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.

[Junior]

Sorry, I was born 18 months to the hour after the assassination.

[LibWhacker]

I was 15. I was in a sophomore biology class when, without warning, the school's intercom came on, tuned to a radio station. Nothing like that had ever happened before. It was very disconcerting. But within a few seconds we all understood what was going on. The president had been shot and was rushed to hospital, condition unknown.

Then, a few minutes later, came the announcement, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, is dead." A girl in front of me fainted and fell out of her chair. The teacher, who had made no secret of his hatred of Kennedy, happily chirped, "Wulp, that's the way the cookie crumbles!"

Then the principle came on the intercom and dismissed us for the day.

[mathluv]

I had just returned home to my parents after living in Canada for several months. My dad came in and said his borther had called to tell him the President had been shot. We waited for the joke - my uncle was always telling a joke of some kind. We turned on the TV when we realized it was not a joke.

I hated that it happened in Dallas.

[LibWhacker]

PAL! . . . principal!

[Riley]

I was three years old. I cannot distinguish the event in my memory- which is strange because I have clear and detailed memories going back to my crib days.

[Ax]

I was 21 on that day. I was working a teletpye circuit from a small base in southern Italy. My mission supervisor knew that I was a Kennedy fan (he was one of us, an Irish Catholic) came to me and put his hand on my shoulder and quietly told me. Later that evening when we got off, we found that the NCO club had been closed. My roomie had that Vaughn Meader LP that parodied the Kennedy's life style. He ceremoniously broke it in little pieces in the barracks hallway. The next morning, the Italians sent a delegation out to the base with their condolences.

[onyx]

Taking decorations from a school dance off the walls in Senior Hall, which was right across from the school's administration offices. I remember the office lady screaming, and soon thereafter school was dismissed. I think it was approximately 10:00 AM PST in the morning.

[Riley]

Your post made me curious- I had never heard of Vaughn Meader. Looked him up- he never did his Kennedy impression after that day.

http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/1985/life.html

The album however, is apparently still available.

[sneakers]

I was 8 years, 9 mos. old. I remember walking into the living room and my mom was sitting on the floor in front of the TV crying. She told me the president had been shot.

[kanawa]

12 and 1/2, living in the U.S.

Let out of school, headed to church to pray. Scared and confused.

[Kerberos]

"I was in Dallas.Devastating.I recall exactly where I was and what the conversation was as soon as I could share the horror with someone"

As do I. I was in second grade and we were lining up to go out to the busses to go home. It was then I heard the whispering from teacher to teacher going down the hallway repeating the same thing over and over. "The President has been shot."

All I remember after that was riding in the back of the bus on my way home listening to this awful, sad, church music that was being played on the radio. It wasn't until I was almost to my bus stop that the enormity of what was transpiring around me started to really sink in. I remember feeling that something was terribly wrong in the world

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Old? What the heck?

[Vigilanteman]

I am also under 50 and remember clearly. It was a rainy day and outdoor recess had been cancelled. Just before recess, we got the news Kennedy had been shot in the classroom. Recess in the gym was unusally quiet. We noticed the principal had walked in with an ashen face. My friend and I walked up to ask how the president was. The principal (who acted human for the first time I can remember) just shook his head and mumbled he didn't make it. He was unable to make the announcement during recess. Our teacher was able to give us the news more calmly. She even invited us to pray-- in a public school! It was still legal in those days.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

You wouldn't happen to have Napoleans autograph, would you?

[stayathomemom]

I was in 2nd grade and my sisters and I were picked up from school that day rather than walking home because it was pouring rain in Detroit. I believe my older sisters knew already because they had been in the school proper, whereas my classroom was out in a portable. My mother told us when we got into the car. I don't remember her crying. I do remember watching a lot of TV that weekend. We later got a special issue of American Heritage Magazine, which was hard bound in those days, totally devoted to those few days. I looked at it often.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Hey, you and I are the same age. I had a twin sister who was put up for adoption (or raised by wolves, or something...). Where were you born?

[bimbo]

I was 17yrs 8 mos, in the Navy FT-A school in Bainbridge, Md …. We were taking the 6th week comprehensive exam.

[bimbo]

I was 17yrs 8 mos, in the Navy FT-A school in Bainbridge, Md ... We were taking the 6th week comprehensive exam.

[NewHampshireDuo]

I was 16 at the time and on my way to Geometry class when these two classmates (twins) of mine came running down the hall to say that the President had been shot. They were cheering. I went to school with some really stupid jerks....I remember the shock, kids crying, the days and days of news. And everybody wondering if we were going to ever be safe again.

Mrs. nhd

[estrogen]

Freshman in college in DC

Ran to White House when we learned, saw the helicopter land on the lawn,attended funeral procession. I saw DeGaulle, Selassie and all the other world dignitaries walk down the street following the riderless horse. I still have pictures that my kids are tired of looking at!!