I was in 7th grade. The head nun came over the PA system and said “Your prayers are requested for the repose of the soul of President John F. Kennedy, who has been assassinated.” My nun left the classroom, and our first thoughts were that the Soviets had killed him and that we are at war. Remember, the Cuban Missile Crisis was just a year earlier.
Our nun came back in the classroom, crying, and herded us all over to the church, where all the other classes were forming up. They had us say the rosary.
Then they released us for the day.
In 1963 my Dad was a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, and he was a pilot. When I got home he has home, and so was my Mom. My Dad never came home from work before 7:00 p.m., and here it was about 1:00 in the afternoon. In those days there were no cell phones, and my Dad reasoned that if his unit was going to be activated he’d get the call at home.
The only people I remember who were visibly upset were the nuns. Most of the other adults were just sort of quiet. Almost everyone’s father in those days was a WWII veteran, and everyone’s mother had experienced WWII to some extent (my Mom especially, as she was from England, and had gone through the blitz, etc.). So, all the adults I knew were just kind of stoic.
I was in 7th grade. The head nun came over the PA system and said “Your prayers are requested for the repose of the soul of President John F. Kennedy, who has been assassinated.” My nun left the classroom, and our first thoughts were that the Soviets had killed him and that we are at war. Remember, the Cuban Missile Crisis was just a year earlier.
Our nun came back in the classroom, crying, and herded us all over to the church, where all the other classes were forming up. They had us say the rosary.
Then they released us for the day.
In 1963 my Dad was a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, and he was a pilot. When I got home he was home, and so was my Mom. My Dad never came home from work before 7:00 p.m., and here it was about 1:00 in the afternoon. In those days there were no cell phones, and my Dad reasoned that if his unit was going to be activated he’d get the call at home.
The only people I remember who were visibly upset were the nuns. Most of the other adults were just sort of quiet. Almost everyone’s father in those days was a WWII veteran, and everyone’s mother had experienced WWII to some extent (my Mom especially, as she was from England, and had gone through the blitz, etc.). So, all the adults I knew were just kind of stoic.