Where were you on Nov 22, 1963?

Camp Kaiser, Korea. By the way, it was November 23rd, at least where I was as we were west of the dateline. The First Sergeant came through about four in the morning blowing a whistle and yelling that we were going on full alert because someone had shot the president. We thought that he was drunk until he started turning over some cots with the sleepers still in them.
 
8th grade , announced over the PA system in school. Everybody crying and in shock. What scared me the most was the fact that all the adults were so rattled.

Also watching Oswald getting whacked on live tv was surreal.
 
I was then working as a college placement counselor at the job placement office at Arizona State University. One of the secretaries hung up her phone and announced that Kennedy had been shot. We all thought it was some kind of joke at first, but she assured us it was serious. Later that day we were all glued to our TV sets and heard the gruesome details.

And to think that even today, 47 years later, we still don't know the truth about who was involved and why.

John
 
I was 13 at the time. We went to my paternal grand mothers funeral and returned to my aunts house. When we turned on the TV Walter Cronkite was detailing the Dallas shooting and he then broke the hospital report that the President was dead. That was one heck of a 5 minute segment in TV history.
Wheather or not you liked JFK and his politics, that was a tough way to end a presidency. I always felt badly for his wife and kids.
Oliver507
 
I was also across the dateline on a small island in the East Carolines.
My brother and I were playing pool at "The Club" which was empty except for us and the barman that morning. The guy had the jukebox top open and was playing rock and roll records one after another. No TV on the island and the radio wasn't on because the jukebox was.

After several games of rotation we walked home for lunch. The adults were just sitting around and I asked, "Hey! How come there's no lunch."
 
I was in 3rd year of high school, English class. The teacher announced what had happened and retreated to the teachers lounge to watch the news on TV. Meantime my buddy Mike (who was 19 and dropped out of school long ago) was wandering the halls looking for me. I remember he spotted me and walked into class. He talked me into cutting class and we drank beer the rest of the afternoon. Ask the OP's question of pretty much any "boomer" and they'll remember where they were. I do not think much of the Kennedy family or their politics, or morals.
 
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I was a freshman at North Texas State at Denton, Texas. The afternoon before his Texas visit, we drove to Ft Worth to see him and Jackie arrive from Carswell AFB. We were on the parking lot of the Texas Hotel that evening when they arrived. We elected to stay the night ,so we could hear his speech the next morning. That night, we spent most of out time in a beatnick spot called the Cellar, along with several SS agents. The next morning we were there when he, Johnson, and Connley came out for his brief speech. Afterward, we returned to Denton, just in time to hear he had been shot in Dallas. It was no surprise to us at all because he was VERY unpopular in Texas. So, I had the opportunity to hear his last speech in person.
 
I had just started a job, having dropped out of college after my discharge from 4 years in the USAF, and still "looking for myself". It was in a men's clothing store (I quit in Feb, 4 months later). The bookkeeper came out and announced the President had been shot. Not a sole came in for the next hour, and cars weren't moving on the street. The owner said we were closing for the rest of the day and we all left.

That day and 9/11 will never be forgotten.
 
3rd grade in Granger, UT. There were cloud formations I don't ever remember seeing before or since and 3 birds disappeared into them. It was a wierd day and a wierd week. No school for the rest of the week and us and all we knew were glued to the TV.
 
I was in Miss Cox's 3rd grade class when the news came over the intercom. I remember my teacher sobbing at the news.
 
I was a senior at Byrd High School in Shreveport, LA and heard it on the radio while cutting a class by going to get a hamburger from a nearby drive in restaurant.

Since then I have given a lot of thought as to what may have happened and as an accident & crime scene reconstructionist have looked at many loopholes in what the official record says.

Now, after having read statements by many that were close to the situation, I believe the most reliable evidence as to the truth behind the killing was the statements by Madeleine Brown. Pretty much everything she had to say has been confirmed by history.
 
Uvalde, Texas. Going to college at the time. Expected to go to war within a few days. That didn't happen right then, eventually it did. I've often wondered about the relationship between the 2 events.

rayb
 
I had just finished lunch with a banker at the Milleridge Inn in Hicksville, LI, NY. I turned the key to start the car, a white Chevy 2 wagon, and the first thing I heard on the radio was the initial report of shots fired in Dallas. We drove back to the office and heard that the President was declared dead just as we arrived. We closed the business immediately but I had to stay as my brand new Dodge Polara 383 was to be delivered that afternoon. I have trouble remembering yesterday's breakfast but I swear I can still feel the chill from that first announcement.

Frank
 
Taking a final exam for Descriptive Geometry. It was a gloomy day in Port Huron, MI that day - made gloomier by that devastating news.
 
I was on a SAC base in Ok; when I heard and with in minutes our B-52's and KC-135's were sent to the runway with orders to hold since no one was sure what was happening. Thankfully they were not sent.
 
Standing in the drinking fountain line following afternoon recess at Eastland Elementary in Fort Worth, Texas. I was in the second grade. Overheard two teachers whispering about it.
 
22 Nov 63

I was on the pistol range at Fort Gordon, Georgia instructing on the .45. We were all sent to the barracks and dressed in A-1's, and then stood on the parade field for 7 hours in a heavy rain storm waiting for orders which never came. I'll never believe that gun and ammo made that shot three times.
 
I was not born yet, so only God and science knows where I was... However, I did grow up in Boston, and it was/is such a big deal there, that it seemed as though the incident was continually occurring throughout my childhood. So, I guess it was almost like being around when it happened...
 
High school mechanical drawing (drafting) class.

LTC
 
I was also a 5th grader. That was a beautiful sunny crisp fall day. We were playing tag, running with the blowing leaves when Sister Mary Louise blew her whistle stopping play and announcing the assassination. I do not think that I fully appreciated the event until I went home and my mother was crying which was huge because even though we were Catholic, she did not like JFK.
I find it amazing to think that at one time he was considered a liberal.
 
I had been discharged from Ft Lewis not to long and was working as a "bench stacker" at Northwest Door and Plywood in Tacoma; we did not hear about it until lunch break. A week later was notified I would become a firefighter in Mn.
 
"Where were you on Nov 22, 1963?"

I have no independent recollection, and if I did, I would not be at liberty to divulged such information...but I swear it wasn't the grassy knoll...No really ;)

The date shouldn't escape anyone though, a quick trip to the depleted tin foil aisle at the grocery store this time of year serves as an annual reminder :D...
 
I was living in Tulsa, Oklahoma and teaching at Berryhill school, just west of town.

At just a bit after 1:00 I remember coming out of the school, and the superintendent was just coming into the building. He said..."Somebody just shot the president." That how I found out about it.

I then remember everything shutting down until after the funeral, and I remember watching Jack Ruby shooting Oswald on live tv, in the basement of the Dallas PD.

Other "iconic memories" are the tv pictures of the caisson carrying the coffin in the parade down Pennsylvania Avenue....and the drumers playing the funeral drum cadence.

I also remember John Jr. giving that snappy military salute!
 
I was at home with my mother, I believe. I'm pretty sure I crapped my pants, but then again I was not yet 5 months old, so I really don't remember. :o
 
On duty with the 465th Bombardment Wing (Heavy) at Warner Robins AFB, Georgia. The siren went off and we started launching our B-52s.
 
1st grade Marlyland Ave. Elementary School in Livermore CA. The school put all of us kids K-6th grade in the multi purpose room and wheeled in about 6 televisions and turned them on to the news coverage.What I remember most are the tears in my Mothers eyes when she picked us kids up.Both of my parents were/are Republicans but they appreciated J.F.K.
 
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