Remembering JFK
On this date back in 1963 John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He was our 35th president. He was killed while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. I'm sure that people who were around at that time will remember where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news.
I was in grade school in the library when they announced it over the intercom. I was 9 years old. (yep, telling my age here, but that's okay!). I didn't fully grasp it at that time I guess, but I knew an awful horrible thing had happened. It also shocked the nation as well.
Tomorrow I'll have a follow up to this story, of something that happened to us that night.
So, for those old enough, where were you when you heard the news?
I was in grade school in the library when they announced it over the intercom. I was 9 years old. (yep, telling my age here, but that's okay!). I didn't fully grasp it at that time I guess, but I knew an awful horrible thing had happened. It also shocked the nation as well.
Tomorrow I'll have a follow up to this story, of something that happened to us that night.
So, for those old enough, where were you when you heard the news?
posted by Rachel at 8:32 AM
9 Comments:
I wasn't born yet when JFK was shot, but I was born (6/7/68) the day after RFK died. What a crazy decade, the 60s...
I was born on Sept. 14, 1963. My mom said that she had me propped up on the floor in front of the television. She says I saw it happen when I was three months old. I don't remember it though. I hope I wasn't traumatized over it.
It was a terribly sad day for our nation.
I was only 3 when JFK was shot. I imagine Mom didn't let me watch it on television. However, three months after, I do remember the Beatles being on The Ed Sullivan Show. Four screaming sisters made quite an impression.
I remember exactly where I was, and I plan to blog about it Rachel..but I'll say this much: I was in a taxicab in New York City, having just been to the Gynoclogist....the cab driver told me that JFK had been shot....we came to a red light, and the cabbie next to my driver yelled over that Kennedy was dead...What a terrible terrible day that was....!
I was in the army. The next day all us soldiers stood in the rain for nearly an hour waiting for the Colonel to come out and tell us that our Commander-in-Chief had died.
It was exactly one week after I married My First Wife.
I was in High School, school was immediately dismissed and we were told to go straight home, the military went on full alert, John-John saluted his dad and a nation wept.
I was sitting in our little one room school house. The phone in the hall (something we hadn't had in the building for all that long)kept ringing. Our teacher was crying and came in an told us. I was thirteen.
Those are the kind of events that become mile-posts in our lives. Who can forget where they were and what they were doing when it took place? Not me!
I had been discharged from the Army that year and was working at my job on an assembly line when the news came in on the radio we listened to all the time. I think most of us were numbed by the news and it took a while to sink in. It was a terrible day in our nations history.
What I hate about it is that we may never know the truth about who was responsible or see justice served in the matter.
I was 4 years old in November, 1963... and what I remember about it was watching the funeral in our family room... and my mom crying... and little John John, saluting the flag, with Caroline by his side. My little 4-year old mind didn't grasp what was going on, but somewhere deep in my soul, I knew it was very bad.
There have been only three other times in my life when I've had that same, depth of your soul kind of knowing that something was really horrible -- the Challenger disaster, when my dad found out that he had cancer, and on the morning of September 11th.
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