Other reactions on November 22, 1963

[Wiregrass Willie]

I certainly don't mean to seem callous or uncaring, but every time this date rolls around I hear other people recall all the tears they saw that weekend. And I'm not saying that such was not the case. However, the USA is a big country and different people interpret historic events differently.

I was only a year out of college and for some reason I was off work that Friday afternoon. I was home watching some game shows on TV when the news came through.

I watched until my wife came home. After dinner we made a round of the usual Friday night parties and get-togethers. I don't think I heard anything more about JFK until I turned on the TV Saturday morning. Atlanta was not in deep mourning.

I have a cousin who was working as a roustabout on the Louisiana offshore oil derricks that day. Later he told me that the bosses shut down operations early for the day to let all the guys go ashore. He said he went to a number of bars but there was so much celebrating and cheering that he finally got embarrassed and went to his rooming house early that night. He said he didn't care anything for Kennedy but he had been raised not to laugh and applaud at somebody getting murdered.

I just wanted to put it into historic perspective.

[LibDemAlways]

1. I was a 6th grader on a girl scout camping trip.

When our bus arrived at the campground, the flag out front was at half mast. A park ranger came on board the bus to tell us about the campground rules, and one of the girls asked why the flag had been lowered. He said very matter-of-factly that President Kennedy had been shot and killed. The overnight proceeded and the adult chaperones said no more about it. I don't recall the girls talking about it either.

My school was off that day because of parent-teacher conferences. When school resumed Tuesday after the funeral my teacher commented that it was "a heck of a reason to miss a day of school," and then we went back to our work.

This was in Southern Cal. You are right. The sadness, tears, and mourning was not universal.

[BuyingThyme]

2. Morons in bars always provide good historical perspective.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

9. A well-documented survey of drinking establishments full of semi-literate inebriates

is an acceptable and reasonable citation on any website.

[kansasblue]

3. School was dimissed and we were sent home.

I was young and what I remember most was it was the only thing on TV. I remember watching a plane landing in near DC with Kennedy's body, taxi, parking, waiting, one person comes out, waiting, etc.

Every thing moved so slow and that was all that was on. As child it seems like TV was that way for weeks. Soft voices, minutes of silence, nothing much happening.

[hedgehog]

4. Thank you for your comments. After all these years, the fact that

JFK wasn't adored by everyone in the country has been lost. There were a lot of people opposed to his initiatives in the areas of civil rights and arms control. Your post helps to explain why he was so cautious about pulling advisers out of Viet Nam before the election. At the time, i Viet Nam was a very small issue. I believe he thought that if he waited until after the election he would be in a position to pull the US out without endangering his other programs.

[Wiregrass Willie]

5. How about Civil Rights ?

I have no doubt that had he lived, Civil Rights would not have been passed until the 1970s. Odds are he would have lost in 1964 and the GOP would been in until 1972. It was LBJ who championed Civil Rights. Not the Brothers Kennedy.

But then all of written history is only the generally accepted lie.

[independentpiney]

6. You're right that civil rights wasn't high on his agenda

nor was expansion of the social contract. Those are both rightly part of LBJ's legacy, but his horrible escalation in Vietnam seems to have caused many people to forget that, and it fits nicely to include them in the JFK/Camelot national mythology.

[hedgehog]

7. You're talking about a moving target.

Civil Rights wasn't Kennedy's first priority in 1960, the Cold War was. As the Civil Rights movement gained strength, he and a lot of white Americans learned just how black Americans lived. Kennedy was increasingly disgusted by what he learned and increasingly committed to CIvil Rights.

Don't forget,if Kennedy had been re-elected in 1964, Johnson would have been VP with all kinds of Senate contacts. Presumably he would have assisted the Civil Rights Act through the Congress.

[catnhatnh]

8. Hmmm...8 days before my 10th birthday....

My brother, who was then 13, was at the UN, where U Thant was to address the general assembly. I was home from school that day. Mom loved the guy and was shaken....My sister was 15 and I can't recall her reaction. We were Catholic and loved the Kennedys. We watched probably more TV then ever before, and I saw Oswald shot probably close to in real time. I'll never forget the horse (named:Blackjack?) with the empty boots in his stirrups representing our loss or John-John saluting his Dad. At almost 10, I cried...