Where were you when you heard?

[tomtheturner]

Where was I . . .

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]

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]

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]

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

 

[jgh4445]

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]

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]

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

 

[Jinglebob]

I was a senior in high school.

 

[NYlakesider]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Working in HQ PACAF at Hickam AFB, HI.

 

[Cyrano]

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]

In the university and had just finished lunch.

 

[tom turner]

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]

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]

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]

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.