Remembering JFK's assassination is easier if you were alive then

The Union Leader, Manchester, NH ^ | 11/17/03 | JOSEPH W. McQUAID

[RJCogburn]

NEXT WEEK is Thanksgiving. Where has the year gone?

This Saturday is the 40th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. Where have all the years gone?

When our editors were looking for "angles" for an anniversary story last week, I suggested the tried-and-true one.

"Ask some New Hampshire people where they were and what they were doing and thinking when they heard the news from Dallas," I said.

"Okay," said Ed the Editor. "We can go out to the nursing homes and other places where old people congregate."

Ed was only half-kidding. What he was really trying to do, without completely ticking off the boss, was to gently suggest that the percentage of the population that was alive when the President was killed is getting smaller. And he is correct.

It occurred to me later that in November of 1963, I would have considered the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt to be a part of ancient history, when in fact it had taken place just 19 years earlier — less than half the time that has passed since John F. Kennedy's death.

To find people to properly answer the "where were you when" story on JFK, Ed the Editor would have to start with people at least 50 years of age. Holy gray hair, Batman!

Instead, Ed liked another editor's suggestion that we ask kids at the JFK Coliseum what they knew of the man for whom that Manchester ice rink was named. I'm not sure if we are doing that, but I hope so. I think we should also ask the little tykes how to get to Idlewild Airport. (Hint: It's in New York City but it's not LaGuardia. BIG bonus points if you know who the Little Flower was.)

When Art Carney died last week, one of the McQuaid kids reacted like many other people.

"He was still alive?"

That's what TV reruns will do for you. Carney and Gleason and the original Honeymooners were shot back in the black-and-white 1950s and early 60s. And Carney had been retired for years. Still, it was nice to think of him again.

He was a fine comedian who overcame his personal demons and never complained about them. He was, like Kennedy, a World War II veteran, taking a bullet at the D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches.

For the record, I was just getting on the high school bus for home on a Friday afternoon when one of the upper classmen told us about Dallas. I knew I would never forget it. But I didn't know it would ever get to be so far back in history.

[ChefKeith]

I was in My playpen and VIVIDLY remember My Mother freaking out, screaming/crying/ect as She was watching T.V.

Years later I saw the tape replay an realized what had happened.

Strange that a 2 1/2 year old would remember that

[Exit148]

In the car, on the way home. The radio was on. I had to stop at the store, first, and I rushed in and out. But I was amazed that people were slowly shopping, as tho nothing had happened. At home, I rushed in to put the radio on ---completely forgetting the television!!!

I thought the country was going to hell when he won the election, but I didn't fear him as a president. His "Ask not-----" statement at his inauguration had always impressed me, as well as when he said "he welcomed the challenge". I didn't realize then that he was one of the last Democrats --- not the Socialists that his party has become.

[South Texas Lady]

I was holding my new baby in my arms. We were in South Texas. My husband was deer hunting. My first thought was, well NOW LBJ can be president. I bet he did it. Many of us thought the same thing. We knew about LBJ..stealing votes, paying for votes. He was ruthless.

[jocon307]

"I remember...in 1968 when MLK was killed...by then I was 12 and starting to understand some things."

LOL, you are older than me by a bit, so it's OK that your understanding exceeded mine. I remember the assisination of MLK as giving rise to one of the more embarrasing moments of my life. I was 10, but well aware of what had happened, in an effort to impress my dad with my "keeping up with the news" as he always did I "casually" said to him "So, Martin Luther was killed, that's so sad". His quizzical look immediately clued me to the fact that I had made some major error!

Oh well, he explained it all to me, but I remain red-faced. This was the peril of growing up in NYC in the late 20th century, No Protestants, except for some extremely rich people in whose circles I did not travel!

[sarasmom]

In kindergarden.
Few mothers drove cars then, and the classes were gradually consolidated to one room in the "big building".
I did not understand why everyone was so upset, but I was happy that I was sent to be with both my older brothers on such a strange day, even in the "big building".
Teachers were crying, and a TV was wheeled in to the classroom, where all of us who waited for the bus were gathered.
I remember being very scared.I knew somebody very important had died.I remember everyone spoke in whispers, and nobody raised our voices for at least a week afterwards.
My Grandfather had died earlier that year, so I knew what grief looked and felt like.
This was different.
All the adults cried all the time.

[Joy Angela]

Dear JFK Jr.

He didn't have a chance.

Sometimes we think we can wait to
do what is destined for our lifes.

And then we wait too long.

If JFK Jr. had stopped playing and
moved on to serious politics just a few
years earlier, perhaps "Living History"
would be different today.

[ALOHA RONNIE]

Yes,

...perhaps JFK jr...

...would still be JFK jr today...

...despite HILLARY's cold threats.

[Vigilanteman]

We knew about LBJ..stealing votes, paying for votes. He was ruthless.

Did you catch the special on The History Channel? Of all the theories pronosticated, the theory that LBJ engineered it was, by far, the most beleivable. It was also amazingly simple and involved the fewest people-- as do most plots of this nature.

In 1963, Kennedy was seriously considering dropping LBJ from the ticket because the scandals of Billie Sol Estes and Bobby Baker were threatening to drag JFK down into the same muck which LBJ was then sinking into. The mantle of a martyred president literally saved LBJ politically-- and possibly from prison as well.