Where were you when JFK was shot?

[model70hunter]

Senior year of HS. It was announced at the end of a class, the president was shot and is dead.

Walking to the next class was surreal. It was very quiet, all had the look of shock on their face. Those that cried did it very quietly.

I was not shocked that the president had been shot, he was not the first. I was shocked that JFK who was very popular was shot.

I remember the quiet silent crying and a quiet somber dinner at our house with all eyes and ears locked onto Walter Cronkite. My Dad was upset, he was a WW 2 Vet and the Vets had one of their's in the White House, a man with brass and toughness. Dad was Livid, he wanted answers.

The silence was broken by Jack Ruby, it was live, a shooting that happened so quick it would have been missed had you blinked.

It was followed by anger directed at Ruby, Why? Now we will never really know the why.

It forever changed America.

 

[Dutchs]

I was 4 years old...I don't actually remember the event but I remember the sorrow everywhere..I want to say it was my first experience of a mass of bad feelings for the country.......My Grandma cried for a long time.....

 

[Hofstet]

In school, 8th grade. Remember that we got sent home early that day.

 

[mattallamerican]

i was in 2nd grade they let us out early i didnt no he was shot untill i got home. quote from joe dimaggio the kennedys got what they had comming to them

 

[Engineer1911]

It was 1:14 PM Central time when the announcement was made at Memorial High School in Eau Claire, WI. I was a junior in Miss Berg's third year Latin Class.

 

[labworm]

I was a Junior in High School sitting in a English Class.

Our teacher left the class for about 20 minutes then returned with the news.

To this day I remember how quiet it was at home for at least 7 days. Everyone glued to the TV, my mother constantly crying, just outright sad.

 

[Old TexMex]

I was in 5th grade. The principal called us out in the hall (all 98 students in the only school in town...1st through 8th grade...we didn't have a high school) he said quietly, "Y'all go on home now." we all knew it was serious, 'cause the Coast Guard had been drilling out in front of the station since the Cuban missile thing last year. We all felt like we were on the front lines of the war with Russia. We were kids.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Getting ready to go back to class after lunch. High School Freshman year.

 

[GRIZZLYBEAR]

I was arriving in Nam on that day.

 

[Beemerguy53]

I was in the 5th grade in my Catholic elementary school in Baltimore. Our principal came on the school's PA system and announced that the President had been shot, and asked us to pray for him. She came on again a few minutes later and announced he had died.

When I got home, my mother -- a proud Irish-Catholic girl -- was distraught. "They got him, they got him" she kept saying.

I remember watching the funeral on Monday, and my Dad explaining to me the symbolism of the riderless horse with the boots backwards in the stirrups...

Just thinking about those events upsets me...I don't ever want our country to go through anything like that again. Other nations change governments through violence and treachery...that's not the way we do it here.

 

[shouldazagged]

Just thinking about those events upsets me...I don't ever want our country to go through anything like that again. Other nations change governments through violence and treachery...that's not the way we do it here.

Amen. May that continue to be the situation.

 

[ferretray]

I was in class. Elementary, don't remember what grade.
I recall the teachers grieving, then watching the film that evening.
I'm currently living in the old servant quarters of the mansion where the Kennedy's had lunch on that terrible day.
What stands out in my mind is the photo of the Presidents son saluting during the funeral procession.

 

[Smoke]

wasn't even an itch in my daddy's pants

 

[MK]

First grade. Red Bluff Elementary in Pasadena, Tejas.
I think we had just got back from lunch.. We were sitting in class
when another teacher came to the room and talked with our teacher
for a while out in the hall.
Then our teacher came in and announced that Kennedy had been
shot. Then about an hour later the principal came on the intercom
and announced that he had died.
As I recall, we went home at the normal time, but probably more
parents out front than usual.. I walked home and no cartoons.

In fact, nothing but Kennedy stuff and funeral on TV for the next four
or so days. I pretty much watched all of it.
I remember one of the Houston newspapers published a big huge
full page photo of Oswald on the morgue slab with a big hole in his
gut.

 

[mstuhr]

Fifth grade

Howdy,
Late to the party again.
I was in fifth grade at McCray Dewy. I tangled with a patriot that day. I was always a little on the immature side. I meant no disrespect but said something smart at the announcement.
Jeffery Topal, my best friend at the time, punched me square in the nose.
He was my age and had a much better grasp on how serious things were.
Thanks
Mike

 

[Davwingman]

My bride to be & I were coming out of the courthouse where she had just purchased our marriage license. Soon be 50 years of bliss!

 

[STCM(SW)]

Out at sea on a DD in the Atlantic ocean some where......
Captain made the announcement over the 1MC.

 

[S&WIowegan]

I remember vividly but I'm not gonna answer this question any more. UH, where was I??

 

[Jack Flash]

Jr. High study hall, somewhere around 1 pm, IIRC.

 

[Donn]

9th grade mechanical drawing.

 

[rvanpelt]

I was a ninth grader in my American Govt. class, how ironic, when we got the word he'd been shot. After lunch, in English class when he was pronounced dead. They played the radio over the intercom to all of the classrooms. No tvs in every classroom like today.
Seems like only yesterday.
Rod