Where were you when JFK was shot?

[Surfcal]

Just a place for folks to put their thoughts down.

Surfcal

[kathybrj]

not born yet...I vaguely remember the first moon walk, though.

My parents speak about where they were when JFK was shot, now and again. It was a very sad time for them, as well as the nation.

[labontefan]

I guess Kennedy's assassination is one of those moments that "defines a generation", so to speak. Just about any "baby boomer" (like me) can remember exactly where he/she was and what he/she was doing when they heard the news. My mom was the same way about Pearl Harbor and FDR's death.

I was in the 8th grade (high school since our HS was grades 8-12), in Home Economics class. We were learning how to sew buttonholes (by hand--no fancy machines back in the olden days). The principal came over the intercom system, and we were all expecting the usual, "So-and-so please report to the office", etc. He said that President Kennedy had been attacked by an assassin in Dallas. I waited for him to say that everything was all right, but he then said that the President had been wounded and taken to the hospital. Then he left the intercom open and the radio on, and we all just sat and listened. Seems like we had only been listening a few minutes, when a newscaster very solemnly made the announcement, "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States is dead." I can still remember hearing a sort of collective gasp from the entire school.

The principal just left the intercom open and left the radio on. The announcement came during the next to last class of the day. When the bell rang to end the class, we all changed classes but I have never heard the halls so quiet. No one was doing much talking, and seems like people were even careful about slamming their lockers. In the last class, I sat with my head down on my desk and listened to the radio. So did eveyone else.

Even now, typing this, the memory brings tears to my eyes.


I said my mother was the same way about Pearl Harbor. She said she sat in my grandmother's rocking chair rocking my older brother (who was only about 8 months old) for hours while listening to the radio broadcast about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sixty years later she sat in that same rocking chair for hours watching TV about the 9/11 attacks. What a tragic coincidence!

[Used 2B PopUPTimes]

I was in my 6th grade class room.

[wiininkwe]

I was a Junior in high school, and when we heard the news I was in our choir class.   Every one was crying, no one knew what to do.  Lots of the teachers just let their students go, and we didn't even go home, just wandered around in the halls crying.   When I finally went home, my mom had the tv on and was ironing and crying.   This was, for many of us, the first time we were aware of politics, who was president, and what that meant.   Young people my age saw him as someone who would bring great things to happen for all of us, and this was very frightening, was totally outside of our range of experience and emotion.   I think, and I've been known to be wrong, that this event colored the thinking of many who went into what is now known as an 'alternate life style'.  (no, not the one we think of today when we say that)   Many of us became more politically active, or became activists, or radicals or hippies, or whatever you want to call them.   Our culture began to make big changes following this, music changed, the way we looked at our authority figures changed, movies began to make a statement instead of just entertaining us.   Yes, Viet Nam was largely responsible for these things, too, but I believe there was a combination of things at play here.   I talk to people that I know, and compare notes with them as to what they were doing during the 60's and 70's.   Some were listening to the Beach Boys and having fun, fun, fun.   Others were listening to Bob Dylan and demonstrating.   What wonderful and horrifying times those were.

T

[B-flat]

I was in class at school.  The principal was actually the teacher of my grade and we had just come back in from break.  He said the President was dead.  Everyone wanted to know how he found out and he said my grandmother had been watching TV newscast and called him to tell him to turn on the school TV.  I remember how sad it seemed that our President had been killed and it seemed like weeks and weeks that it was shown over and over on the news.  That family has endured so many tragedies.

[maromeo]

I was 5 years old but I remember my family's reaction. All my relatives showed up and were crying. It seemed like the whole city of Pittsburgh just shut down. My father came home early from work. I remember going to my grandparent's house on the day of the funeral for JFK, that was the first time I saw a color television, and to see all the red, white and blue and the funeral procession is still imbedded in my brain. These reminders make you feel so sad.

Mary Romeo

[Civil_War_Buff]

Like Dave,  I was in my 6th grade classroom.

[garym053]

I think our generation(s) have been shaped by many events, the JFK Assasination, VietNam, Martin Luther King, RFK, 911, etc. I was in 3rd grade when JFK was shot, but even more personally heartwrenching (as I said, personally) was my oldest brother volunteering for Vietnam, after serving in Korea (not Korea war though), because he felt the US had a commitment to accomplish there! Then MLK & RFK, Then 2 years, 2 months and 11 days ago, another tragedy in our collective lives, 911!
Obviously we were all sad to see the Kennedy's and MLK killed or 911, but the biggest scar on my life was waiting for that official car to pull up out front to tell us that my brother had been killed! It never happened, but SOMETHING in him died over there and I don't know what it was! He was the kindest, most gentle person I knew when he left, (he used to hide me in his closet or under his bed when I was in trouble with our parents!) He came back changed! Whatever the reason, Agent Orange, the protester's, the whole sham of the war, I don't know, but I know I'm not alone in losing part of a brother to that war, I certainly hope we don't end up doing the same to our brave men and women in Iraq! I'm soryy if people feel that is wrong, but I would worry more about how our people, who one way or another, are protecting us are being treated than a president being assasinated 40 years ago!

[Gone-Camping]

I was in my 4th grade class room. They stopped all the lessons, turned on a radio and we all sat there and listened to the reports for an hour or so. School was let out early, and didn't go back in for a couple of days.
 
It was a defining moment in our history, and such things created a "Snap-shot" in time when things like that happen, kinda of like remembering (but in a much bigger way) when I first saw Beatles on TV (Ed Sulivan Show)...

[jstaddwtr]

And I too was in 6th grade!

And your right!  It was the time of the Beatles invasion, Ed Sullivan and Dick Van Dyke, Ponderosa and Disney...for most of us....black and white television.  Today I heard snippets of the original Television broadcasts and they made me remember more than I have in years.  

Schools were out and everyone was watching....hence, almost everyone saw Ruby kill Oswald, live on TV.  Everything was on overload and events were going faster than most people could comprehend.

No one knew what to think.  There was unity in mourning and a fear of a potential nuclear war since both sides were shocked and scared.  Everyone feared the unknown. Thank you for starting this thread.  It is good to remember!  Nowadays we just don't make the time!

[B-flat]

My local as well as the big nearby city newspaper was filled with interesting articles with many people telling what they were doing when JFK was shot.

[jpreiser]

Sorry i was not even born yet.......

[tlhdoc]

I was at my Grandmothers coming in the back door, when I heard my Gram scream and start crying.  It made a big impact on me as I was a child.

[Starryart]

I was in the 3rd grade at a Catholic school. I remember the nuns told our class the president had been shot and they released us to go home early.
I remember going home and walking into the den and my mother was standing at her ironing board staring at our black and white TV. She was just standing there crying! I felt so helpless to comfort her.