Where were you when you heard?

[PALADIN85020]

I realize that most of you weren't born yet at that time, but if you are maybe 55 years old or older, Nov. 22, 1963 was quite memorable - the day the President was shot. If you do remember, please share where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news. I know you will remember vividly. Here's my recollection:

I was working as a college placement counselor at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ, fresh out of active duty in the Army. It was just before noon there when one of the secretaries in the office hung up her phone and shouted "The President's been shot." Our first reaction was that this was some kind of sickish joke - but someone turned on a radio and it was confirmed. The director of the office told everyone to go home. This was a Friday, as it is this year. My wife and I huddled our small family around the TV; heard Walter Cronkite and others discussing the matter, hearing rumors and facts, and later saw Jack Ruby kill Oswald on live TV. There is no doubt the nation was in shock. The shame is that 50 years later, there is still doubt about the circumstances of the assassination.

John

 

[J. R. WEEMS]

I remember quite well where I was when we 'got the word', we were here at the rifle range. they closed us down for the day.

SEMPER FI --

 

[Bill Bates]

I remember it clearly. I was in class at El Cerrito Elementary School in La Habra, California. The office lady came in and whispered something to our teacher. Everything came to a complete stop. Even 50 years later I can remember the look on the teacher's face. As an eight year old kid I knew something horrible had happened but didn't know what had happened. She didn't say anything to us.

We were in the lunch line a little later when they announced over loud speakers that president had been shot and had died.

 

[Hillbilly77]

I wasn't born until 1977, so this was before my time, but I imagine the country's reaction was similar to the anger, shock and grief of the September 11 attacks.




Hopefully this thread can stay free of political and/or conspiracy posts and stay open.

 

[gunblade]

I was in the 6th grade. I remember the teacher leaving the classroom for a bit, then coming back and telling us that President Kennedy had been shot. I remember feeling angry and sad. I still feel that way today.

 

[Alpo]

I just looked it up. Happened at 2 Eastern, which means it was 1PM here.

I was in 3rd grade. I know it happened. I remember the news and the funeral, but truthfully, the stories you hear - "It came over the announcements, and the teacher cried" or "Someone came in and told the teacher, and she started crying" or even "it came over the loudspeaker, with the secretary crying, and we were all sent home early". I don't remember anything like that.

 

[Straightshooter2]

Miss Mauldin's freshman English class. We saw teachers looking upset at the start of class, some of them crying. Rumor was going around that JFK had been shot but nobody would confirm it. While we were in class, the principal, Mr. Kirkland, came over the P.A. and told us the President was dead. School was dismissed and I got a ride home with a friend. One vivid picture still today was seeing the shop teacher directing traffic out of the parking lot with tears running down his face, wetting his shirt. I delivered the Atlanta Journal in the afternoon and of course the paper was late that day. They gave us extra papers in case non-subscribers wanted to buy one. Somewhere, I still have that days newspaper.

CW

 

[opaul]

I was in the 7th grade, and they announced it on the intercom. I will never forget it.

 

[wbraswell]

I was in the 5th grade. I think it was announced, on TV, that he was shot, somewhere between when I left home after lunch and when I got back to school. We had no TV at school, maybe there was a radio in an office. Later our teacher got the word that he had died. Certainly like no other event in my life, as far as concern for the country. Only other ones that came close were the start of Operation Desert Storm, and 9/11.

 

[moosedog]

I was 11 years old, playing football on the front lawn at home in Detroit.
I'll never forget that day.
I also will never forget my father and I watching TV when Oswald got shot. That was the first ever televised actual murder.

 

[millisec]

Was just shy of 4 that day. I was probably busy picking my nose or some other self indulgent entertainment. That really stretches the limits but I have a faint memory of all the hubbub around the house and everyone gathered around the TV and the b&w images. Most of my more vivid memories start at around 5 but I can't remember what I did 5 minutes ago

 

[CajunBass]

I was in, I guess the 4th grade at Battlefield Park Elementary School.

I sort of remember being outside when we were told. Recess maybe...maybe waiting for the bus if it happened at 2pm. We'd have been boarding the bus for home about 3pm, so maybe that's where it was.

I don't remember the world changing or anything, but I was 11 years old. I hardly knew who the president was, didn't really care. The grownups talked about it some, but if they did more than that, I didn't pay it much mind. We got out of school for a few days so I probably went hunting or fishing.

 

[kwselke]

Seven years old and in second grade. We were sent home from school early. I did not understand what was going on. Fifty years later I understand.

 

[redlevel]

Ninth Grade, Mrs. Grigg's Geography class. A girl who would be labeled Special Ed today came in the room and said the president had been shot. No one believed her at first. I don't remember adults crying and wringing their hands like a lot of people seem to. We had a ball game in a town about thirty miles away that night, and we played it as scheduled. I remember us discussing it with our coach. I didn't see the Ruby shooting. I was in the other room and recall my mother saying, "He shot him!."

I don't believe any of the conspiracy stuff. My brother actually visited the room where Oswald took the shots. He said any decent deer hunter could have made the shot.

 

[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.

 

[DCWilson]

College freshman in Connecticut, just wrapping up a second hour of Russian conversation with native speakers. In those days I intended to go into foreign service and save the world from communism. As the session was coming close to its end, the door burst open and one of the other Russian speakers in the program rushed in with a stunned expression on his face and said in English -- the only words I ever heard him say not in Russian -- "President Kennedy has been shot."

We rushed up out of the basement room and out a door that led straight to the street. Half a block away, there was a red convertible -- A Ford 500 X/L, I think -- parked at the curb with its top down, and people were swarming around it. I knew they had to be listening to a radio broadcast, and at that moment I knew the report had to be true.

Sometimes it just seems like a vivid dream. I remember almost every detail of the moment, but the whole incident and its aftermath seem so improbable that it's hard to believe it could have happened.

 

[REM 3200]

I was stationed at Ft. Polk. LA at the time. A bunch of us watched the TV in the day room to keep updated on the event.

 

[shouldazagged]

Twenty-six years old and in graduate school. Watching a couple of fellow students play cards while I waited to go pick up my then wife from her teaching job. Someone ran in and said, "Turn on the radio, quick!" We did and heard one report that a witness had said "the president's head exploded in blood". We knew there was no hope.

Went with my wife to my parents' house and watched TV coverage. I remember so much...

I saw Oswald shot, with anger and dismay that he would never stand trial.

Yes, Hillbilly77, the prevailing shock, anger and depression were similar to the mood after 9/11/01. And like the grief and gloom in my grandparents' home in Chattanooga the day FDR died.

We felt that things like the assassination and 9/11 just couldn't happen here--not in the United States!

 

[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.

 

[gaucho1]

Freshman year in high school.

Told the female english teacher what I had heard and she thought I was
being a wise guy. I understand her disbelief much better now.

That was the end of ideals about politicians in my life.

Sad time.

Then the Beatles hit and that was the start of a different time.