Where Were You When It Happened

[Eagle43]

Most of the older posters will remember where they were 42 years ago today.  I was in Germany, at a basketball game when the announcer told us that JFK was shot dead in Dallas.  I had to work all night and listened to Armed Forces Radio as LBJ was sworn in. 

Being 20 years old then, I thought the world of JFK and didn't much care for LBJ. Speaking of LBJ, He was told several times during the Vietnam war to "just declare victory and bring 'em home."  With hindsight, this would have been a good tactic, and not much differently would have happened.  Wonder if GWB should do the same in Iraq?

The assassination was the biggest media event until 9/11.  Or so it seemed.  It's a shame that tradgedy remains in our collective memories more than great positive events.

 

[73ss454]

9th grade Social Studies, and we got half the day off.

 

[unclemick]

Edna Gunther's Cultural Anthropology class at the U of W - she finished her class.

 

[tozz]

1st grade reading class at Sacred Heart School in Bellevue, WA.  Sister Alice made us get on our knees and say the rosary.  Didn't work.

 

[Martha]

At home from grade school with a "stomach ache."

 

[KB]

At home from grade school with asthma. Got to watch the whole coverage that week on TV.

 

[REWahoo]

In HS, at home eating lunch when the news of the shooting came over TV news. Back at school, the entire student body (all 200 of us) were told to go to the auditorium. The principal announced that JFK was dead and LBJ had been sworn in. We were dismissed to return to class.

My most vivid memory of the entire event was the silence as we left the auditorium. No one spoke a word, just the sound of footsteps echoing in the hallways.

 

[grumpy]

In 10th grade homeroom. Rick Shevlin was celebrating that "they finally got the bastard". I wanted to strangle him but he was alot tougher than me. My buddies and I watched the whole coverage of the funeral and Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby on TV. I think alot of my cynical and pessimistic view of life stems from those events.

Grumpy

 

[HFWR]

Mrs. Johnson's fourth grade class at Austin Elementary...

 

[REWahoo]

In 10th grade homeroom. Rick Shevlin was celebrating that "they finally got the bastard". I wanted to strangle him but he was alot tougher than me. My buddies and I watched the whole coverage of the funeral and Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby on TV. I think alot of my cynical and pessimistic view of life stems from those events.

Grumpy

I can see where not strangling Rick could definitely sour your outlook on life...

 

[cj]

I was also in the 4th grade. We were on the playground when they announced that Kennedy had been shot. Our teacher (Miss Brua, who was in her 60's) didn't know what to do so she made us hold hands and run around in a circle. I can still picture exactly where on the playground we were. We went back into the classroom. They then sent a student around (her name was "Blenda") to tell the individual classes that the president had died. Our teacher went into the supply closet and closed the door. She didn't come out for a long time.

CJ

 

[snowbird]

8th grade at St. Laurent's. Mutha Superior made us kneel backwards at our desks. Knees are still sore.

 

[Outtahere]

I was in my 2nd grade class ( 1st and 2nd were in same room- two room 4 grade school). I remember the teacher Mrs Marsh telling us the president had been hurt and that our parents would be coming to pick us up. I knew it was serious when my grandfather came to get me, he never took time off from work. My mother was crying when I got home and I remember watching the whole thing on TV and for some reason us kids (3 of us) were very subdued that week.

I sometimes wonder if this country would be different now if he and his brother hadn't been killed.

 

[TargaDave]

At home in the family room watching my mom crying her eyes out in front of the TV. Only 5 yrs old at the time, so I had no clue what really happened, but I never saw my mom cry so hard at something on the TV. One of those things I never forgot.

 

[Dawg52]

4th grade for me too. We were about to go outside for our afternoon play period. I'm ashamed to say we went ahead with our football game. 

 

[Cal]

I wasn't even a twinkle in anyone's eyes. 

It was my mother's 16th birthday.

My father and some of his buddies had skipped school and were out joy riding in a car. When they heard the news on the radio, they didn't know what to do. The "smarties" drove to school and told the administration what they heard on the radio. At first, they weren't believed and then they got busted for skipping school.   

 

[Nords]

Three years old.  No Kennedy memories.

I sometimes wonder if this country would be different now if he and his brother hadn't been killed.

As I read the recent Kennedy biographies I'm struck by how much the man differed from his media image.  And I think it's safe to say that a second term would have put him so deeply into Vietnam that both Bushes would end up looking like Lincoln by comparison.  Bay of Pigs just made him swear to do a better job next time.

And Jack Kennedy made Clinton look like a model for monogamy.

Did you know that the Kennedy clan's father Joseph was such a prodigious stock manipulator during the 1920s & 30s that the only way FDR could straighten him out was to make him the first head of the SEC?  To his credit, Kennedy stuck with the job for a whole year.

 

[Momtwo]

I was in Stanley's Dept. Store in Troy,NY butting school. I was a High School Junior.
I can remember coming out of the store as a woman was coming in in tears telling everyone the President had been shot.

 

[Dawg52]

I went to the JFK Museum in Dallas a couple of years ago.(Texas School Book Depository) That was really interesting. Went up to the Sixth Floor Museum and it was like going back in time. Although there were lots of people going through the museum, it was as very quite. You couldn't look out the exact window Oswald used as this area was glassed off but you could look out a window next to it. An x on the street marks the spot. You couldn't help but have a weak feeling. Also saw the "grassy knoll" area. I can certainly see how one could think that more than one location was used in the assassination.

If your ever in Dallas, make some time to tour the museum.

 

[uncledrz]

In school, walking between classes.

Long time ago.

 

[SteveR]

3rd grade Normal Park Elementary school. I remember it well. The teacher turned on the TV and we watched history in the making rather than doing math and English that day. I also remember Jack Ruby shooting Oswald on live TV. The whole thing was just one of the things you remember like it was yesterday.

Back in the days before TV News had to show a profit, the media could pick and choose who would be sainted or demonized. All the Kennedys were sainted; even when they were sinners. It was much the same way for the early NASA manned space flight programs. Astronauts could do no wrong. The govenment fed the media sweet cream and they lapped it up. Now, no one can do anything good anymore; everyone is demonized it seems. I guess that is all part of the current times where everything is nitpicked to pieces and nothing is good enough. The media is not content with reporting News, they feel they must create it to fit their agenda.

 

[haha]

In a biochemistry lab.

Ha

 

[retire@40]

Half of me was in my father, the other half in my mother.

 

[Jarhead*]

And Jack Kennedy made Clinton look like a model for monogamy.

That of course is true. But JFK had much better taste than "Bubba" did.

 

[REWahoo]

That of course is true. But JFK had much better taste than "Bubba" did.

Bubba loved Big Macs, but JFK was a wheat bread man.