas.
20Somebody ran into the hangar I was working in, just after lunch, and yelled, “Turn on the radio!”
The rest is history.
I was in Dallas, working for an insurance company located on Cedar Springs Road, and we watched the motorcade. I had gotten out of the Marines in June and was “A-political” as I watched the President go by. I went in for lunch and as I returned to my desk 20 minutes later heard the announcement that the President had been shot. I have never been “A-political” since that moment, and will never forget it.
21I was in 3rd grade in Waco. The night before, watching the news about the President’s visit, I had asked my parents if we could go to Dallas to see him. As Republicans, they thought that was silly. But I had shaken Vice-President Johnson’s hand when he made an appearance at LakeAir Shopping Center and I, a Cub Scout, was passing out flags. I thought I should see the President too.
22The next day I was in class, our teacher was called out, then came back in crying. Then the principal made the announcement over the brand-new PA system they had just installed. They sent us home, I was numb but as I rode my bike home I remember another boy singing “Hey-ho! They shot Kennedy dead, he’s got a bullet in his head!” That upset me a lot. I got home, my Republican mother was crying. When I told her about the boy singing, she said “some peoples’ hearts are full of hate.” And I guess they still are, 50 years later.
I was not yet conceived. Did I say I’d be 50 in just over a year from now?
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