Where were you when JFK was shot?

[BigBill]

It was a Friday afternoon after lunch sometime. I was in my 7th grade science class. All the teachers were crying.

 

[OFT II]

I was sound asleep in a quonset hut in Camp Kaiser, Korea. The first shirt came in about four o'clock in the morning raising hell and said that the president had been shot and we were going of full alert.

 

[LTC]

I was in my high school mechanical drawing class.

LTC

 

[LoadedRound]

I was 3 months old.

 

[REM 3200]

I was in basic training at Ft. Polk, LA.

 

[Nico Testosteros]

I was something like -10 months old.

 

[Cocked & Locked]

I was 20 years and one month old then...doing what 20 year olds do. Nothing worthwhile.

 

[kimporter]

was in 1st grade at the time,remember the news flash on tv(interrupted my afternoon cartoons)

 

[kozmic]

I was a 4-1/2 y.o. preschooler, but I remember watching Walter Cronkite and the news coverage (in black and white of course) with my mother.

 

[DaGOOSExyz]

I was in 10th grade English class. A boy who had gone to the rest room
came back and said they were saying the president had been shot. Then
there was a lot teachers out in the hallway. Our teacher Mrs Crawford
said for us to put our heads down on our desk for a few mins. Then
she went out in the hallway. Shortly after they came over the loud
speaker system that the president had been shot. Not long after we
had a second announcement he was dead. I remember it like it was
yesterday.

 

[charlie sherrill]

I was in 10th grade. They sent us home early and I was able to watch the news. The records on this were sealed for 50 years. Do we get to look at them anytime soon? We have never been told the whole truth about this and I would like to know.

 

[tops]

I was in one of the inspection dept. at Western Electric and one of the ladies that worked there (Mattie ------) told me he had been shot. Larry

 

[gdnagle]

Don't know what class I was in in H.S., principle never told anyone until the 3:00 bell. Then cried while he told us.

 

[max]

10th grade chemistry, Mr. Myers told us the news. The coach lived next door to the school and his wife saw it on tv and called the school or came over. A lot of the teachers stayed in the teacher's lounge after lunch. Mr. Myers was about 15 minutes late to class.

 

[diamonback68]

I was working in Fontainebleau France at the time. Try explaining that to the Europeans.

 

[feralmerril]

I was working out of rosenberg texas. I was a foreman on crews treating old utility poles for groundline decay. It had rained us out that day somewhere near galviston. It was a cold rain. I was staying at a very old small old cheap dive hotel in rosenburg. It was called the plaza hotel. A real old single woman ran/owned it. We pulled in and she told us. Two things I recall: My partner said, "Well, he wanted to be just like lincoln and he ended up just like lincoln!" The old lady was wringing her hands weeping and her biggest concern was "What will the world think of texas now?"
That seemed to be the most frequent comment I heard for the next few days! I couldnt relate to that as I thought it would have or could have happened anywhere. The proud natives of texas were all concerned with the same thing, "What will the world think of texas now?" I was 22 years old.

 

[JonF]

I was driving from the Long Beach office of Southern Calif. Edison (my work place), to the Huntington Park office. When I arrived the Home Economists and their audience were all crying.
One very sad/bad day.

 

[Taurus627]

That was about 2 years before my time. I was in 8th grade social studies class when Reagan was shot!!!

 

[Iggy]

Commander of Cadets, ROTC drill period at the Univ of WY.
We received the word when we returned from the drill field and formed up in the armory for dismissal.

 

[BaldEagle1313]

Six years old, in Mrs. Reeds 1st grade class. Announcement made on the loudspeaker, teachers started crying, after a time they sent us all home. My older brother (9 years old, in 4th grade at the same school) walked me and our little sister (5 years old, in kindergarten) to the house of family friends who lived a block from the school so we'd have adult supervision until mom could get home from the advertising agency where she worked.

I've talked to my brother about that day. It's remarkable how different our memories of it are. Of course, that applies to a lot of things that happened during our childhood, whether it was the Kennedy assassination, Armstrong walking on the moon or Woodstock and Vietnam.

 

[Marshwheeling]

11th grade English class.

 

[NYlakesider]

Tenth grade student in a study hall at Albany High School.

A couple kids during the class change were saying the president got shot and killed. We all thought this was some sick prank those kids were making.

About 15 minutes later the principal came into our room and told us what happened and were to be released shortly at the next bell. Sure enough about 10 minutes later we were out of school.

 

[jgh4445]

7th Grade in Toul France. We gonna do this again on Nov. 22?

 

[Snapping Twig]

4th grade class.

Looked at the clock to document the time, everything else was a blur.

I remember that entire weekend with the news coverage.

I too would like the files opend, non redacted and would appreciate the truth - for a change.

 

[walkin jack]

I was an FMF Corpsman serving with the 3rd Mar Div at Camp Hansen Okinawa. I was amazed to find out how much the people of Okinawa loved JFK. The Military observed a 2-week mourning period. All recreational facilities on the base were closed and the flag was flown at half-mast for 2 weeks.

Kin Village, just across the road from the base observed a 30-day mourning period. You could not buy a drink...or much of anything else in the Ville for 30 days. I was in tight with the owners and "staff" of the Bar New Orleans in the ville. I would go to the back door and knock and Papasan would let me in and I would sit around with Momasan and Papasan and the "staff" and drink sake and cry and mourn the loss of a great American. They would not let me pay for my drinks either.

 

[Straightshooter2]

We were changing classes and I was heading to 9th grade English. We noticed a someone from the office going around and speaking to all the teachers in that hall and many of the teachers crying. We asked what was going on and our teacher said an announcement would be made in just a few moments. As soon as the class bell stopped ringing, our principal made the announcement that he had been shot. A few minutes later he came back on the PA, confirmed that Kennedy was dead and that school was dismissed early. I got a ride with a friend and I remember the shop teacher directing traffic out of the parking lot with tears literally dripping off his face. I went to pick up my Atlanta Journals to deliver on my paper route and we were told that a special edition would be out later, to come back to our distribution point and deliver those also. Somewhere I still have that edition of the Journal and the one from the day of his funeral.

CW

 

[PlaytheAces]

I was in sixth grade when our teacher announced the shooting. I don't think we found out JFK had died until we got home, though I'm a little fuzzy on that. I recall some typical "kid" discussions the next day.

I distinctly remember a few days later watching our black and white Magavox, and seeing them lead Oswald out of the police station when suddenly he was shot by Ruby. For some reason that's an image that's stayed with me over the years.

 

[Mike McLellan]

I was in Dallas. I met up with a local cop who had a Model 10 for sale. We were standing on this grassy knoll overlooking the main road, and I was checking out the feel and the sights. I asked him if I could dry-fire it to check the action. He said, "Sure. What could it hurt?".

 

[medxam]

I was in my pathology residency at the Medical University of SC in Charleston, SC, doing an autopsy on a gunshot wound victim. I wondered who would do the post on JFK! Unfortunately, I could have done a better autopsy on him than the "old farts" at Bethesda who had not done autopsies in years!

medxam

 

[vigil617]

In my second grade classroom. The intercom system came on, and someone in the office was playing the radio news coverage into the system. That's how we found out.

Shortly afterward, as if by magic, parents' cars began lining up on the street outside school to pick us up early.

No one had called them, of course. Back then, people just knew to go get their kids.