4 pictures of John F. Kennedy

[wanswheel]

http://pro.corbis.com/images/BE070822.jpg?size=67&uid={35f45890-714e-487c-a1e7-a58a8b25185b}

http://pro.corbis.com/images/BE070823.jpg?size=67&uid={79f0da88-b9f9-474f-b143-0c6d34e3c806}

http://pro.corbis.com/images/U1247192.jpg?size=67&uid={c252ce46-cbc0-4dc8-a341-a9f4e2eefefc}

http://pro.corbis.com/images/U1373658.jpg?size=67&uid={081a5a25-7e8c-4b0e-b977-e7f6dd54bf0a}

[tpatrick]

45 years have passed and it still seems like yesterday.

[Modelcar]

.....Believe this {today}, is the 45th anniversary of Pres. Kennedy's assassination.

[videomaker]

Quintin,

 I too remember it like yesterday,I was 14 yrs old and had got off the school bus to go see him that am..He was in Ft Worth and gave a speech from a flatbed trailer in front of the Hilton Hotel,I wasnt counted absent and I was eating lunch when the announcement came ove the intercom..My mother cried over it for 2 days...

[Modelcar]

videomaker

I too remember it like yesterday,I was 14 yrs old and had got off the school bus to go see him

Yes, it touched the whole nation.  Many folks remember where they were when they heard the news. Personally, I was home from work not feeling well and heard the news coming in shortly after lunch.  It really made for a long weekend.

[CShaveRR]

Danny, I guess you and I are the same age--I was 14 and in ninth grade (still considered junior high then).  I don't remember if the news came from the office or a contraband transistor radio, but it spread quickly, and classes were dismissed early.  I had a paper route to attend to, and had to wait several hours, because the paper was reworked to fit some of the story in.

The assassination happened on a Friday.  We didn't have a television set at home (part of my sheltered life at that point), but we spent a lot of time at my grandmother's house, where we could all watch the tube.  I'm pretty sure we had the following Monday off (the date of the funeral) as well, and watched that, too.

I also remember being just out of Sunday School on the 24th when one of my classmates yelled out that Lee Harvey Oswald had been shot.  Don't know how he found out.

But yes, this is one of those things that you never forget where you were at the time (that's happened only three or four times in my life).

[eolafan]

I was in seventh grade science class sitting at my desk when the announcement came over the public address system from the Principal's office and we were all sent home to pray for President Kennedy. To echo what others have already said, I (and most others) will NEVER forget that day and those that followed....a very sad time for our country that should NEVER (and hopefully will NEVER) be repeated.

[tree68]

I, too was in class - English, I think - must have been 8th grade, when the announcement came over the PA.  We were dismissed early as well.  It was a strange walk home from school, and the weekend was spent pretty much glued to the TV.

Some things you just never forget.

[jeaton]

I was in the first week of Army Basic Training at Ft Gordon, GA, not the most fun time in my life anyway.  The memory is very vivid.

[espeefoamer]

I was in the 6th grade at the time,and we got the news over the school intercom system.Needless to say,we were all shocked.I remember it like it was yesterday.

[Modelcar]

CShaveRR

also remember being just out of Sunday School on the 24th when one of my classmates yelled out that Lee Harvey Oswald had been shot.  Don't know how he found out

 

Carl, the actual shooting of Lee Harvy Oswald was seen on live TV.

[al-in-chgo]

I was in third grade and I remember they let us out early.  There was almost no traffic on the street, very unusual for a working day.  It reminded me of the preparations for Hurricane Carla in 1962, people staying at home, but this time the distaster was national and we were all glued to the TV.  

Thank you for the pictures.  Really brings back a very different era. -  al

 

[erikem]

I was in fourth grade and remembered the principal coming in to tell that JFK was shot and a few minute later came in to say that he had died. Also remember the extra edition of the LA Times showing up that afternoon, being the last extra edition for several decades. 

[CShaveRR]

Modelcar

CShaveRR

also remember being just out of Sunday School on the 24th when one of my classmates yelled out that Lee Harvey Oswald had been shot.  Don't know how he found out

Carl, the actual shooting of Lee Harvy Oswald was seen on live TV.

I remember that, Quentin, but we were just outside of our church at the time--no way he would have gotten to a TV.  Maybe a car radio or something.

[passengerfan]

I was enroute from Subic Bay in the Phillipines aboard a US Navy Ship to Vietnam waters. We had just left about an hour before the announcement came that the Preseident had been shot. Then the tragic news came of his death. The entire ship was stunned at the news. Grown men sat and wept and it was like an epidemic as it seemed to sweep the entire ship. The funeral was broadcast over the radio to the entire ships company as we steamed into waters where we were embroiled in a most unpopular war. I remember it like yesterday and guess I always will. It was during this deployment that we began stopping and searching junks and sampans for weapons and ammunition. Later in the war they called this Operation Marketime. To us it was just an unnamed job for ten months before we steamed home to a divided country.  

Al - in - Stockton

[SSW9389]

I was in 4th grade at Pleasant Hill School in Gardena, Illinois. Our teacher Mrs. King read Little House on the Prairie to us every day after lunch. She was reading from this book when the principal tapped on the glass window of the door to our classroom. She went out in the hallway and the principal told her what had happened. She started crying. The pricipal came into our classroom and told us what had happened. We all looked around at each other, that's a time I will never forget.

Later that weekend I was playing Horse with my neighbor Kenny. It was cold out and Kenny said let's go inside my mom will make us some hot chocolate. We were inside drinking our hot chocolate and watching tv. There came Oswald on live tv, yes we saw him get shot on live tv. Kenny and I finished our hot chocolate and started playing basketball again. Never will forget that time either.

Almost 10 years later I was in Dallas walking all over a place I soon learned was called Dealy Plaza. I met a man who was lighting switch heaters at Union Station because an ice storm was forcast. He told me it got real cold there at night. I still think he was trying to tell me something else as he had seen me walking around the site and reading the plaque about JFK.  

 

Ed

[eolafan]

I've been to the Daley Plaza spot in Dallas where President Kennedy was assassinated several times and each and every visit has been very erie to say the least.  I have also visited the Texas School Book Depository building which is now a museum and tourist attraction and you can come within about five feet of the exact spot where Oswald was supposed to have knelt while shooting his rifle.  They also have a bit white "X" on the street pavement to indicate the exact spot Kennedy's car was when he was shot...and you can stand within five feet of that spot on the sidewalk...THAT is the creepiest and most emotional spot of the visit for me personally.  I am not ashamed to find myself tearing up each and every time...I guess that comes from my being a child of that era of history.

[Bob-Fryml]

Omaha, Nebr. - Sunday, 23 November 2008. 

Well hotd*mn!  That makes three of us who were ninth graders at the time.

Because we had early dental appointments in Elgin, Ill., mom picked up my 7th grade sister first shortly after lunch on November 22nd.  I was next.  As we left the high school driveway with the three of us in the car, mom was prompted to switch on WBBM "Newsradio" 780 in Chicago.  I seem to recall that it was the voice of CBS newsman Douglas Edwards that I heard first.  When he repeated the top story of the day - that's the instant when the three of us first heard the news!  By the time we walked into the dentist's office the three of us - along with just about everyone else in the building - were just numb with disbelief.  My paternal grandmother, who I saw hours later, was devistated by the whole event. 

Funny thing is, I never saw any newspaper, television or radio broadcast mention that Saturday was the 45th anniversary of JFK's demise.  Somehow I think that it's a little early for that tragedy to be forgotten news.

[choochoobuff]

While the death of Kennedy was 10 years prior to my birth, I, of course, probably do not get the gravity of that moment like you guys.  However, moments that impacted my generation have been the Challenger explosion and of course 9/11.

[tree68]

CCB - You are not alone with that.  Each generation seems to have one or two defining moments.  My mother can tell you all about her December 7, 1941.

[CShaveRR]

choochoobuff

While the death of Kennedy was 10 years prior to my birth, I, of course, probably do not get the gravity of that moment like you guys.  However, moments that impacted my generation have been the Challenger explosion and, of course, 9/11.

You have those two, Chooch; I have those two in addition to the JFK assassination.  I can't remember the exact date of the Challenger disaster (was it 1/29/86?), but I'll never forget where I was.  I'd just left home after the launch to walk to the grocery store--and when I got there, the coverage was on instead of the Muzak.

[Modelcar]

......I too can take my memory back to Dec. 7th, 1941 as the news was emanating from an Art deco  plastic radio in our Esso Station in Pennsylvania.....A Sunday afternoon....and bright sunshine.  Of course, Pearl Harbor.