Will always remember where I was on this date in 1963.

[TNNurse]

Latin Class, Norcross High School, Norcross GA, when it was announced. I was 14.

[OLDMDDEM]

1. Math Class, Seward, Nebraska. I was 16.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

2. I was 16 and in High School in Simi Valley, Ca.

at my PE class, we were told to hit the showers and assemble in the school auditorium for an announcement.

[cyclonefence]

3. Shooting announced in Civics class, Charleston High School

Death was announced in French class. I was 16.

[Kingofalldems]

4. Wow--I was in Latin II class when I found out.

[randr]

5. Chem class, last period

The world changed and was never the same

[Walleye]

6. Between my algebra class and my Spanish class by the lockers in the hall

I was 14 and somebody said it, and I didn’t believe it. There was some nasty political humor back then too. Later I got into class and it was announced over the PA. The next four days all three networks nothing but muffled drums and the funeral dirge

[Red Pest]

7. I also remember -

I was taking an exam in my algebra class at Patrick Henry Junior High School in Northridge, CA (in the San Fernando Valley - Los Angeles). The announcement was made over the PA system. My math teacher blurted out, "They murdered him!" I was 12 years old.

[FalloutShelter]

8. I was 10 and in the 5th grads.

My first inkling that something was wrong was when the teacher left the classroom, but left the door open. Several teachers were in the hallway together and they were not just crying. They were sobbing.
I had never seen adults so shaken.
We were sent home and the shock was evident everywhere.

[Atticus]

9. I was also 14. Our biology class was interrupted by Walter Cronkite suddenly speaking

through the PA system.

Lots of tears.

[Cracklin Charlie]

10. I was age 4, and at home.

It was the first time I remember seeing my mom cry.

[Dave in VA]

11. I was 11

and in 6th grade. Teachers crying in the hallway and one of them came into the classroom and told all that President Kennedy had been shot in Texas and that school was being dismissed and if we did not ride the bus to school we were free to pack up or belongings and walk on home.

[H2O Man]

12. Recommended.

I was in school. We were let out early. It wasn't until on the bus ride home that I found out why.

[catbyte]

13. I was in the library of the one-room elementary school I attended. I was painting a table a

shade of green I will never forget. I was 8 years old. There was a clock radio playing on a shelf in the library when the announcement came over the air and I ran to tell our teacher. We were released early from school and a high school play a neighbor was performing in that night was canceled. I remember my mom being so upset which made me really upset because, even though I couldn't fully grasp the magnitude of what had happened, I knew it was really, really bad.

Two days later, I saw my first murder on TV. I grew up a lot that week.

The color of the table was "fern" in this color chart. It's odd what things are seared in your memory.

[zeusdogmom]

14. Geometry class

Teacher (football and wrestling coach) came into the classroom crying. He choked out the news and we were all in dumbfounded silence. Kennedy was not a well liked president in the community but it struck the 15-16 year olds in the class as something truly horrible had just happened. Spent the weekend glued to the TV, crying a lot - which my father severely chastised me for. He really hated Kennedy. That weekend was the beginning of my journey from a very republican family to the lone democrat in the clan.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

15. Civics class, Sr year.

Warner Robins, GA

It was announced on the tinny classroom speaker above the chalkboard.

[Tikki]

16. General Science..9th grade..the teacher had a shortwave in the class..

Some other classes on the same floor lined up in the hallway to listen to the broadcasts.
I went to the girl’s restroom and cried.

Tikki

[lark]

17. On the playground at elementary school and was 11.

Our teacher called us in from kickball and told us the news with tears streaming down her face. Several of us started to cry too and we were all hugging each other. This was in Jacksonville, FL. There were no both sides or hate that day, except for the killer. These days, it would be so very different.

[peacebuzzard]

18. I was at home, it devastated me...

I was a catholic grammar school kid.

[brer cat]

19. Music class, Russell High School, East Point, GA.

School was dismissed. My parents had refused to buy a TV until we all graduated from high school, but a neighbor invited us over to watch the coverage.

[Beatlelvr]

20. Gym class, 7th grade.

Those who wanted to were let into the auditorium and gathered around a small tv that was set up.
As I recall in my young life, this event was the beginning of horrible things to come in that decade.

[3auld6phart]

21. I rember

Just going to bed. Worked graveyard shift. didn’t get much sacktime.next shift 5hat. Night just managed to make it thru, the night. Unbelievable turn of events,for sure.

[snowybirdie]

22. I was a young adult

I was working in the typing pool for Sears on the top floor of their State Street Store at Congress Parkway in Chicago. Just started two weeks before. A group of us were sitting at our desks having our sandwiches brought from home (at $75 per week, we couldn't afford to go out) One of the girls answered her phone. It was her mom telling her the President has been shot. We all gasped. We raced down to the 4th floor of the store to where the tvs were sold. And there, in a department store looking at a wall of live televisions, we learned that Kennedy was dead. An image I'll never forget.

[bluestarone]

23. Sophomore in High school

Don't remember what class, but i think it was study hall. I will also forever remember that!

[Sneederbunk]

24. Sophomore in high school. Lunchroom.

[jalan48]

25. I was in study hall when they announced it over the loud speakers.

Our country changed that day.

[ratchiweenie]

26. Freshman at Hellgate High School in Missoula, MT. A friend came up in the hall and

told me she had just heard it. I was so shocked and started crying and looked up to see a couple of jocks I knew who were whooping it up big time. I remember wanting to go over and slap them. My whole family was devastated.

[jalan48]

35. I went to Flathead and we had the same thing, some kids cheering at the news.

[Elessar Zappa]

41. Off topic but my cousins went to Hellgate in Missoula.

Missoula’s a nice town.

[ratchiweenie]

60. It's a nice town and a good school. We moved back 3 years ago and

love it here. I could do without winter but hey, if you want to live in such beauty I guess you just have to put up with some inconvenience.

[unweird]

27. First Grade

Just got home from school in Rochester, NY when I learned that he had been shot.

[LeftInTX]

28. 2nd grade. I was hoping he would survive.

We first heard that he had been shot.
Our teacher didn't sound optimistic, however.

[LittleWoman]

29. I was in the women's restroom in the Chemical Engineering building at the University of Minnesota

Just getting ready for an English class with perhaps the most boring TA on the Campus. A point in his favor--he came into class visibly upset and announced there would be no class that day.

[yardwork]

30. One of my earliest memories is watching Walter Cronkite narrate a schematic showing what happened.

It must have been a day or two after the shooting, when it had sunk in for me that something really terrible had happened and all the grownups were very upset.

The schematic on TV showed the cars in the motorcade as boxes. The boxes made me think of my wagon. I thought that the president had been killed while riding his wagon.

[Deuxcents]

31. Junior year Miami Norland sr high in typing class. I was so scared we were going to war

Little did I know Vietnam Nam was just around the corner of time.

[Demsrule86]

32. We looked at Norcross when we went to GA in the late 90's. Hubs worked Tarrytown GM

which is now gone.

[TNNurse]

34. Norcross was a small town near Atlanta back then,

it has been surrounded and swallowed up since.

[Demsrule86]

46. Many GMer's lived there. Atlanta was one giant traffic jam when I lived there...and we were

first in Marrietta and then in Woodstock...now it is also very congested. I taught there for one year and then went into business. The schools were trying to kick kids out to improve test scores. My principal hated me...said I was insubordinate. But hey when the FBI came a calling I had proof that I had not participated in showing kids tests or passing kids who were failing and did no work. Georgia was not my favorite place but I miss my sis who moved there while we were there. Now Georgia is trending blue and Ohio is red...ah well my fate to live in a red state.

[TNNurse]

48. People from Norcross worked at GM in Doraville

when I was growing up...lots of them.

When I graduated from NHS in 1967, we were the first class to graduate more than 100...now it is a 6A size and not the only high school. I can remember getting on I-85 to go to Lenox Square at Norcross-Tucker RD (now Jimmy Carter Blvd) and there were mostly pine trees until I turned at Lenox Rd....quite different now.

If they elect Walker, I will not be surprised but horrified.

[PortTack]

33. This is my birth date..so ya...I always remember

[greatauntoftriplets]

36. I was a high school freshman in Chicago.

It was lunchtime (11:30-ish, very early lunch) and a girl in my homeroom told me "They're saying the president has been shot. I don't believe it, do you?" I felt my gut wrench, went down to the student lounge where half the school was watching the television in there.

We were sent home early and had the day of the funeral off so we could watch it.

That Sunday morning, I was watching television and saw Jack Ruby shoot Oswald.

[watrwefitinfor]

37. Watching a soap opera while I swept the floor

in our efficiency apartment at Daytona Beach. Sweeping was interrupted with a brief news flash that Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. Frozen to the spot I leaned on the broom, staring at the tv. Short time later Cronkite came on the air saying Kennedy was dead. It all comes back like it was yesterday.

Bottom fell out of my world. I had big plans to cast my first vote for him in '64.

I was 19 with two little kids - 1 and 3 - who were napping (they're both in their 60s now). DH, who was the drummer in a show band which was the reason we were in Daytona, was sleeping. I woke him up and told him. He grunted and went back to sleep.

I heard loud voices from outside, stepped outside (still holding the broom) and found the rest of the quartet on the balcony of their motel across the street* shouting at anyone out and about that the president was dead. We were all in shock.

*That street was the one that runs right on the beach, just a few blocks north of the street they now call Speedway Blvd. We were lucky, found a clean, cheap 1st floor efficiency apartment right on the beach side of the road, with a nice grass yard stretching straight back to the beach. We were only there for a couple of months, but you don't forget the place where you experienced such momentous stuff.

Wat

[CatWoman]

38. ....

https://omny.fm/shows/countdown-with-keith-olbermann/cwko-tue-11-22-22-final

C-Block (28:53) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL. It is 59 years since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and I may be the youngest person you know with a distinct memory of that terrible day and the days that followed. From the adults crying to the cancellation of all the cartoons to the muted Thanksgiving Day Parade, it made its impression on me, two months shy of my fifth birthday.

[oasis]

39. English class at my high school in L.A.. Our teacher, Mrs. Nichols, began

cracking jokes.

[Duppers]

40. America history class

Was 2 days from my 16th b.d.

[electric_blue68]

56. Oh, boy, that's Irony for you!

[Deminpenn]

42. 4th grade

It was 2:30 eastern time and close to the end of the school day. I don't remember getting out early.
It was a warm day. I remember my mom holding the door open, then just watching everything unfold on TV.

[lindalou65]

43. 1963 location when Kennedy was shot

I was a sophomore at Radford High School in Honolulu. Never forget the announcement over the speakers— many of us cried. It was a very sad day.

[Omaha Steve]

44. I was home sick from school

I was 5 years old.

[Hekate]

45. Kailua High School, Oahu, in the halls between Homeroom and Chemistry. I heard a boy say it...

Kailua High School, Oahu, in the halls between Homeroom and Chemistry. I heard a boy say it...

What I thought in the moment was that it was a tasteless joke. Some of the kids had transistor radios, but our school was typical for the time and place in that there were no intercoms and no TVs. The office had to have sent out runners, because our Chem teacher announced it.

Later in the day there was a school assembly in the courtyard around the flagpole. The Band’s best trumpeter played Taps. We were all absolutely stunned. If any of the many military dependents were from the South and thought this was okay (remember those transistor radios: we already knew about outbreaks of cheers) they kept their mouths well shut.

I don’t recall being let out early — as an adult I can see the logistical problems in getting almost 2,000 students home when the only buses were school busses. For me it would have meant a 3 mile walk home, and for others it was much further. Also, seriously, what would the kitchen have done with all those hot lunches just before a holiday weekend? (Yes, we got a full hot lunch cooked by real people in a kitchen on the premises. 25c. All students got a day off classes in rotation to help for a day.) Funny the things I never thought of before.

Jack Kennedy was Irish-American, like my family. Funny how personal it becomes…

I was glued to the TV at home over the next days. I was young — I thought this was unique in our history & would never happen again. By the end of 1968, I knew better.

RIP Jack & Jackie, Bobby, Teddy — thank you all for your service to the country.

🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺🌺

[littlewolf]

47. home sick on the couch in my PJ's wrapped up in a quilt

I was 7 .... it came over the TV

[Greybnk48]

49. Sophomore in High School, home sick.

I have never fully recovered from that horrific event, along with most others who experienced it. My dad, mom and I also saw Jack Ruby shoot Oswold live on T.V., a couple of days later that was another horrid shock.

This day, 1963, set in motion an indescribably emotionally destructive two or three weeks that touched people world-wide.

[tapper]

50. 3rd grade, in class...

Watching classmate demonstrating how to make butter when the principal stepped in to announce the news. I had just turned 8.

[Notek]

51. I was 21,

had just been laid off from my job as a TV repairman. I don't remember where I was when I heard the news but I do remember seeing Jack Ruby shoot Oswald on TV a few days later.

[TNNurse]

53. I remember that as well.

My mother was in the kitchen and I ran to tell her. She understood that I had seen it live and was worried about me. It took a little while to realize it was not tape and that I had seen it happen. I was 14...remember it well.

[Notek]

55. Yup.

I'll always remember the look on the faces of those guys who were leading him by the arms when the shot was fired. It was surreal.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

52. On the bus from Whitesburg Jr. High from yells of "Nixon did it!"

[mainer]

54. Elementary school cafeteria. San Diego

I heard kids talking about it. Asked a teacher. He nodded, ‘Yes. It’s true.”

[Sancho]

57. I was in school in Charleston, SC...a science teacher (Mrs. Hardee) came in and told us.

...my father was a Major in the army reserve, and we had a bomb shelter in the back yard (really), so my parents were not really Kennedy fans, but the neighbors and all of us were glued to the TV (old B&W ones with an antenna). Everyone knew it was a crisis. Many thought that the Russians or Cubans did it and there would be nuclear war. The conversations scared all of us.

[electric_blue68]

58. 10 yrs old 4th grade...

Our teacher who I didn't like was called out of the classroom. When she came back she'd gone pale! Then she told us Kennedy had been shot. Soon after the Principal come on over our recently installed intercom to tell us The President had died. We were let out early.

Of course, I knew it was a bad thing, but wouldn't understand the loss till a few years later. But the pall of adults around me back then. Watched the funeral. The family, the drums ... the Riderless Horse.
Look & Life Magazines with the Zapruder stills.

In '64 visiting a favorite aunt & uncle, and cousins in VA just outside of DC we visited his original grave - Eternal Flame, and the White Picket Fence.

Waaaay later as an adult I went to Arlington Cemetery to see JFK's redone gravesite, and RFK's which you could glimpse downhill from where I was standing. Went on a beautiful green, low humidity, blue sky summer day. Sooo sad, and sooo poignant with the beauty of that day around me.

[indigovalley]

59. 1st grade--came home from school

And my mom was at the door--the TV was on--and she told me there wouldn't be any school on Monday. She told me the President had been killed. I didn't quite grasp it all at age 6 but I have vivid memories of watching the funeral on our black and white TV.