I was 15 years old. I loved JFK, never missed his press conferences. I was at school that day. Our principal announced that our president had been shot. It was like a collective gasp, all through the school. Teachers, students, all crying at our desks. Then came the unbelievable news that he had died. We were dismissed then. When I arrived home, my mom and I cried together. I kept thinking...how will we go on without him. Those 4 days, I cried my heart out. The drums, the beat of those funeral drums. I can tap it out still, it is so ingrained in my mind. Through the years, I have always thought of him. I was honored to go to his grave, and the Kennedy Library. I still miss him...I still cry.
I was very small and at home with my mom. She was sobbing uncontrollably-she just carried me and kept crying. Thankfully my dad came home and our world became right again. (It is the earliest memory I can recall!)
Thank you for your presentation. I have been drawn back to the Kennedy tragedy by listening to Bob Dylan's new song in 2020, "Murder Most Foul." Truly a masterpiece describing a government and media that have fed us a lot of lies. I visited the Museum in January 1997 when I was in Dallas. Very worth seeing. I walked Dealey Plaza and found it smaller and more compact than I first imagined it. The "X" in the pavement of Elm Street was very powerful. As for me, I was in diapers when it happened. President Kennedy was buried on my first birthday.
I was in the 5th grade classroom at St. Batrtholomew's Catholic grade school in San Mateo, CA. I heard the Mother Superior nun coming down the hallway faster than ever before. A minute later she summoned all the teacher nuns to the main office leaving us without an adult in the room, the only time that ever happened. A couple minutes later our teacher nun came back in the room and told us we were going to follow the emergency plan we had practiced the year before during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was if you could walk home in 20 minutes leave, otherwise the rest of the class was going to the basement. We were told President Kennedy had been shot and to get moving. I lived across the street from the school on Tulane Road. I ran home and turned on the tv and Walter Cronkite was following up on the first AP bulletin that JFK had been shot as his motorcade went through downtown Dallas, Texas. I started praying he would be alive. About 40 minutes later, Cronkite gave the final word that JFK had died. I kept saying to myself, why was he in Texas? Why did he have to go there? That summer I had watched the Brandenburg Gate visit and Berlin Wall speech live on tv. After Cronkite's announcement, I watched the tv all afternoon and night watching coverage of the landing at Andrews AFB and the story of JFK's life. On Sunday, I saw the shooting in the Dallas Police station basement live too. On Monday, I was still glued to the tv set watching the procession and burial. America has never recovered from that horrific and mind numbing weekend. Now, instead of making the world safe for diversity (JFK's American University speech June 1963), we are trying to fight off the very real attempt to promote a would be dictator and the neutering and dismantling of American democracy. Instead of a New Frontier, we have a new confederacy movement. Lord, save us from ourselves.
I was 3 1/2 years old and watching As the World Turns with my mom when Walter Cronkite break in with the tragic news. I visited the Sixth Floor Museum way back in 1973 with my dad BEFORE it was in the TBSD. I also walked around Dealey Plaza seeing the Grassy Knoll and the X on the road.
In Mrs. Smith's 1st grade class at P.S. #30. We grasped that it was very sad and very serious. But none of us 6-year-olds cried. (Mrs. Smith was probably a little bit emotional but controlled herself, though I don't remember.) We were too young to know about tragedy or any reason for shock or grief, especially if caused by something happening far, far away. We were a long way from comprehending the idea of political assassination, though that day offered a pretty strong first lesson. When I got home, my mother was at the kitchen table with a friend, and they were chatting and having coffee, and they both smiled when I walked in. My mother had turned the volume on the TV set all the way down when she and her friend sat down for their coffee and conversation. I told her what Mrs. Smith had told us about the president. They both smiled again, with my Mother thinking that one of the older kids in the neighborhood had again hoped to fool me or scare me with a tall tale, as the "big kids" are known to do to the younger ones. No, I told her, it wasn't one of the older kids who told me this ... it was Mrs. Smith. And I can vaguely see my mother and her friend lose their smiles, rise from their chairs in the kitchen, and hurry into the living room, where Mom raised the volume back up on the TV. And when that weekend was finally over, the words "assassinated", "motorcade", and "the *late* president" had become words I understood, long before I otherwise would have.
I remember it well.. I was in second grade at a school in Napa, CA. The intercom phone from the Principal’s office to our classroom rang and our teacher was in absolute shock as she relayed the news to us that JFK has been shot. We broke for lunch and upon returning, we were released from school for the rest of the day.
Me too. I was in the 2nd grade and was told right before lunch. At the time I had never heard the word assassination before. Ate my sandwich, had my soup from a Thermos and tried to understand what had happened. I learned how to fold a flag from watching them on our black and white TV.
I WAS 13 LIVING WITH MY DAD IN IRVING TEXAS!..WE LIVED DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM RUTH PAIN!!...ME AND MY DAD WERE AT HOME WHEN JFK WAS ASSASSINATED,WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GO WATCH THE MOTORCADE BUT WE HAD TO MISS IT BECAUSE MY DAD'S WORK MESSED OUR PLANS UP!...THERE IS MUCH MORE TO THIS STORY BUT I'LL HOLD MY TONGUE FOR NOW!
I was just nine years old and remember it very clearly. My Mam and Dad just couldn’t believe it and I also recall When Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, those events are so tragic and something that I will remember for the rest of my life. Of course I have read many books and seen lots of films and documentaries regarding the assassination.
I was 13 years old in Grade Eight at a Jr. High School in Canada. After an announcement by the Principal over the P.A. system we were told that school was closed for the rest of the day and we were free to go home. People were really upset and a lot of the girls were crying in the hallway as we changed classes as were some of the teachers. We walked home two miles in a somber mood and turned on our black & white TV to learn more. It took a few days for the news to sink in.
I was in between classes and someone with a transistor radio said that the President had been shot. Everyone laughed saying yeah sure. The next period class started and about 11:30 the principal came on the intercom and said that John Fitzgerald Kennedy had died. The entire high school went to Mass and after that we were dismissed for the day. The country has changed so much and to this day we as a nation have been unable to achieve the things we were going to do. We lost so much
6th grade, Miss Tenon’s class, PS 242, Canarsie Brooklyn, grey, chilly day. We were like zombies walking home from school. The mothers were all crying. Next 4 days we were glued to the TV.
I was in 10th grade at Hyde Park High school home room. Three months before I actually saw the President pass by me with window open turning into Boston Children"s hospital, I was on my way to summer school classes at Boston Latln.
I was eight years old, at school in Las Vegas Nevada Halle Hewtson Elementary, I was in a reading class and the school secretary ran down the hallways shouting the President has been shot. We were sent home and glued to the television for those 4 dark days. People forget both Caroline and John Jr. had birthdays. I remember the sadness, the tears the loss and a sense that our lives forever changed. I was in first grade in Superior Wisconsin when President Kennedy was inaugurated they wheeled a television set into the classroom so we could see the inaugural address.
I was in the 7th grade class at Buckeye Elementary school in Bell County, Kentucky. It was the day after my 12th birthday. Kennedy was my hero. I had collected pictures and articles about him since he was president. My best friend and I had sneaked and glued pictures that morning while in class. We had our work done but was supposed to be reading. We'd been outside for our PE class. It was a beautiful day. We didn't have a gym. We'd played softball. The bell rang early. We went inside. I seen our janitor talking to our teacher. She looked upset when they were talking. He was a Baptist preacher. I knew that look that preachers could have. After we all sat down the principal announced over the intercom that the president had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. I couldn't say anything. The busses were already at the school so they sent us home. On the bus no one was saying anything except the lower grades like the 1-3 grades. They didn't understand. We didn't have kindergarten back then. I remember I felt like my chest was going to burst. My best friend was beside me, she wasn't saying anything either. I got home, mommy had heard on the radio, we didn't have a TV. Many people were I lived didn't have a TV. My sister came home from high school. We waited until daddy came home from the coal mine, we walked out of the hollow to go to my aunt's house to watch the television. I had cried so much by then that I couldn't talk. My mom at first didn't want to go to my aunt's because she thought it would be worse for me. I wanted to go. We stayed late that night watching TV. I was almost inconsolable. My daddy went back to my aunt's with me the next day. I watched it all. I've read almost everything there's been written about it, even the crazy things. I seen Oswald shot on live tv. I jumped up, I was happy. My daddy said that knowledge would go to the grave with him. I'm 70 years old. I've never believed that only Oswald was involved. People wonder why we can't totally trust the government. This is when I realized that the government had lied to us. I don't know why but I have my suspicions of people.
I was 3yrs old and 3 days away from my 4th birthday(Nov 25th) watching tv(black&white) while lying on my stomach(on the stairs looking out the handrails) while my father and mother were outside painting the house. I didn't even know what a "president" was, but I remember becoming very absorbed into the serious nature of the conversations taking place and watching as the car pulled into the hospital and hoping it wouldn't be as bad as everyone seemed to believe it was. And then when my mom came into the room it was even more shocking to realize that she seemed to be "hoping" that he actually WAS dead. I'd discovered her propensity for lying(and laughing joyfully about it too) only seven months prior to this when I awoke "too early" on Easter Morning and saw her and my dad stuffing those Easter baskets with candy. Strangely enough, THIS(Easter Bunny Lie) was a much worse experience for me. And THAT being one of THE WORST moments in my life must mean that I have had a pretty damn GOOD ONE!(both "Life" AND "Parents"!)
The day before the assassination I stood on the median of Broadway in Alamo Heights San Antonio Texas as the presidential motorcade passed. I was close enough to hear the sound of voices in the limo. The motorcade passed at about 25 mph so we didn't get a long look but it was an exciting moment. The following day I was taking an exam for employment at the USAA insurance company when the lady who was monitoring the exam entered the room where I was and announced to me that the president had been shot. She asked if I would care to leave and come back at another time. Not knowing the details of the shooting, I chose to remain and finish the exam. When I finished and handed the exam papers to the monitor I asked if there was any news about the shooting and she told me that the president was dead. I rushed home to see what TV coverage and found that all stations were covering the assassination but facts were scarcely known so all I saw was bits and pieces of the incident. I was 26 years old at the time so I took this incident seriously as I do today 60 years later.
I always remember my mom saying she was at doctor's office when the nurse announced to the people in the waiting room that President Kennedy had been shot. The nurse heard it over a radio in the office.
Was in 1st grade. Catholic school. JFK was Catholic & that was a big deal back then. Nun breaks the news to class, has us pray, turns on TV (one of the benefits of Catholic schools was TVs in the classrooms), then sent us home early. Walked home alone as a 7 year old (different world back then). Spent the weekend at home with TV on watching until the cemetery at Arlington. Played with toy soldiers imitating the funeral procession. Yep, vivid recollection that changed our country forever.
In first grade. They sent us all home, I didn't understand much why, and don't remember much about the rest of the day. However -- I remember the shooting of Oswald very distinctly, sitting with my dad in front of the TV when commotion started, and Dad glanced over at me and said something like "Somebody shot him!" I think I realized it at the same time.
I was in the 3rd grade living in NYC when JFK was shot my class had just came back from lunch it had to have been around 1pm EST we was in the class and a teacher came in the room and whispered something in my teacher's ear then our teacher broke down and cried in front of us and i was wondering why she was crying then she told the class that we had to go down to the auditorium then all the classes had assemble there then the principal made the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot and that the school is being dismiss for the day, i remembered it being on a Friday, i ran home to tell my mother like if she didnt know lol, that was a very sad day in America that i will never forget.
Mike Barker 1 second ago I was a junior in college at the time we heard the news that the President's caravan had been fired on. My girlfriend (at the time) and I rushed to the nearest TV to watch the incoming updates. As we listened to Walter Cronkite announce that the President had died, we all felt that we had lost a family member, it was that impacting. That was a very sad day indeed, one that we will never forget!
I Was 5 years Old, but I Remember it like it was Yesterday !!!....Our Kindergarten Teacher Summoed us All Around Her , and Told Us to Be Seated . She Told us that Something Had happened to President Kennedy, and that we would be sent Home Early that Day !! We were just children, and Our Teacher Realized we were to young to process The President being Killed, so she did not tell us that the President was actually Dead . So we went Home and Started Looking at Non-stop Black and White Commercialess Television For the Next 4 Strait Days, Covering Nothing But the Assassination !!! Such Greif Has Never Been Experienced In The History of Mankind !!!......
havin lunch in high school in texas. first thought we all had waas tht lbj did it, as his hatred for jfk was legendary.... never forget the sound of women crying in the lunch counter at the news... release all the files !!!
When President Kennedy was shot I was in my kitchen with the tv on in Vernon, Ct. President Kennedy was the first President I voted for. He was a great special president to me. Never got another President to match President Kennedy's greatness until President Trump.
I was in Kindergarten at St Barnabas School in the Bronx NY. I was in the morning class and by chance on Nov 22nd my Mom was scheduled to come to the school for a parent/teacher conference, I recall hearing that the President had been shot while having lunch at home. By the time my Mom and I arrived at the school, all the students and nuns from other grades were in front of the statue of Mary outside the church's convent, saying prayers for the President,. My mom wanted me to go pray with the other children but I refused because "they weren't my class". Soon after it was announced that he had died and I have carried that guilt for 57 years.
I was turning 4 yrs old on December 17th, 1963. I was barely out of diapers. Growing up, hearing this story every year, I always said, once I could understand and seen the famous Z film, I could swear the 3rd shot had to come from the front and right of Kennedy's car. Because, why would a piece of his skull and brain be on the left side of the trunk? If the shot came from the back, it would've flew out to the right of the car!!?? That's just my thought and opinion of it !!
The saddest I have ever seen People in this Country. I think when they saw that Kennedy wasn't safe, they felt like they were more vulnerable about their own invincibility.
Was in 7th grade at Southbury, Ct elementary school in the lunchroom. Principal got on intercom crying and said he was shot and a little later announced his death crying her eyes out.
I was in 4th grade at the time of JFK’s assasination. I had just finished lunch, left the cafeteria, and noticed teachers and students crying. At that time I heard the president had been shot and killed in Dallas.
I was 6 years old, in First Grade and at San Fernando Elementary School in San Fernando California. Our teacher, a women whose name I can't remember, was given the horrible news by another female teacher. Our teacher told us to go out to the playground. I remember being stubborn looking at my "Curious George" book and didn't get up to leave. My teacher came over to me and said to me, "Raul you have to out to the playground". I was getting upset seeing some of the teachers crying in the hallway. I saw a friend in the hallway, as we filed out, and asked him what had happened. He said he didn't know. The American Flag was lowered to half mast. Our School Principal said, and I'm paraphrasing, our President John F. Kennedy was killed today in Dallas, Texas. We are in recess until next Monday. You are free to go home. I'll never forget our Beloved music teacher, an Afro-American woman who would play the Autoharp and sing songs with us, looking up to the clear blue sky with tears running down her face crying. That image is seared in my mind! I'll never forget that tragic day!
Of all of the touching remarks I've read here, what strikes me, is how the ones who were crying, were women and girls, which is fine. Boys and men understood the expectations of being boys and men. Today I fear with social re-engineering, more boys and men would be crying, than girls and women.
@CCRider I'm always amazed at how certain people need to be spoon-fed certain information. It should stand to reason, I'm not including family members, especially children. My point is my expectation especially for those times where masculinity and femininity was clearly understood, that the vast majority of those who be crying upon hearing of the death of JFK, would be women and girls.
I was a baby my mom said she was feeding me when it came on the news he was shot when he came to Ireland my mom brought me in to see him I was only 4 months old and she held me up when he was going by she nearly let me fall she always said she wished she had a camera he waved to me
Good thing I was only 5. To young to understand. I laugh at the LBJ cover up joke WC report where all evidence was just the joke lone wolf Oswald 3 shots 6 floor book blg an most everything else left out. Zapruder film as clear as day proves last 2 shots 1.8 seconds apart 1st a shot to the back. The 2nd from right front side that blew a piece of his skull out an landed on trunk. No way rifles found on 6 floor book blg can shoot that fast and hit him in front side of his head when limmo was past the door of last shot...
I was 15 years old. I loved JFK, never missed his press conferences. I was at school that day. Our principal announced that our president had been shot. It was like a collective gasp, all through the school. Teachers, students, all crying at our desks. Then came the unbelievable news that he had died. We were dismissed then. When I arrived home, my mom and I cried together. I kept thinking...how will we go on without him. Those 4 days, I cried my heart out. The drums, the beat of those funeral drums. I can tap it out still, it is so ingrained in my mind. Through the years, I have always thought of him. I was honored to go to his grave, and the Kennedy Library. I still miss him...I still cry.
I was very small and at home with my mom. She was sobbing uncontrollably-she just carried me and kept crying. Thankfully my dad came home and our world became right again. (It is the earliest memory I can recall!)
Very Powerful !!!.....
Thank you for your presentation. I have been drawn back to the Kennedy tragedy by listening to Bob Dylan's new song in 2020, "Murder Most Foul." Truly a masterpiece describing a government and media that have fed us a lot of lies. I visited the Museum in January 1997 when I was in Dallas. Very worth seeing. I walked Dealey Plaza and found it smaller and more compact than I first imagined it. The "X" in the pavement of Elm Street was very powerful. As for me, I was in diapers when it happened. President Kennedy was buried on my first birthday.
I was in the 5th grade classroom at St. Batrtholomew's Catholic grade school in San Mateo, CA. I heard the Mother Superior nun coming down the hallway faster than ever before. A minute later she summoned all the teacher nuns to the main office leaving us without an adult in the room, the only time that ever happened. A couple minutes later our teacher nun came back in the room and told us we were going to follow the emergency plan we had practiced the year before during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which was if you could walk home in 20 minutes leave, otherwise the rest of the class was going to the basement. We were told President Kennedy had been shot and to get moving. I lived across the street from the school on Tulane Road. I ran home and turned on the tv and Walter Cronkite was following up on the first AP bulletin that JFK had been shot as his motorcade went through downtown Dallas, Texas. I started praying he would be alive. About 40 minutes later, Cronkite gave the final word that JFK had died. I kept saying to myself, why was he in Texas? Why did he have to go there? That summer I had watched the Brandenburg Gate visit and Berlin Wall speech live on tv. After Cronkite's announcement, I watched the tv all afternoon and night watching coverage of the landing at Andrews AFB and the story of JFK's life. On Sunday, I saw the shooting in the Dallas Police station basement live too. On Monday, I was still glued to the tv set watching the procession and burial. America has never recovered from that horrific and mind numbing weekend. Now, instead of making the world safe for diversity (JFK's American University speech June 1963), we are trying to fight off the very real attempt to promote a would be dictator and the neutering and dismantling of American democracy. Instead of a New Frontier, we have a new confederacy movement. Lord, save us from ourselves.
I was 3 1/2 years old and watching As the World Turns with my mom when Walter Cronkite break in with the tragic news. I visited the Sixth Floor Museum way back in 1973 with my dad BEFORE it was in the TBSD. I also walked around Dealey Plaza seeing the Grassy Knoll and the X on the road.
In Mrs. Smith's 1st grade class at P.S. #30. We grasped that it was very sad and very serious. But none of us 6-year-olds cried. (Mrs. Smith was probably a little bit emotional but controlled herself, though I don't remember.) We were too young to know about tragedy or any reason for shock or grief, especially if caused by something happening far, far away. We were a long way from comprehending the idea of political assassination, though that day offered a pretty strong first lesson.
When I got home, my mother was at the kitchen table with a friend, and they were chatting and having coffee, and they both smiled when I walked in. My mother had turned the volume on the TV set all the way down when she and her friend sat down for their coffee and conversation. I told her what Mrs. Smith had told us about the president. They both smiled again, with my Mother thinking that one of the older kids in the neighborhood had again hoped to fool me or scare me with a tall tale, as the "big kids" are known to do to the younger ones. No, I told her, it wasn't one of the older kids who told me this ... it was Mrs. Smith. And I can vaguely see my mother and her friend lose their smiles, rise from their chairs in the kitchen, and hurry into the living room, where Mom raised the volume back up on the TV. And when that weekend was finally over, the words "assassinated", "motorcade", and "the *late* president" had become words I understood, long before I otherwise would have.
I remember it well.. I was in second grade at a school in Napa, CA. The intercom phone from the Principal’s office to our classroom rang and our teacher was in absolute shock as she relayed the news to us that JFK has been shot. We broke for lunch and upon returning, we were released from school for the rest of the day.
Me too. I was in the 2nd grade and was told right before lunch. At the time I had never heard the word assassination before.
Ate my sandwich, had my soup from a Thermos and tried to understand what had happened. I learned how to fold a flag from watching them on our black and white TV.
I WAS 13 LIVING WITH MY DAD IN IRVING TEXAS!..WE LIVED DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM RUTH PAIN!!...ME AND MY DAD WERE AT HOME WHEN JFK WAS ASSASSINATED,WE WERE SUPPOSED TO GO WATCH THE MOTORCADE BUT WE HAD TO MISS IT BECAUSE MY DAD'S WORK MESSED OUR PLANS UP!...THERE IS MUCH MORE TO THIS STORY BUT I'LL HOLD MY TONGUE FOR NOW!
Was in English 101 as a freshman at FSU When I left class outside everyone was in a state of disbelief It was a day I will never forget
I was just nine years old and remember it very clearly. My Mam and Dad just couldn’t believe it and I also recall When Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, those events are so tragic and something that I will remember for the rest of my life. Of course I have read many books and seen lots of films and documentaries regarding the assassination.
I was 13 years old in Grade Eight at a Jr. High School in Canada. After an announcement by the Principal over the P.A. system we were told that school was closed for the rest of the day and we were free to go home. People were really upset and a lot of the girls were crying in the hallway as we changed classes as were some of the teachers. We walked home two miles in a somber mood and turned on our black & white TV to learn more. It took a few days for the news to sink in.
I was in between classes and someone with a transistor radio said that the President had been shot. Everyone laughed saying yeah sure. The next period class started and about 11:30 the principal came on the intercom and said that John Fitzgerald Kennedy had died. The entire high school went to Mass and after that we were dismissed for the day. The country has changed so much and to this day we as a nation have been unable to achieve the things we were going to do. We lost so much
6th grade, Miss Tenon’s class, PS 242, Canarsie Brooklyn, grey, chilly day. We were like zombies walking home from school. The mothers were all crying. Next 4 days we were glued to the TV.
Second grade student at a DISD elementary school in my lower grade music class.
I was in 10th grade at Hyde Park High school home room. Three months before I actually saw the President pass by me with window open turning into Boston Children"s hospital, I was on my way to summer school classes at Boston Latln.
I was in my dad's sac
I was eight years old, at school in Las Vegas Nevada Halle Hewtson Elementary, I was in a reading class and the school secretary ran down the hallways shouting the President has been shot. We were sent home and glued to the television for those 4 dark days. People forget both Caroline and John Jr. had birthdays. I remember the sadness, the tears the loss and a sense that our lives forever changed. I was in first grade in Superior Wisconsin when President Kennedy was inaugurated they wheeled a television set into the classroom so we could see the inaugural address.
I was in the 7th grade class at Buckeye Elementary school in Bell County, Kentucky. It was the day after my 12th birthday. Kennedy was my hero. I had collected pictures and articles about him since he was president. My best friend and I had sneaked and glued pictures that morning while in class. We had our work done but was supposed to be reading. We'd been outside for our PE class. It was a beautiful day. We didn't have a gym. We'd played softball. The bell rang early. We went inside. I seen our janitor talking to our teacher. She looked upset when they were talking. He was a Baptist preacher. I knew that look that preachers could have. After we all sat down the principal announced over the intercom that the president had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. I couldn't say anything. The busses were already at the school so they sent us home. On the bus no one was saying anything except the lower grades like the 1-3 grades. They didn't understand. We didn't have kindergarten back then. I remember I felt like my chest was going to burst. My best friend was beside me, she wasn't saying anything either. I got home, mommy had heard on the radio, we didn't have a TV. Many people were I lived didn't have a TV. My sister came home from high school. We waited until daddy came home from the coal mine, we walked out of the hollow to go to my aunt's house to watch the television. I had cried so much by then that I couldn't talk. My mom at first didn't want to go to my aunt's because she thought it would be worse for me. I wanted to go. We stayed late that night watching TV. I was almost inconsolable. My daddy went back to my aunt's with me the next day. I watched it all. I've read almost everything there's been written about it, even the crazy things. I seen Oswald shot on live tv. I jumped up, I was happy. My daddy said that knowledge would go to the grave with him. I'm 70 years old. I've never believed that only Oswald was involved. People wonder why we can't totally trust the government. This is when I realized that the government had lied to us. I don't know why but I have my suspicions of people.
I was 3yrs old and 3 days away from my 4th birthday(Nov 25th) watching tv(black&white) while lying on my stomach(on the stairs looking out the handrails) while my father and mother were outside painting the house. I didn't even know what a "president" was, but I remember becoming very absorbed into the serious nature of the conversations taking place and watching as the car pulled into the hospital and hoping it wouldn't be as bad as everyone seemed to believe it was. And then when my mom came into the room it was even more shocking to realize that she seemed to be "hoping" that he actually WAS dead. I'd discovered her propensity for lying(and laughing joyfully about it too) only seven months prior to this when I awoke "too early" on Easter Morning and saw her and my dad stuffing those Easter baskets with candy. Strangely enough, THIS(Easter Bunny Lie) was a much worse experience for me. And THAT being one of THE WORST moments in my life must mean that I have had a pretty damn GOOD ONE!(both "Life" AND "Parents"!)
Note the CT litmus test: If you can't recall where you were (on 11-22-63) then you were involved in a vast conspiracy.
The day before the assassination I stood on the median of Broadway in Alamo Heights San Antonio Texas as the presidential motorcade passed. I was close enough to hear the sound of voices in the limo. The motorcade passed at about 25 mph so we didn't get a long look but it was an exciting moment. The following day I was taking an exam for employment at the USAA insurance company when the lady who was monitoring the exam entered the room where I was and announced to me that the president had been shot. She asked if I would care to leave and come back at another time. Not knowing the details of the shooting, I chose to remain and finish the exam. When I finished and handed the exam papers to the monitor I asked if there was any news about the shooting and she told me that the president was dead. I rushed home to see what TV coverage and found that all stations were covering the assassination but facts were scarcely known so all I saw was bits and pieces of the incident. I was 26 years old at the time so I took this incident seriously as I do today 60 years later.
President Kennedy was one of our best Presidents. We continue to honor his legacy and remember his memory!!!
I always remember my mom saying she was at doctor's office when the nurse announced to the people in the waiting room that President Kennedy had been shot. The nurse heard it over a radio in the office.
Was in 1st grade. Catholic school. JFK was Catholic & that was a big deal back then. Nun breaks the news to class, has us pray, turns on TV (one of the benefits of Catholic schools was TVs in the classrooms), then sent us home early. Walked home alone as a 7 year old (different world back then). Spent the weekend at home with TV on watching until the cemetery at Arlington. Played with toy soldiers imitating the funeral procession. Yep, vivid recollection that changed our country forever.
In first grade. They sent us all home, I didn't understand much why, and don't remember much about the rest of the day. However -- I remember the shooting of Oswald very distinctly, sitting with my dad in front of the TV when commotion started, and Dad glanced over at me and said something like "Somebody shot him!" I think I realized it at the same time.
I was in the 3rd grade living in NYC when JFK was shot my class had just came back from lunch it had to have been around 1pm EST we was in the class and a teacher came in the room and whispered something in my teacher's ear then our teacher broke down and cried in front of us and i was wondering why she was crying then she told the class that we had to go down to the auditorium then all the classes had assemble there then the principal made the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot and that the school is being dismiss for the day, i remembered it being on a Friday, i ran home to tell my mother like if she didnt know lol, that was a very sad day in America that i will never forget.
Mike Barker
1 second ago
I was a junior in college at the time we heard the news that the President's caravan had been fired on. My girlfriend (at the time) and I rushed to the nearest TV to watch the incoming updates. As we listened to Walter Cronkite announce that the President had died, we all felt that we had lost a family member, it was that impacting. That was a very sad day indeed, one that we will never forget!
I Was 5 years Old, but I Remember it like it was Yesterday !!!....Our Kindergarten Teacher Summoed us All Around Her , and Told Us to Be Seated . She Told us that Something Had happened to President Kennedy, and that we would be sent Home Early that Day !! We were just children, and Our Teacher Realized we were to young to process The President being Killed, so she did not tell us that the President was actually Dead . So we went Home and Started Looking at Non-stop Black and White Commercialess Television For the Next 4 Strait Days, Covering Nothing But the Assassination !!! Such Greif Has Never Been Experienced In The History of Mankind !!!......
havin lunch in high school in texas.
first thought we all had waas tht lbj did it, as his hatred for jfk was legendary....
never forget the sound of women crying in the lunch counter at the news...
release all the files !!!
When President Kennedy was shot I was in my kitchen with the tv on in Vernon, Ct. President Kennedy was the first President I voted for. He was a great special president to me. Never got another President to match President Kennedy's greatness until President Trump.
I was in Kindergarten at St Barnabas School in the Bronx NY. I was in the morning class and by chance on Nov 22nd my Mom was scheduled to come to the school for a parent/teacher conference, I recall hearing that the President had been shot while having lunch at home. By the time my Mom and I arrived at the school, all the students and nuns from other grades were in front of the statue of Mary outside the church's convent, saying prayers for the President,. My mom wanted me to go pray with the other children but I refused because "they weren't my class". Soon after it was announced that he had died and I have carried that guilt for 57 years.
I was in my grandma.
I was turning 4 yrs old on December 17th, 1963. I was barely out of diapers. Growing up, hearing this story every year, I always said, once I could understand and seen the famous Z film, I could swear the 3rd shot had to come from the front and right of Kennedy's car. Because, why would a piece of his skull and brain be on the left side of the trunk? If the shot came from the back, it would've flew out to the right of the car!!?? That's just my thought and opinion of it !!
Interesting observation.
The saddest I have ever seen People in this Country. I think when they saw that Kennedy wasn't safe, they felt like they were more vulnerable about their own invincibility.
Was in 7th grade at Southbury, Ct elementary school in the lunchroom. Principal got on intercom crying and said he was shot and a little later announced his death crying her eyes out.
I was in 4th grade at the time of JFK’s assasination. I had just finished lunch, left the cafeteria, and noticed teachers and students crying. At that time I heard the president had been shot and killed in Dallas.
I was 6 years old, in First Grade and at San Fernando Elementary School in San Fernando California. Our teacher, a women whose name I can't remember, was given the horrible news by another female teacher. Our teacher told us to go out to the playground. I remember being stubborn looking at my "Curious George" book and didn't get up to leave. My teacher came over to me and said to me, "Raul you have to out to the playground". I was getting upset seeing some of the teachers crying in the hallway. I saw a friend in the hallway, as we filed out, and asked him what had happened. He said he didn't know. The American Flag was lowered to half mast. Our School Principal said, and I'm paraphrasing, our President John F. Kennedy was killed today in Dallas, Texas. We are in recess until next Monday. You are free to go home. I'll never forget our Beloved music teacher, an Afro-American woman who would play the Autoharp and sing songs with us, looking up to the clear blue sky with tears running down her face crying. That image is seared in my mind! I'll never forget that tragic day!
I wasint born yet i was born 16 years later after his assassination
Of all of the touching remarks I've read here, what strikes me, is how the ones who were crying, were women and girls, which is fine. Boys and men understood the expectations of being boys and men.
Today I fear with social re-engineering, more boys and men would be crying, than girls and women.
@CCRider I'm always amazed at how certain people need to be spoon-fed certain information. It should stand to reason, I'm not including family members, especially children.
My point is my expectation especially for those times where masculinity and femininity was clearly understood, that the vast majority of those who be crying upon hearing of the death of JFK, would be women and girls.
I was only 5 at the time . My Dad was waiting at the trade mart for a luncheon sponsored by the Democratic Party .
That's Amazing , Because That's Where Our Beloved President Was Scheduled to Speak At The Conclusion of His I'll Fated Motorcade Route !!!
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i was in school!
I could n t say I was just a couple of years old then I would n t remember anything
I wasent born yet i was born 15 years later after his assassination
24:54 The specter of WW3 must have been overwhelming for those WW2 vets in particular.
I was a baby my mom said she was feeding me when it came on the news he was shot when he came to Ireland my mom brought me in to see him I was only 4 months old and she held me up when he was going by she nearly let me fall she always said she wished she had a camera he waved to me
8th grade gym class
Good thing I was only 5. To young to understand. I laugh at the LBJ cover up joke WC report where all evidence was just the joke lone wolf Oswald 3 shots 6 floor book blg an most everything else left out. Zapruder film as clear as day proves last 2 shots 1.8 seconds apart 1st a shot to the back. The 2nd from right front side that blew a piece of his skull out an landed on trunk. No way rifles found on 6 floor book blg can shoot that fast and hit him in front side of his head when limmo was past the door of last shot...
Don't donate it to the purveyors of the lying WC. Worst thing to do.