John F Kennedy was assassinated on this day in 1963

[mgardener]

Does anybody else remember where they were when they heard the news?

I was in 4th grade. The principal announced he had been shot and we all kneeled down to pray for him.
When she announced he had died, she was crying.
I never knew nuns could cry.

[Wicked Blue]

1. Seventh grade

In the locker room after phys ed, last period of the day

Announcement from the school office over the public address system.

Shock. Disbelief.

Tears streaking down the faces of young girls touching up their eye makeup.

[Sneederbunk]

2. High School Sophomore.

In school cafeteria MST.

[marybourg]

3. Nobody who was alive could ever forget that day,

short of a medical condition of course.

[MaryMagdaline]

4. 4 years old. At home. My sister came home for lunch

I told her the “colonel” had died. Got military titles mixed up (my father worked at Vanderburg AFB). When she came home at end of the day, she was crying because kids at school were saying, “Yay, Kennedy is dead!” Santa Maria, CA was very right wing then.

[electric_blue68]

14. Oh, your poor sister how terrible

[MaryMagdaline]

20. Yep. I think that's when we both learned about evil

[jeffreyi]

5. 6th grade.

Kennedy had just visited our (then) little town a month earlier, and a bunch of us got to see and even meet him. Lots of crying that day.

[electric_blue68]

15. Wow. Such an amazing memory!

[PCIntern]

6. Fifth Grade

I remember every nuance of that afternoon and the next day. After that it was a blur for an 11 year old.

[murielm99]

7. Sophomore in high school.

I was in typing class. The old style typewriters made so much noise that we did not hear the intercom at first. Some kid pointed to the intercom and we all got quiet.

The first announcement was that JFK was shot. The principal came back later and put on the radio for the news. We learned then that he had died. The meanest boy in the whole school sat directly in front of me. He put his head down on his desk and cried.

Class let out a few minutes later. It was so quiet in our crowded hallways that all we could hear was the closing of lockers.

We were sent home soon after that.

[CanonRay]

8. 7th grade Math class

They sent us all home.

[niyad]

9. Eighth grade. Announcement over PA. I thought it was a terrible prank, then the principal came on

to confirm it. Spent the next five days in shock and tears. Images. Walter Cronkite in tears. Jackie's bloodstained pink suit. LBJ taking the oath. Outpourings of grief everywhere. Oswald. John Jr.'s salute. My sense that the world had gone terribly wrong.

[PlanetBev]

12. Same as you, niyad

I was in the 8th grade and it came over the PA system. Principal confirmed it. I turned 13 five days before it happened.

Every year there are less and less of us who remember it.

[Stallion]

10. My Dad Was on the Greeting Committee as Dallas County Precinct Chairman

He was at the Dallas Trade Mart waiting for Kennedy to arrive for his speech. I was 5 years old. My older brothers were among the hundreds of thousands Downtown to welcome the President to Dallas.

That night my father and older brother wanted to drive downtown to the "Triple Under-Pass" to view the scene of the assassination

I don't know what my father was thinking-but he allowed my twin brother and I to go along. As a 5 year old I didn't know what a Triple Under Pass was-but at night after the assassination of a beloved President-it didn't sound good. To this day my twin and I vividly recall how frightened we were as we crouched in the crawlspace in the back seat of our car.

[niyad]

18. Hugs sent back in time to those frightened five year olds.

[MaryMagdaline]

21. Wow. A thousand emotions here. Thank you for this history

[DeminPennswoods]

11. 4th grade

I remember an annoucement, then getting out early although it was close to the end of school day in the eastern time zone. It was a warm day as I walked home from the bus stop just a few houses down. I remember my mom meeting me at the door and the TV being on.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. At The Time Of This Post...

...JFK will have been shot 57 years ago, to the minute. At least according to my tablet.
Was in 2nd grade, home from school with a bad cold.
Mom put on CBS to watch As the World Turns. She was on phone with friend and the bulletin hit.
She asked me what they just said. I repeated what I heard.
She said bye and ran into the room. We watched it until my dad got home from work.
Then, all 3 of us watched until I went to bed. I was, after all, only 7.

[hauckeye]

16. A kid in my sister's class cheered-

He thought “assassinated” meant “thrown out of office”. I was 9. We had only heard that he was shot, and I tried to cheer up my classmates by saying “maybe he’ll live and be OK”.

[electric_blue68]

17. 5th grade

Our teacher who I didn't like was motioned out of our classroom by the principal.
When she returned I was shocked at how ashen she looked. She told us JFK had been shot.
Then a while later the principal motioned her out again. She returned to tell us he had died.
Soon after over the intercom the principal reannounced it, and sent us home.

I can't remember whether I hung out w a friend in our apt building before I went downstairs to my apt. I might have missed LBJ's swearing in... but I remember most of the other iconic scenes, esp the funeral.

I didn't get the the whole picture at my age, but assassinating a president was wrong that much I knew. Of course for much of the country, or areas there was That Pall of all the Adults, and astute teens that hung over everything.
It'd be as the years rolled on I'd learn what we lost.

And Life Magazine w the Zapruder Film - I scrutinized every frame. I did listen to the various conspiracy theories a decade plus later - not committed to anything.
But I wonder because of him finally starting to work on Civil Rights, and the speech he gave at American University in ?Late Summer of '63.

[Worried2020]

19. 8th Grade - History class

.
.

Our teacher was a tough old bird - Raymond Burr, Burl Ives kinda build/personality.

Announcement came over our PA system . . .

he cried.

I was more than familiar with JFK as I had finished a presentation on the Cuban Missile Crisis about 6 months previously ( I got an A+

"Presentation" - well - that's when cut and paste was just that - cut out newspaper articles, pictures from magazines, etc, and paste/glue/tape them onto other sheets of paper or the likes of Bristol board; then give an oral presentation to the class

W

[11 Bravo]

22. 8th grade English class.

I remember Miss Harris breaking down in tears when the announcement was made.