Where were you when you heard?

Wes Smith · #51 11-22-2013, 08:54 PM

I was 5 years old and I can't remember if it was when he got shot or the funneral but I remember getting a hair cut and my father was burning leaves when all this news was on TV. I guess i was to young to remember many details.

Stevens · #52 11-22-2013, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LouisianaJoe

I was a freshman at Mississippi State. When it was announced, I heard several students ringing their cowbells in celebration. JFK was not very popular in Mississippi then.

I was a sophomore in a high school military academy in Georgia, there was no crying there either.
Steve W

Walter Rego · #53 11-22-2013, 10:13 PM

I was in 3rd grade getting ready to go home when a kid came up and told a bunch of us that Kennedy had been shot. All weekend all my favorite cartoons were pre-empted with coverage of the event. Made me mad. I haven't liked Democrats ever since.

tom turner · #54 11-22-2013, 11:24 PM

For all of us over 60 . . . this day began nearly five days like America has never experienced before, and it affected most of us in a lot of ways . . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i2bq3F6a0I

rburg · #55 11-22-2013, 11:38 PM

I was in Miss Vertel's sophomore english class. I didn't really like Kennedy, and dad said his kin were bootleggers. I wasn't so upset he was dead, but I did like all the breaks in studying. We didn't get homework for a few days and were said to watch TV instead.

It was a tough one to pull because I distrusted the media even then.

Bat Guano · #56 11-23-2013, 02:10 AM

Junior year at Michigan State; heard it on the radio in a campus building. Everything got very quiet and stayed that way all weekend.

There was a ceremony at the state capitol grounds. I don't remember much about it except for a line of 105s firing a salute with blank rounds. If I think back I can still hearing those 105s slamming away.

Our world got changed a lot that day, and not for the better.

Robotech · #57 11-23-2013, 03:21 AM

4th grade, Mrs. Roberts class. I remember the unusual quiet the rest of the day and on the bus trip home.

By coincidence, I'd toured one of the Kennedy vacation homes about a year and a half before, and somehow felt just a little closer to them as 'real people'. Later still, I married a distant cousin of his...

TAROMAN · #58 11-23-2013, 03:27 AM

Mr. Moerr's 10th grade geometry in Grand Island, NE.
As they unfolded, events were broadcast on the school's PA system

cockerpoodle2 · #59 11-23-2013, 04:10 AM

I was in Medical School at UCLA. I was driving North on the 405, heading from Manhattan Beach (my place) to Westwood. I had an Austin-Healey Sprite that didn't have a radio (or much else as I remember). People were pulling off the freeway and parking on the shoulder (on an LA freeway !). Those folks had radios and knew what was going on. To me, it seemed like I was watching the world coming to the end. The Cuban Missile crisis was fresh in my mind and I figured that nuclear missiles would appear shortly. I was supposed to be going to a conferance at the Wadsworth Veteran's Hospital but I thought that if I was going to be vaporized, I would like to be among friends with a beer in my hand. I went to my favorite bar, the El Torito. The bartender told me what was happening and gave me a free beer. I was relieved to think I might just make my 22nd birthday. (I just had my 75th).

snake803 · #60 11-23-2013, 08:32 AM

Machinist mate "A" school, Great Lakes Naval Training Center.... A sad day...
JIM..................

tomtheturner · #61 11-23-2013, 08:52 AM

I was 15, and I was rabbit hunting with my Montgomery Ward bolt action 16 gauge. I don't remember why I wasn't in school . . . . . . My buddy & I were hunting in a small field just outside of the small town we lived in. When we started back to town the town policeman picked us up, to give us a ride back to town. The news of the assassination was on his radio.

Stayed glued to the TV for days, watching Ruby get shot, and the funeral.

Tom

arjay · #62 11-23-2013, 09:16 AM

I was 9 and I don't remember that day.I do remember all the news coverage that followed and the funeral.One of my sisters told me she remembers being home sick and telling our mother about it,but she didn't believe her.So it seems sis had a rep for misinterpreting early on ;-)

lawandorder · #63 11-23-2013, 10:04 AM

Another 6th grader, remember the Teacher pulling her car up outside the windows so we could listen to the news on the car radio.

Where in the world did those 50 years go so fast?

mkk41 · #64 11-23-2013, 10:07 AM

I was 3yrs 9mos old. Don't remember a thing!

jgh4445 · #65 11-23-2013, 10:44 AM

I was 12 years old in the seventh grade at Toul Rosieres AFB in France. They came and woke my dad at around 10PM local time. As I reccall all of Europe went on alert.

cmort666 · #66 11-23-2013, 10:50 AM

At home in Chicago after kindergarten (or first grade, I forget which) class. I remember wanting to shoot Oswald, but Jack Ruby took care of that.

rimfired · #67 11-23-2013, 01:10 PM

Jr. High School and the Principal announced it on the pa system to all classrooms. We were dismissed for the day.

Jinglebob · #68 11-22-2014, 10:42 AM

I was a senior in high school.

NYlakesider · #69 11-22-2014, 11:05 AM

Well as this thread came back to life, I might as well add to it.

I was in a big high school in Albany NY when this happened. I do not know how some people found out but a couple kids were saying the president got shot. Then a bit later that he was killed. We heard nothing from school officials and we all thought it was a big not in good taste hoax.

About two hours after we first heard "the rumor” our teacher was summoned into the hall and was told something privately.

It appeared that a bunch of teachers and other staff were told to inform teachers kind of privately and then at a certain time the students were all told. We were immediately dismissed from school.

go2weiss · #70 11-22-2014, 11:09 AM

Was in 7th grade-Jr. High back in the day. We were walking from pep rally in gym back to classroom bldg. Someone had a transistor radio (remember those?!) and picked up news. I remember several young ladies in tears...regardless of political bent it was a sad day in America.

Ogandydancer · #71 11-22-2014, 11:13 AM

I was working for a company that made the big 3/4" wide computer tape and I remember one of the office secretaries coming out into the plant and telling us about it. We were in some areas allowed to have a radio so they turned it on and we heard it from our local station (ABC) affiliate and everyone was in total shock. We did however remain at work as we had government contracts and there were orders that had to be shipped that day.

Donn · #72 11-22-2014, 11:13 AM

Jr. High, 9th grade. Didn't know it then, happened six years later, but that was also the day my ticket for Vietnam got punched.

THE PILGRIM · #73 11-22-2014, 11:19 AM

In a slow airplane. I started the day getting on a C-123 in Bermuda. We slowly crossed over to Charleston, SC.
I walked into the passenger terminal and asked 'got anything going toward Indiana?' That C-123 is going to N Carolina.
Got there, jumped on a plane going to Wright Pat.
Walked into the terminal there, yes, he's going to Bunker Hill, already taxing, I'll stop him , run for it!
Got to Bunker Hill after dark. The flightline was lit up and busy. I got the base ops taxi to take me to the club.
I asked the driver, are we having an exercise? Lots of action out on the flightline.
He looked at me me kind of funny. He finally said the President was killed today.
The Air Force was running scared and getting some nuclear delivery aircraft ready just in case.
You may get killed during a war. But you don't want to get killed sitting on your hands.
That's called Pearl Harbor.

Airpark · #74 11-22-2014, 12:44 PM

Working in HQ PACAF at Hickam AFB, HI.

Cyrano · #75 11-23-2014, 01:44 AM

I was a Captain in the Army at that time; in the Air Defense branch, and was stationed with a small Army crew at the Air Force radar sqauadron at Cape Charles, VA. We were running an air defense exercise in the operations room, with plots coming in and people writing them backwards on the illuminated plotting board. Suddenly one of them said "The President's been shot".Shortly the word came over all the communications channels. We called off the exercise and left. I think SAC went to DEFCON 3, and the rest of the armed forces went to DEFCON 4. Flags were at half staff, of course. We were going to have a party that night, but called it off and everyone spent the next few days sitting glued to the nearest TV set.

Can anyone remember whee they were on December 7, 1941?

R. G. Amos · #76 11-23-2014, 01:58 AM

In the university and had just finished lunch.

tom turner · #77 11-23-2014, 02:38 AM

I was in seventh grade in Tallahassee, and heard it in class via the PA system.

In the class there were gasps, crying . . . and cheers. Yes, before the history books wrote what was happening that is recited today many in the south hated Kennedy, and the FBI had correctly warned him not to take that trip down south.

Frankly, it was a very somber and sad time, those next few days of mourning. I'll never forget that time.

rolomac · #78 11-23-2014, 02:09 PM

I was in college in Denver and had a part time job driving deliveries for a flower shop. I was stuck in a traffic jam on the freeway - sitting there kind of gazing out across the downtown from high up on an overpass and I notices something - first one and then another and then more - flags being lowered to half-mast. My first stop after the traffic cleared was a delivery to a hospital and I carried a vase of flowers up to a nursing station and there was nobody there - unusual, usually two or three pretty nurses there - then I saw, down the hall, a group of them clustered around a door into a room. I walked up behind them and peered over their heads to a tv playing in that room and Walter Cronkite was confirming that our president was dead. Hard to believe it was so long ago but the memory is so fresh in my mind.

rolomac

jdh · #79 11-23-2014, 05:02 PM

Bismark, 2nd grade. We returned to the classroom from PE or some such class to find no teacher. A few minutes later she came through the door pushing one of those big A/V carts with a TV on the top. We watched the coverage for the rest of the day. Logged in her lesson plan book as Social Studies.

Reflecting back I think the TV was more for her than for us.

rock doc · #80 11-23-2014, 05:19 PM

I was in the 3rd grade and the announcement came over the loudspeaker in class. We were lining up for lunch. Since my grandfather despised JFK, it rubbed off on me, since I had great respect for my grandfather.

zzzippper · #81 11-23-2014, 05:20 PM

1st grade at Russell Elementary in a St. Louis suburb. Teachers got called to the office then came and told us. I was only 6 years old so I didn't get the impact. I remember the Mickey Mouse Club and afternoon cartoons being preempted.

rock doc · #82 11-23-2014, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyrano

Can anyone remember whee they were on December 7, 1941?

Nope. My parents hadn't even discovered each other.

jrm53 · #83 11-23-2014, 08:22 PM

On that day, I remember it as Friday afternoon a little after 1 PM, I was running a Kearney and Trecker 10 horse milling machine working for Wendt Sonis making "A" style single point lathe tools when they came out from the office and told us. It took the rest of the after noon to absorb this and when I got home after work and turned on the TV and saw all the news people with tears in their eyes it finally sunk in on me. Jeff

BigBill · #84 11-23-2014, 09:02 PM

Seventh grade science class. Teachers were crying. Followed by many days of boring tv.

Now who took out the Kennedy boys?

luangtom · #85 11-23-2014, 10:26 PM

I was home ill from school. They cut into the television programming, "As The World Turns", to tell the nation that JFK and the Governor of TX had been shot. The next days were spent watching, up to the funeral and after-math. My father, a WWII vet and Kennedy fan, sat watching with tears in his eyes and shaking his head. He told us the nation would never be the same. These same words were repeated many times, by many people.

Road Rat · #86 11-23-2014, 10:31 PM

I was on George Washington Parkway, halfway between The Pentagon and Mount Vernon, on my way to Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Terrible feeling that is still with me....................

Calaveras Slim · #87 11-23-2014, 10:34 PM

I was on a mountain top in central Turkey. Bout 10PM at night. My first tour over seas. They woke everyone up when they brought in the news.

fat tom · #88 11-23-2014, 10:55 PM

Mr. Barber's 10th grade algebra class. It was his first year teaching,having just left the Marine Corps. The news came over the loudspeaker and he looked as if he had just stared into the face of Medusa. Pam Rose cried.
f.t.

wyo-man · #89 11-24-2014, 01:44 AM

I believe it was in 6th grade. Sitting at our desks when the news was announced.

wyo-man

model70hunter · #90 11-24-2014, 03:17 AM

I was a Sr in HS. It came over the PA system. Shock and disbelief, girls were crying. When we went to our next class it actually seemed like one was walking in a vacuum. Like there were people around you but you were alone. It was shock.

For younger folks 911 was different, yes there was shock,was not too sure who was behind it, but I knew their world would get rocked.
Here after the shock there would be payback.

With Kennedy one knew it probably was the act of one nut. To this day there are whole groups and many people suspected of being that nut. I wish we knew.

DaGOOSExyz · #91 11-24-2014, 04:20 AM

I was in my 11th grade English class when a boy who had gone to the rest room came back saying " The President has been shot."

ACORN · #92 11-24-2014, 07:49 AM

Third grade St Joseph's Catholic in Duquesne Pa. at recess. I can take you to the spot in the school yard. The nuns herded us all to the adjacent church to pray for the President.
It's funny now but all I new about Texas was from westerns. When we heard he was shot I visualized him wounded, huddled behind a cactus like your usual western shoot out. I figured they'd send in the Army in to mop up the bad guy(s) the doctors would patch Kennedy up and life would go back to normal. Then we got the news he had passed and were dismissed early.
On the walk home my buddy theorized that Johnson did it to become President. Sad to say I didn't know who the heck Johnson even was.

OFT II · #93 11-24-2014, 08:48 AM

I was ten months into a thirteen month tour of Korea. It was about four in the morning when the First Shirt came through raising hell and telling us we were going on full alert. I will always remember the date being November 23rd since I was west of the date line.

mafuta54 · #94 11-24-2014, 09:42 AM

4th grade class. We were watching it on the TV!!

KevinCH · #95 11-24-2014, 12:52 PM

Elementary school in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, I believe 4th grade.

loknload · #96 11-24-2014, 12:57 PM

In the 4th grade, went across the hall to another class room to watch on TV after our teacher came back from being called to the office. Later on we got an early dismissal.

PRC · #97 11-24-2014, 01:29 PM

I was in history in junior high school.

The Last Standing Knight · #98 11-24-2014, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walkin' Jack

I was Stationed at Camp Hansen on the island of Okinawa with the 3rd Marine Division. I can remember that everyone seemed to be walking around in shock. There was none of the usual light hearted banter and joking around. Everyone was very silent, lost, no doubt, in their own thoughts, fears and disbelief.

All the base facilities such as the Movie theater, Hobby shop, EM club and even the O club was shut down for two weeks. It surprise me no end that the people of Okinawa loved JFK so much they observed a full 30 day mourning period. You couldn't by a drink, a beer or.....anything else.

I was in tight with the old mamasan that owned the Club Blue Moon (but that's another story for another time and place.

) and even though the bar was closed I could go around the back and knock on the door and they would let me in. We sat around a many a afternoon just me and mamasan and papasan and a few of the girls drinking sake and crying. Old papasan spoke not one word of English but he yammered on relentlessly. Boo-hooing and big tears streaming down his face.

It's where I discovered that I get very emotional when I drink sake.

"The shame is that 50 years later, there is still doubt about the circumstances of the assassination."

The awful shame and sadness is that the coverup commenced immediately. Within the first 24 hours evidence, forensic and medical and and clerical was destroyed. Not just hidden but destroyed. By now many of the people that know/knew the truth are dead.

I've heard that there are accurate accounts somewhere that will all be revealed some day but I don't believe it. It's a darn shame too. There were people involved that got away with it. What a huge loss of innocence for America.

Not to hijack the thread. I was two days old when this tragedy occurred so I remember nothing. I have seen the historical news reports and found them moving and emotional.
As far as "the truth" goes, there is probably a very good reason for a lot of the actions taken in that time. Something I would've never thought even ten years ago. Sometimes it is best to leave Pandora's Box closed. I take comfort in the knowledge that a higher form of justice handled this matter.

Not attempting to violate any rules here, merely my take on JFK.

M29since14 · #99 11-24-2014, 07:53 PM

I mainly recall how it upset my Mother. She was a very gentle-natured lady and I remember thinking it odd that she was so upset because she did not seem politically oriented to me. Looking back now, it seems like kind of an odd recollection about such a momentous event...

We were released from school early. There was no drama there. I don't recall an announcement - just the early dismissal. I believe the duty to inform was left to the parents, but of course by the time we had walked home we were well aware of what had happened.

I was 8-years old and did not grasp the magnitude of the event, nor the need for the depth of the sadness many people seemed to feel. I do remember seeing the pic of JFK Jr and feeling sorry for him that he had lost his Dad.

Captain O · #**100** 10-05-2015, 06:07 PM

I was 8 years old and remember my 3rd grade teacher walking into class telling us the President had been shot.

Dad had always said that America wasn't ready for a President of the Roman Catholic faith.