Where were you when you learned JFK was assasinated

[wellstone dem]

I was in third grade, in line to go to the bathroom. Steve H. told us his Dad had called and the President was shot. We called him a liar.

My family got our first TV so that we could watch the funeral.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. I was with Poppy Bush... but we "can't remember" where we

were that day.

[Demit]

2. I was in sixth grade and they put the radio coverage on the P.A. system.

It was Catholic school. I think they sent us home early that day.

[MarianJack]

9. I Was in Second Grade...

...in Catholic School. Our principle put it on the PA, too. I think I was the only kid in the class to get it. That night, my mother, sister (17 at the time) and I just lay huddled on my Mom's bed listening to the news coverage, praying that it wasn't true and knowing that it was and crying until we had nothing left to cry out.

I tryly believe that my parents generation and much of mine has never really gotten over it.

Of course, today's rethuglicans and neo-cons probably consider it a cause of celebration, but in a more civil era, we mourned as one America and Jackie Kennedy spiritually led us for those 4 horrible days.

I went through the same when Bobby died, too!

[LSparkle]

3. Just about to be taken to a friend's house

for lunch before going to afternoon kindergarten. It was a Friday around noon (PST) and my mom had to go to a church luncheon, so she was going to leave me with a friend's mom until I walked to school. It was one of my very first vivid memories: Adults totally breaking down. I got the idea early on that the world was scary to the point where even my parents were moved to tears.

[SteppingRazor]

4. Like anyone else younger than 41,

I wasn't around :)

[sui generis]

5. I wasn't even two cells in a petri dish yet /nt

[Left Is Write]

6. It happened two and a half years before I was born.

So I guess I was in school when I learned about it, much after the fact.

[Reverend_Smitty]

7. My mom wasn't even born yet...

she didn't come along until 64...

[miss_kitty]

24. dang! people are getting younger and younger all the time

what is it with that, anyway?

:shrug:

[Richardo]

8. Getting ready for my 7th birthday party...

:-(

[NVMojo]

10. just got home from school in the first grade.

my mom told me and I remember going upstairs to the bathroom and locking the door and crying on the floor. My class had just gotten a letter from JFK who wrote us follow up to our letters. Later, they renamed our brand new elementary school after him.

[wellstone dem]

14. Our new elementary school opened 3 years later

and we 6th graders got to vote on a name, we also selected "John F. Kennedy Elementary."

[NV Whino]

11. Okay you need some old folk stuff here.

I was in college going to my Friday design class. The class was cancelled and I was pissed. Reality kicked in a while later and then it seemed to me to be the beginning of the end when a president in the United States could be assassinated.

Guess I was right.

[China_cat]

15. I was at my grandmother's

with my oldest son, who was 3 months old at the time. My mother was still alive at the time and called to say that Kennedy had been killed. I remember my words to her..."Mom, that's just not funny".

[Left Is Write]

21. I really like hearing people's memories of that time -

It's a living part of history, and hearing people's stories of one of the defining moments of modern American history is of great interest to me.

[one_true_leroy]

12. I was in the fourth grade... the teacher told us.

Of course, this was in 1985. :)

[rfranklin]

13. Bangkok, Thailand....I woke up and heard my mother talking to...

her friend in tones that told me something was very wrong.

"The President was shot," she said.

"You're nuts," I replied.

She told me what the reports were from the States. This was pre-cable, pre-Internet, pre-almost everything.

The local newspaper was full of the assasination story from cover to cover. Thais people who had never been to the United States were weeping openly in the streets. It was terrible.

I decided to go to the movies that night. It was Friday night (being a day ahead of the States) and half the American kids in Bangkok went to the same rundown theater that played stuff that had already run at a big theater or was so bad it never played anywhere else. We spent most of the movie making loud wisecracks, mocking the movie. Afterwards, the mother of some kid we barely knew yelled at us for being so irreverent when our President had just been murdered. We felt bad for a few minutes. We decided she was drunk and spent the rest of the night making fun of her.

[LynneSin]

16. I was not even a sparkle in my parents eyes

:shrug:

[Waistdeep]

17. I just arrived at my choir class in high school

We were going to the neighboring Junior High school to give a concert when I found out he was shot. We gave the concert anyway. In the middle of the concert it was announced that Kennedy had died. We finished with some of our most beautiful hymns with tears in our eyes.

[CO Liberal]

18. We Were Discussing This Earlier Today on the General Discussion Board

Here's a link:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2736089

[coreystone]

19. I was 13 years old and in eight grade. .......

I was attending school in a small SR/JR High in mid-western Vermont. It was a Friday. Everyone was anxious to begin the weekend.

A friend of mine had a mother who was the school secretary for the principal of the school. Both of us were in "seventh period" study period. He had gone down to speak to his mother. There was a TV in the office. He came back around 2:00 (EST) and told everyone in the study hall (the library of the school) that Kennedy had just been shot. It wasn't until the eighth period science class until it was announced that JFK had died. Shock would be an understatement for the way we felt.

I went home to my parents house. Within a short period of time my parents (both teachers), and, my sister and brother were all assembled in our household. We were all watching the the TV. I remember later in the evening that I was crying when one of the networks were showing a quickly put together documentary. It was one of the saddest times of my life.

I was pretty much obsessive about watching as much of the coverage as I could. By Sunday, November 24, 1963, my parents thought it would be a good idea to "get away" from it a bit. We went driving south with no real destination known to me. Eventually, we stopped at a restaurant in the middle of Sunday afternoon. At the restaurant, I believe we had heard that Oswald had been shot. So many thoughts to sift through, at this point, some I remember, some which are more vague.
We returned home and verified on the TV that that Oswald had indeed been shot.

It was a long weekend indeed, but, the reality of our nation's tragedy finally hit home during Kennedy's funeral on Monday November 25, 1963. As I remember it was a national day of mourning which this country had never seen. Those are just my thoughts about. It still makes me sad.

[wellstone dem]

20. shameless kick for own post

[snacker]

22. 7th grade in Catholic school

[miss_kitty]

23. 4th grade, we were on our way to lunch

our principal stopped us and said the president had been shot and there was to be no talking in the lunchroom

[Misunderestimator]

25. Probably breast-feeding

the baby part of it, that is...

[DrZeeLit]

26. Jr hi (7th grade) lunch time. We were all staring at the speakers up

near the ceiling of the lunch area.

I just remember how numb we were, how absolutely sad.
It felt so sad everywhere.

My younger brother had nightmares for a long time.

I remember the drums, the funeral, the sad music they played on t.v. even when they had no picture. (t.v. wasn't 24/7 then)

I still have a hard time seeing those pictures they always show -- of the happy couple hours before it happened. I always think: what if? And it still feels like such a huge loss. I have to quickly think of something else.

Truly sad.

[Catchawave]

27. 12th grade art class...

after being outside sketching trees, we were re-entering the school having giggle fits over something stupid, when a teacher came out of his class to shush us, then said "the President has been shot, show some respect." We thought he was joking, until we saw a tear run down his face. We got back to the art room in time to hear the PA radio broadcast announcing his death. We grew up fast that day, and thank goodness the Beatles arrived in Jan 1964 so we could smile again!

[Lone Pawn]

28. unborn n/t