"Greetings to you Squanto. Greetings to you Samoset and welcome to our first Thanksgiving."
The rehearsal was over and I was bouncing a basketball on stage behind the closed curtain when someone said Kennedy had been shot. I was confused at first because one of my third grade classmates was named Kennedy.
Anyway, back in the classroom I remember the principal coming on the intercom and speaking at length about it and what it meant.
When I got home I found my mother crying. Again I felt confused knowing that we were Republicans and had supported Nixon.
No cartoons on TV for days, just news, funerals and processions. Seems like yesterday.
You and I are the same age. We lived in Kansas and I always went home for lunch since there was no school cafeteria. I saw the first reports of the shooting on the TV just before my mom sent me back to school (5 blocks away). Arriving on the school playground, I found that one of my classmates had returned with a transistor radio. He kept it on when we returned to the classroom where we heard the announcement of Kennedy's death. It had the predicatable results of an upset teacher and students, along with crazy rumors.
Since 11/22/1963 was a Friday, the weekend and Thanksgiving week became a blur and remains such in my mind today. I can recall spending significant time at the home of my dad's oldest brother, alternately watching TV news and playing outside. I have a dim recollection of watching the JFK funeral on the Monday following the assassination and I think I was still at my uncle's house. I still don't recall if school was held on the Tuesday and Wednesday of that week as was normal for Thanksgiving week. Probably the only other day that sticks in my mind like that was the 1995 OKC bombing since I lived in OKC then and was at work about a mile away.