Where were you 42 years ago today?

[oldtime dfl_er]

I was in 6th grade, and when it was announced over the loud speaker that Kennedy had been shot, a couple of kids laughed. I was incensed, and have been a liberal ever since. Thank you JFK for inspiring a generation!

[Devra]

1. as my mom would say "I wasn't even thought of yet"

[In_The_Wind]

2. I was in high school.

We miss you JFK!

[lizziegrace]

3. I was 3

But my father was serving in the army as a helicopter pilot and we were all at Ft Bragg (82nd Airborne). He was on high alert.

[RebelOne]

4. Sitting at home in Miami, Florida

watching the news reports of JFK's assassination.

[flowomo]

5. I also was in 6th grade...

and from the Boston area... so you can imagine the effect the news had in my town (Everett, Mass.)

[XNASA]

6. First Grade in Catholic School.

We were lined up in the school basement coming back from a bathroom break when it came on the loudspeaker and we all said a prayer.

[auntAgonist]

7. I was in school in Edinburgh Scotland

Even then and there the sadness filled the place.

RIP

[Serial Mom]

8. I was in 8th grade classroom

at a Lutheran school when our Pastor came in to tell us JFK was shot.

Most of the kids I went to school with had parents who did NOT vote for him because he was Catholic and they reacted with little concern. A couple of us (whose parents were more than just religious wingers even back then)got tears in our eyes - one girl had to leave and went to bathroom and just cried.

Certain events are embedded in the memory forever!

[TallahasseeGrannie]

30. I, too, was in an 8th grade classroom

It was Spanish class and Mr. Clawson, the English teacher, came in and told us. I think he first told us the President had been shot and then either he came in and told us it was over, or perhaps we got an announcement. I don't remember.

My school had a lot of Irish Catholic kids and the girls were especially upset. I had never given Kennedy much thought, really, being just 13 that day. It was my birthday. And I have shared it with assassination ever since.

[Strong Atheist]

9. Considering that I was born on

Oct. 9, 1964 .....

[Magrittes Pipe]

10. My parents hadn't even met.

:D

[bikebloke]

11. Third grade

We didn't find out until we got off the school bus at teh end of the day. Some kid too young for school was yelling, "Kennedy was shot! Kennedy was shot!". So I went home, and the TV was on.

...did you say 42 years ago?!!! Blimey...um yeah, I wasn't even born then...yeah. I'm remembering a previous life. That must be it...yeah...

[flamingyouth]

12. Not alive yet.

My parents had just gotten married in August of '63. When my mother's grandfather (a lifelong Republican) heard the news, he dropped dead right in front of the radio, so my mom left right away to go down to Utah for his funeral.

My dad has always said that this was the saddest day of his entire life, and when I was a kid he would always tear up when he talked about what JFK meant to him.

[anarch]

13. gosh, I just can't recall where I was...

Actually, I was just a glint in my father's eye...

But it is awfully odd for someone not to remember where they were that day, isn't it? Hmmmmm poppa Bush?

[oldtime dfl_er]

14. That's right!

He's the only guy in the world who claims not to recall that day.

[RevCheesehead]

15. I was just shy of 11 months old.

But I have a vivid memory/impression of seeing my mom and dad cry while watching the TV. it's too weird to describe.

[chknltl]

16. The first thing I thought of was JFK, even before openning this thread.

I too was in 6th grade, what a coincidence. I thank JFK for stemming WWIII, for putting men on the moon and for this:

"Ask not, what your country can do for you...
...Ask, what you can do for your country"

[kick-ass-bob]

17. my mom was celebrating her 22nd birthday.

turned out to not be much of one, though.

[amerikat]

18. 4th grade. The teacher came into class crying

and announced that the president had been shot. School let out early that day. I rode my bicycle home. There were people standing on their lawns talking and crying. When I got home my mother and grandmother and some neighbors were all outside talking and crying. I will always remember that day.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

19. eighth grade math class, right after lunch

A teacher who had second lunch had been listening to the radio in the teachers' lounge and went from room to room telling everyone the news.

In a few minutes, the principal's office put the radio on over the PA system.

After the announcement that JFK was dead, we just sat there stunned. Then the principal came on the PA and said that we'd all be sent home as soon as the school buses could be summoned.

[Initech]

20. Wasnt even born yet

[Blue Diadem]

21. 3rd grade, 8 yrs old.

I remember the teacher telling us and everyone going home early. The sadness was overwhelming.

[CottonBear]

22. I was a 5 month old infant visitng Chattanooga with my mom.

We were in a local motel when mom heard the news. My family was about to be shipped off to Germany with the US Army. My orthopaedic surgeon dad had recently been drafted into the 101st Airborne. He was a Army Captain.

[RedCloud]

23. I was already a DUer!

It was announced in the cafeteria that John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.

Since I knew the principal was a repug, I (the reigning spelling bee champ)stood up on a table and shouted,"THIS IS A REPUBLICAN LIE!"

See, I got it right before the media distorted it. Why were JFK's programs also assassinated?

[Patiod]

24. Wondering why Captain Kangaroo wasn't on

Seriously - that's my major memory, is wondering why Capt Kangaroo and Pixanne (local kids host) wasn't on, and all they were showing was a box in the middle of a circular room

[seemunkee]

25. first grade

It's very vague. I do remember hiding under a table that afternoon.

[enigami]

26. Reading "Winnie The Pooh"

And deciding werther or not to crap my pants or go like the big boys. I actually remember all the adults freaking and crying and such. It was kind of scary

[Kool Kitty]

27. I was in sixth grade.

Principal came in and spoke quietly to my teacher, Mr. Manganella. He was holding a yardstick and broke it in half and then in half again. We were told what had happened and then the busses came and took us all home. Everything was closed and quiet, seemed like the whole planet was mourning.

[Deja Q]

28. I was an egg inside of mommy's ovary...

I'd probably prefer to be a sperm, but they don't live nearly as long, you see...

:wow:

[Crazy Guggenheim]

29. Peace Dale, R.I. I had just gotten home from 3rd grade and my

sister came in. My mother said to her "What are you doing home so early?" My sister said "They let us out because the President was shot."

[LibDemAlways]

31. I was in 6th grade, too. That was a parent

conference day for my school, so the kids were off and I was on a girl scout camping trip. When the bus reached the campground, one of the girls noticed the flag out front was at half staff. A park ranger came aboard the bus and told us President Kennedy had been shot and killed. I came from a very Republican area, and the news didn't seem to make much of an impact. We went ahead with the camping trip and nothing more was said. That's hard for me to believe now, but that's how it was.

[China_cat]

32. I was at my grandmother's.

My oldest son was 3 months old, playing on the floor. My mother called and said that Kennedy had been shot. I remember telling her 'Mom, that's just not funny' and her telling me to turn on the tv.

[Debi]

33. I wasn't born - but 17 years ago today I gave birth to my wonderful son

[Xithras]

34. Snugly cuddled up in my moms ovaries with hundreds of my almost-siblings

Of course, since my mom was only 10, none of us had made the journey into the world yet :)

[Misunderestimator]

35. I was in diapers.

[WCGreen]

36. First Grade... Catholic School.... I remember the Nun's

all cried.....

And then I remember the drumming...

The riderless horse....

The backward boots....

[Blue_In_AK]

37. I was a senior in high school...

...in South Houston, Texas. I was in Mrs. McCafferty's 1:00 English class. The news came over the PA system. Mrs. McCafferty began crying, we were all stunned. JFK and Jackie had been in Houston just a day or two before. Nobody could believe this was happening. I couldn't stop crying (literally) for at least a week. This was the real beginning of my political awareness and shaped the course of the rest of my life.

[6000eliot]

38. I was at home

I was only 4, but I can still remember watching the funeral on television.

[Tikki]

39. In 9th grade General Science class....

...our teacher had the HAM radio so all the classes on our floor of the building lined up against the wall in the hall near our class room and listened to the reports. The rest of the classes were listening from a radio feed on the intercom system. It was all too eerie..
I lived in a very politically conservative and Hawkish community...everyone seemed shocked, though.

Some of the girls ran into the girls' restrooms and cried. I cannot remember if we were excused from school that day...it seems to me it would have been between 9 and 10 am on the West Coast when we heard the news ..somewhere around that time.

My mother and I were deeply saddened by this murder..we talked about it, alot, at home.


Tikki

[BigMcLargehuge]

40. laying there in my mother's egg sack

waiting for my dad to reach puberty

[bridgit]

41. five years too early...

:cry:

[Call Me Wesley]

42. Just ending

my past life. Heh! ;)

[khashka]

43. I was neither born nor concieved

42 years ago my parents weren't even married!

Khash.

[graywarrior]

44. 9th grade English class.

Principle came into our class and told us. He was very upset. We all got sent home. I lived in a democratic blue collar town filled with Catholics, so most everyone was sad.

I was stunned when my dad came home from work (GE) and said some guys at work thought JFK had it coming. That's when I became a liberal.

[Saphire]

45. at home with my mom, watching " As the World Turns" on CBS

[MissMillie]

46. My mother insists that this is the day that I was conceived

She said they consoled each other....

[MANative]

47. I was 3 years old...

and it is my first cognizant memory. I can clearly remember my mother sitting on the sofa, crying her eyes out. I remember sitting on the floor in the family room, watching the television. We lived in MA, and I later learned that my mom had briefly worked for JFK when he was a Senator, and I have several personal notes from JFK to my mom and personal photos of him with my mom and with my grandfather, who was a local selectman - Democrat, of course.

My blue roots run very deep...

[Kali]

53. Wow I have this memory too

One of my earliest, my mom was vaccuuming and turned it off to listen to the radio and sat down and said something to the effect of OMG and started crying

I was a few days from my 4th birthday, we were in El Cerrito CA and my dad was teaching at Berkley.

[RetroLounge]

48. I was nearly 3 yrs old

Do not remember it...

RL

[north houston dem]

49. at home with my mommy

the postman came to the door and told her the president had just been shot. I remember her turning on the TV and Sitting in front of it crying - I was 4.

[Arugula Latte]

50. I was two years and two months from being born.

[mwooldri]

51. In a previous life.

I think. Though since I don't know who I was prior to 1971 (I had to wait a few years before coming around again) I wouldn't know who I was, or where I was. Perhaps I got put in purgatory a bit longer and maybe I am John F Kennedy reborn? But then, who knows?

[DancingBear]

52. In 5th grade

I remember the principal, Mrs. Robinson, who was as gruff as they come, breaking down in tears when she announced it to the class.

[BikeWriter]

54. I was in high school. I recall everyone being very upset.

[Left Is Write]

55. I was -3 years old.

My older sisters were a toddler (nearly two) and an infant (4 months) at the time.

I didn't make the scene until the summer of '66.

[evlbstrd]

56. In Catholic school.

The nuns cried, which made us cry. They sent us home and I spent the rest of the day watching coverage on TV. Crying.

[LostinVA]

57. About three months from being a gleam in my Father's eye

[LSK]

58. i was negative 9 years old

Born in 72..

[RubyDuby in GA]

59. By your standards

I was negative 11 years old. My parents hadn't even met yet.

[WeRQ4U]

60. I was hanging out in my mom's ovaries.

You know, chillin'. About 14 years later, I was let out.

[Ptah]

61. 6th grade, in Conrad, Montana.

I also remember watching his inaguration,
Robert Frost being part of the ceremony.

The riderless horse.
:cry:
JFK Jr saluting.
:cry:
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty."
-John F. Kennedy (JFK)

:cry:

The end of hope

:cry:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

62. I was 5, in 1st grade, and didn't understand.

My father loathed Kennedy; and I think he might have said something that indicated this was ultimately a positive event. I vividly remember my mother telling me that not liking someone is no excuse for murdering them.

I also remember her telling me it was some nut who killed him. But I wonder if we'll ever really know what happened.

[dpbrown]

63. Are you coming to the Minnesota DU meetup?

Check in the Minnesota forum for details!

:toast:

[AussieDave]

64. I was in second grade - my teacher came into the classroom crying

and sent us all home.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

65. I was a few days shy of turning 20 years old, and I was living on campus

at San Jose State College, in a Catholic dorm. We heard the news in mid-morning, and since my dorm was a private one, with a chapel, the priest rushed in at noon and held a Requiem Mass. The crowd overflowed ......Everyone was weeping.

I remember enormous grief and shock....I still have the newspapers I bought that day.....

It was horrifying......

[Awsi Dooger]

66. I was first year nursery school in Miami

For decades I had a distinct memory of something strange happening. It was on a Friday and another teacher came into our room and began talking to our teacher, but not loud enough that the students could hear. At that point class ended suddenly in the middle of the day and we were slowly marched out back and to the waiting area where the parents always picked us up. One of the teachers held my hand until my grandmother arrived. My parents were teachers and couldn't make it so I was one of the last ones to leave.

It wasn't until a decade or so ago that I pieced that together and realized it had to be November 22, 1963. I looked at my school photo and it read "Class of 1963-64." That's when it clicked. I checked and sure enough the assassination was on a Friday, in the middle of the day Eastern time. My parents insist I watched the coverage and was very aware and asking questions, but I have absolutely no memory other than the school aspect.

[SmileyBoy]

67. It was almost 19 years before I was born.

I didn't fucking exist.:(

[trof]

68. OK, one more time: Vance AFB, Enid Oklahoma. I was 22 and

in pilot training.
All flying and classes were cancelled for several days and the base went into lock down.

I stood guard duty on the flight line in 6" of snow.
And we didn't have an effing clue about how or why.
I did see Jack Ruby plug Oswald live on TV.

[greatauntoftriplets]

82. I saw Ruby plug Oswald also...what a horrible moment...

Even though I was 14 at the time, I knew instantly that we would never know the truth because of that shot.

Heard about JFK being shot at my high school, where I was a freshman. St. Scholastica Academy on Chicago's Far North Side.

[grannylib]

69. I was home watching my mom weep while she watched the news, and

I remember thinking about John and Caroline, since I was about the same age, and thinking how sad it was that their daddy died. The pictures I saw of them together...they looked so happy.
Very sad day.

[ScreamingMeemie]

70. I was -7 years old...and looking forward to being conceived.

:hi:

[Iris]

71. Why did kids laugh? Where the hell were you? (state?)

I was in Washington, DC in one of my mom's ovaries. Or at least half of me was.

[huskerlaw]

72. My parents were only 14 years old...

I was -15. ;)

[huskerlaw]

73. Dupe...sorry

[madrchsod]

74. walking into the high school lunch room

the girls were crying and someone said kennedy was shot

[SeattleGirl]

75. In Mrs. White's 3rd Grade class

I can run it like a video in my mind. Mrs. White, short dark brown hair in the "bouffant" style of the day. Wearing a white dress with a small floral pattern on it. An older teacher came in, whispered something in Mrs. White's ear, and she started crying. She told us that the President had been shot, and that we were to go home. We walked pass the office, and all the adults in the office were crying. A lot of us were scared, because we weren't really sure what was going on. I went home, and my mom was there, also crying. And then, there were the 4 days afterward, all of us glued to the TV. Ike was in office when I was born, but Kennedy was always "my" President.

[ikojo]

76. My mom tells me that she was in Sears and

I was crying (I was an infant)

[HawkerHurricane]

77. Walking.

From my mom to my dad. Mom and Dad say that I learned to walk the day Kennedy was shot.

[Shine]

78. I was in utero..waiting to be born a few months later in March of '64

Wow, where DOES the time go?
:shrug:

We're coming up soon on another grim anniversary: the 25th anniversary of John Lennon's murder, on December 8th.... sigh.

Life goes on, in the midst of it ALL........

[hickman1937]

79. 4th grade at Our Lady of Refuge.

Sister Superior was too broken up to make any announcement, so she just flipped on the PA. Our teacher started pacing around the room saying the rosary. Then we were all taken into the church to pray.

[CatholicEdHead]

80. About 14 years from being born

[hippywife]

81. I was only 5 but I was devastated.

When I was little, anytime JFK came on the radio or TV, I would drop everything...toys, food, everything to run and listen to him. Even though I'm sure I didn't understand what he was saying at the time, I was so attracted to his voice and charisma. He came to Columbus and my dad had considered taking me to the airport so I could see him in person and maybe get to shake his hand. 42 years ago today, he regretted never having done that.

[NYdemocrat089]

83. I was not alive yet...just a dream.

My parents were just 4 and 5.

[NYdemocrat089]

84. Self Delete

My message got posted twice.

[CBHagman]

85. In kindergarten in Tenafly, New Jersey.

Oddly enough, I don't recall the day itself but have vivid memories of the radio broadcast of the following morning (with a description of the assassination, which upset me very much) and of course of the funeral. The day of the funeral, I recall going from house to house in my neighborhood and finding that every family had the TV on, with those same haunting images.

Today I attend mass each Sunday at the cathedral where JFK's funeral was held, and two years ago I attended the memorial service commemorating his death. Howells's "Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing" was performed by the choir.

[0007]

86. I was 30 years old and was on my way to the South Pacific

and then to Australia where I lived for 16 months.

[Skittles]

87. Peterborough England

was 6 years old, have no memories of JFK

[MrScorpio]

88. I just turned 2 not long before that

So I didn't know what happened

[New Earth]

89. i was somewhere in the primordial ocean

waiting to be discovered....

[NMMNG]

90. I was an egg in my mother's ovary.

It's likely the sperm that would eventually fertalize it hadn't yet been produced, so the egg was all that existed.

[specimenfred1984]

91. Walked Into The Kitchen, Heard it on a Transistor Radio

I remember it clearly, one of the few things I remember at 4 years old.

I walked into the kitchen in my Arlington, VA house through the "breezeway" from the driveway. The radio was on top of the kitchen counter. I was by myself and heard "the president has been shot". I noticed the sincere feeling of grief in the announcer's voice and recognized it as something bad.

My parents took me to the funeral but all I remember of that was being on a hill looking down at cars passing by.

[mykpart]

92. I was a student at a Catholic high school in Dallas.

Some kids had even skipped school that day to see the parade. I remember that I was in PE when a girl came running in and yelled that Governor Connaly had been killed and President Kennedy had been shot. Of course she had it backwards, but this is what the first reports said. They put the radio on the loudspeaker system for the rest of the day. We just went from class to class in a daze, listening to the radio reports, not really having classes, since all the teachers were as upset as we were. I remember girls crying in the hallways. A really bad time to live in Dallas.

[Seabiscuit]

93. I awoke from a nap at the freshman dorm at Oberlin College, Ohio when

someone across the hall told me Kennedy had just been shot. I rushed downstairs and saw Walter Cronkite on TV announcing Kennedy had just died. There was a school-wide memorial service that day at the Chapel.

I walked away from it all feeling a horrible sense of impending doom for the future of this country. Little did I know then how prophetic that feeling was to become.

[oldtime dfl_er]

94. Wow

I don't know about anyone else but reading all these replies really makes me tear up. Those of us who remember those events -- our lives were at least partially shaped by them, definitely a seminal moment in our history.

[kwassa]

95. I was also in 6th grade, getting dressed just after gym class

Remember when kids actually took showers after gym?

We did. Then this kid named David who was always lying about something came into our part of the locker room and said that our supermacho gym teacher was crying because the President had been shot.

and we said "Yeah, right."

The entire country shut down after that, glued to the tv sets. I later saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald on live tv, right in the stomach.

[satireV]

96. I was in Dallas at the Dallas Morning News building

I was 4 years old that crisp Nov day. My mom had taken me downtown to lunch with my dad who worked at the DMN.

We were standing on the steps of the building when we heard the faint sound of the shots ring out from Dealey Plaza.

What happened next is the first thing in my memory.

Women everywhere were crying. Children were crying. I began to cry.

I looked up at my mom to see a flood of tears marking her face.

I did not know why.

[wildhorses]

97. I was in the first grade and when I got home early I found Momma

in front of the TV her ironing forgotten as she sat glued to the events playing forth. After that day soap operas just never held the same appeal...

[Doubting Thomas]

98. Working

...at North American Aviation in Commerce, CA. On the wiring for the Apollo. At first we just knew he was shot, not how seriously. The whole company came to a halt for a "moment of silence," most prayed. Almost nothing got done for the rest of the day.

HH must have started walking that night. I remember the walk, not the connection to Kennedy's assassination.

[devilgrrl]

99. In my moms womb.

I was born 10 days later.

[yellowdogintexas]

100. Biology class/sophomore year.

We were so stunned.