I don’t remember the day/moment JFK was killed, but I DO remember the funeral.
I was going on 4 years old and my Mom (who is a rock-ribbed Republican), had been crying all week, but she was also pregnant at the time and was always crying. ;)
She sat me down in front of the TV with her to watch the funeral procession. I distinctly remember her saying, ‘This is a very important day and you need to remember this.’
And I have. And I always will.
God only knows why the principal worded her announcement the way that she did.
This must have been back in the days when politicians actually commanded respect. I can’t imagine a similar occurrence ruining my day.
Back to the 3rd grade for me. I remember my aunt from next door coming over and crying with my mom. From the side of my house I yelled out ‘John F. Kennedy is dead’ as if to announce it to the neighborhood. The funeral on Monday I was at my friends house and his mom was touting the importance of the event. Her name was Sylvia Packard a teacher who shortly later on died of cancer and they named an elementary school after her.
I was not yet born, but boy did this piss me off. I knew it was Johnson who did it. That’s the first thing I said upon birth: “Johnson done it, the bastard.
Taking a Geometry test in 10th grade. Sister was running around the hallway and we were wondering what was going on. She finally came in and told us President Kennedy had been shot. The news of his death hadn’t as yet been announced. We all gasped and put our pencils down. Needless to say, we didn’t have to finish our test.
I was in French class in high school.
My younger brother had a Detroit Free Press route and I had just got my drivers license. There were three special editions plus the regular paper that day. I drove him around to deliver them. We would just get home and they would call and tell us there was another edition to be delivered.
They did not know what to do with us, other then let us out onto the playground.
I recall there was a skywriter, but not sure the message he was sending.
Any other LB freepers know?
Was stationed at NAVCOMMSTA WASHDC @ Cheltenham MD and we were undergoing a CO’s monthly(?) inspection - it was announced in the middle of it that he had been shot.
Cheltenham is right outside Andrews AFB and I recall we basically went into a complete shutdown, and the workload rose considerably.
I guess ‘they’ had no idea what was happening and took all precautions.
A freshman in high school in Dallas, sitting in ‘Study Hall’ reading up for a test in the next class. Announcement on the PA with the news. Cried but continued to attempt to study. Next class teacher gave the options of take or not. School was dismissed a few hours early (at least that’s what is remembered.) Do remember that evening (date night) just about everything in Big D had closed in mourning — perhaps the entire weekend (memory fades). The weekend glued to the tube with school closings the norm. A very sad day for Dallas.
I was in the back yard of my quarters on Pease Air Force Base, New Hampshire, when a neighbor came to the fence and told me the President had been shot. I went in the house and turned on the TV in time to hear the announcement that President Kennedy was dead.
I think I was in the middle of potty training.
I was on leave from Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati, doing Sales Training in the NE Iowa territory. I was having lunch at a hotel coffee shop in Waterloo when the news came down.
I was in 7th grade Spanish class. The teacher was called out and when she came back she told us that the president had been shot. She was crying. Busses took us home early.
I was at work when the word spread around the plant. I was devastated.
I was fresh out of college when JFK ran for President. I was every bit as excited over his candidacy as young people were over Obama in 2008. I enthusiastically voted for him in 1960.
I never voted for a Democrat again. I got my head on straight during the LBJ years.
I was at work, had not voted for him but a horrible thing had just happened in our country and we were all in shock.
In 7th grade homeroom with our black, handicapped English teacher... (and she was very good) Remember her being very emotional
I was in sixth grade. Our principal announced it over the intercom- very calmly and respectfully- only that he’d been shot though. I think they wanted us to learn he was dead from our families. My teacher was Catholic and she took out her rosary and began to pray. .and quietly weep. She regained her composure and shortly after that school was dismissed early.
Walking home was so odd. My friend and I tried to understand what it meant. .and saw grown-ups driving to the churches in our little town. There were 3 churches on our walk home and at each one cars were pulling in like Sunday morning. I can’t imagine that today.
No one in my family had voted for him but politics were forgotten. He was OUR president.
The TV was on for days. .when Oswald was shot through the funeral. .it was on. That was rare as we only used it occasionally.
I had stepped into the bathroom for a few minutes. When I came out one of the guys said to me “The President has been shot”. Since he was always joking around, I thought he was trying to tell another tasteless joke, and told him off. I told him that's not funny and you shouldn't say stuff like that, etc. etc.
He said no it's true look at the TV. The rest of the time there was a blur of crying and choking back tears as we competed with other students.
When I got home, I turned on the TV, and watched it constantly. My Dad and I were watching it together when Jack Ruby shot Oswald. We looked at each other, and I said, now we'll never know the whole story, and he said Yep.
Most of the time I watched the whole thing including the funeral all alone. It was one of the saddest days of my life. During these years of my life, the cities were burning all over the place, the Cuban missile crisis, then an Assassination all made me feel like I closed my eyes and woke up in some strange world somewhere else, and I wondered what was going on in my country and in the world. I was afraid that Russia and Cuba were behind it, and that nuclear war could be on the way.