posted on November 21, 2003 05:16:55 PM new
Where were you & what were you doing when you heard the news? I was watching TV after eating lunch. I went back to work & told my secy what I had seen. Everyone in the office was in shock.
posted on November 21, 2003 05:44:30 PM new
I was 8 years-old and had stayed home from school that day with a sore throat. My sister, who was 9 year-older than I had stayed home to watch me. I remember watching TV and seeing the newsflash about the president having been shot, and my sister crying and yelling. Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on November 21, 2003 05:51:03 PM new
10th grade Math class when the announcement came over the PA system at Abington Senior HS, Abington, PA
It was the FRI before our football game against arch-rival Cheltenham & I thought it was some kind of tasteless joke!
My mother cried for 3 straight days & the reality of the disaster didn't hit me until his cortage reached the Capital steps & the band played "Hail to the Chief" real slooow...that's when I finally broke down...........
Then I worked for Bobby's campaign & I was exhausted & my Mom woke me up one morning in June...
And then they shot US at Kent State & the next thing I knew, I was in boot camp...
posted on November 21, 2003 05:54:40 PM new
I was in my first year of college,I was waiting for my next class to begin so I was in the student lounge, when a guy came in His name is Elliott, I did not know him then, he started to speak very loudly that the president was shot, he sat down near me and started to say everything he had heard on his car radio. We went to our classes where the teacher solemnly confirmed the news and classes were suspended. Elliot and I became very good friends even to this day. We went to each others weddings and our children even played together.
Reenie
I don't get even....I get even better Jimmy Hoffa
posted on November 21, 2003 06:13:12 PM new
I was in 7th grade algebra class in Nebraska when the announcement came over the loudspeaker. My teacher sat at his desk and sobbed. We didn't know what to do or how to act. It didn't sink in until later as we watched events unfold on the tv.
I'm embarassed to admit that in typical teenage self absorbed fashion, I remember being pissed that my first "boy-girl" dance was cancelled.
posted on November 21, 2003 06:31:02 PM new
I was a legal secretary at the time. I'd just gotten back from lunch. My future husband (Bob) was with me.
The attorney I worked for came in a few minutes after we did. He just kept saying: "The sons-of-bitches shot him - the sons-of-bitches shot him!"
After we got my boss settled down we decided to close the office for the day. Almost all of the other offices in the building did the same thing. Bob closed his accounting office too.
It was several days before we got back up to speed...
Edited to add: I'm getting the shivers right now remembering that day.
Lucy
Watch the donut, not the hole.
[ edited by ohmslucy on Nov 21, 2003 06:33 PM ]
posted on November 21, 2003 06:33:39 PM new
High School English Class in a little town in South Texas. Announcement came over the speaker system. We were all in shock.
posted on November 21, 2003 06:36:04 PM new
Here's one for you: I was expecting my first baby and had never changed a diaper (remember they were cloth diapers and needed folding expertise, too!). My friend Marian had 5 little boys and told me to come over one morning and she'd show me on a live model.
My husband was in the hospital, having had repair surgery on a botched appendectomy. The phone rang; Marian answered; she said "Yes, she is! Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no." An awful look on her face. I THOUGHT MY HUSBAND HAD DIED.
She hung up and said, "That was your husband in the hospital. He says to turn on the TV--the president's been shot."
Guys, I was soooo relieved it was "only" the president and not my dear husband. Of course I grieved with everyone else over Kennedy, but my initial reaction was rather shocking.
___________________________________
Junk: Stuff we throw away.
Stuff: Junk we keep.
posted on November 21, 2003 06:45:10 PM new
Junior High, I was actually watching T.V. in real time when Ruby shot Oswald. I was knee deep in mud in a rice paddy when Bobby was assasinated.
posted on November 21, 2003 06:50:52 PM new
I saw Ruby shoot Oswald too. Also saw the assassination of Bobby Kennedy on the L.A. news broadcast as it was happening.
posted on November 21, 2003 06:56:28 PM new
I was all of 7, but I do remember it! I remember how terribly sad my parents were. As I recall, I was devastated. I had planned on marrying JFK when I was old enough. Okay, I know but, give me a break. I was only 7. I don't think I had figured out what I was going to do about Jackie, though. What a tragic loss.
posted on November 21, 2003 07:15:12 PM new
At my age (75) I remember many things first hand that most of never experienced. #1, Pearl Harbor,l #2 North Koreas attack on S. Korea.; #3 Kennedy's assaination. #4 Martin Luther King's Jr's assination. #4 Robeet Kennedy's assasination. Too many tragedies for one life time. I served in the Korea Confliuct (HELL IT WAS WAR)
posted on November 21, 2003 07:39:27 PM new
I am glad this thread was started. I was going to start one tomorrow. In some ways it feels like this memory binds all of us who are old enough to remember. When I was teaching college I used to talk to my students about what they remembered about that day. It was strange when I began to get students who were too young to remember, then those who were not born when it happened.
The memory if so exact for me. I was printing in the graduate darkroom at the Institute of Design in Chicago. Someone in the next darkroom had a radio on and the first announcement that he had been shot came over. We all gathered around to listen. The teacher of the class that was about to start wanted to go ahead and have class but all we could do was talk about what was happening. In a few minutes he was called out by a telephone message that his wife was so upset that she wanted him to come home. I think I took the elevated back to the family where I roomed and spent the rest of the day taking care of the children of family who were very upset.
I can still feel what the pain and uncertainty of that day was like and the bizarre quality of the days that followed. Kennedy was the first president I voted for and I had moved to Chicago from Dallas so it seemed especially personal to me.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on November 21, 2003 07:54:41 PM new
I was watching Tv when Ruby shot Oswald, and when Robert was assasinated. I was pregnant with my first daughter when Robert was killed. My husband was still in the army and I was living with my father in Texas until he got out so I could use our family doctor rather than going into the military hospital in Kansas.
posted on November 21, 2003 08:23:44 PM new
I was in the 8th grade right after lunch. The nun teaching my class was called into the hall. She came back in sobbing and told us something terrible had happened to the President and to go home. I remember where I was sitting and who I walked home with. My parents had always restricted TV time but not that week. We were glued to the set. It's still clear 30 years later.
Tomwii...small world. I grew up in Elkins Park. I didn't go to Cheltenham but my brother and sister did. I dated the current principal of Abington HS. for about two years.
posted on November 21, 2003 08:52:54 PM new
I heard a rumor during class change in junior high. The Principal came on the PA shortly after and made an announcement and we were sent home.
posted on November 21, 2003 09:16:40 PM new
I was only 4 but vividly remember watching the news report and the cavalcade on a black & white TV. We talked about it for days and watched the news reports. Because of that, he was the first president I knew by name as a child.
BTW, can you guys remember being able to see the WHOLE picture on the news without ribbons of words running across the bottom of the screen and up the sides???? LOL
posted on November 21, 2003 09:33:48 PM newJensmomie: Yeah! I lived in (kinda) Fox Chase -- about 1 mile away from Rolling Hill Hospital & closer to Philly than anyplace else!
Twas a nice city when I was a kid -- tis a dump now
posted on November 21, 2003 09:36:49 PM new
I was 19 at the time when I got a call from my father telling me to turn on the TV. I, like everyone else , sat glued to the tv in utter disbelief. The method of covering news was so much different then than it is now. The network I was watching, I believe it was NBC, suspended regular programing and would bring news updates as they became available. To fill in the voids between updates, they had live performances by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. There were no satellites then and it was a major undertaking to switch coverage between reporters in several different places as they do now.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on November 21, 2003 09:39:25 PM new
Sanmar,,,,,those who have been there know only too well what you survived is WAR,,,,Named , un named, declared, undeclared, Police action,,,,,bullets fly,,,,,,Americans die.....Semper fi. I appreciate that you served in time of conflict. Your deeds do not go unheard. Sanmar was a Medical Corpsman attached to a squad of U.S.Marines. He saved as many Marines as he could. Same mud, Same blood.
posted on November 21, 2003 09:58:10 PM new
My husband was a career Marine, and we were living in Tawara Terrace, Camp Lejeune, NC. I was watching "When the World Turns", when the news bulletin came on and Walter Cronkite said that the President had been shot. He was nearly crying when he said that Kennedy had died. I ran out the front door and ran into my neighbor who had seen the same thing. I don't think we turned off our TVs for days, after that. By the way, my husband was also in the Korean war and WW2.
