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Nov. 22, 1963. I still remember staring at the PA in our classroom, wondering who was making (Original Post) niyad Nov 2020 OP
I Faux pas Nov 2020 #1
I got out of class a bit early. The bell rang and I was already outside. Kids were coming out mitch96 Nov 2020 #2
I heard the news in my dorm in my freshman year MineralMan Nov 2020 #3
I wasn't alive yet, but my father's story still stands out to me. The Genealogist Nov 2020 #4
I was in kindergarten PJMcK Nov 2020 #5
I was five. luvs2sing Nov 2020 #6
What A Shocking Day colsohlibgal Nov 2020 #7
I was 4 but I remember Chili Nov 2020 #8

mitch96

(13,821 posts)
2. I got out of class a bit early. The bell rang and I was already outside. Kids were coming out
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 10:49 AM
Nov 2020

crying and visibly shaken. Groups were forming in the parking lot. I over heard someone say the Prez was shot. All I could think of was why would some one do that?
Yup, things sure did change after that...
m

MineralMan

(146,192 posts)
3. I heard the news in my dorm in my freshman year
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 10:54 AM
Nov 2020

of college. I was on my way to a Biology 101 class. The news was on the TV in the dorm's common room. I went to the class, which was a survey class, held in an auditorium. I was late. I walked up to the front of the auditorium and told the professor who taught the class what had happened. He immediately shared the information and dismissed the class. I returned to the dorm and watched the news unfold on the common room TV, along with dozens of other dorm residents.

The Genealogist

(4,723 posts)
4. I wasn't alive yet, but my father's story still stands out to me.
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 10:57 AM
Nov 2020

He was working at a Newberry's in Meridian, Mississippi that day, and was demonstrating a radio for a customer. He turned it on, and there was just silence. He thought the radio might be defective, but then an announcer came on with the shocking news that JFK had been shot in Dallas.

PJMcK

(21,921 posts)
5. I was in kindergarten
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 11:02 AM
Nov 2020

My memories are vivid. I walked home from school, which we were allowed to do in those olden times. When I got home, my mom was sitting in front of the TV and crying.

Me: Mom, what's the matter?
Mom: President Kennedy was just shot and killed!
Me: You're kidding!

We spent the next 3-1/2 days watching one of the most wrenching experiences in our history and in my life. We saw Oswald's murder and the President's funeral. Upon decades of reflections, my experiences at such a young age framed my political and social opinions for my life.

President Kennedy's assassination changed everything in our country.

luvs2sing

(2,220 posts)
6. I was five.
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 11:08 AM
Nov 2020

I was at my grandmother’s house. I remember sitting in her living room with my back up against her big TV, playing with my dolls. He phone rang, Grandma answered it, paused, and began screaming, “NO! OH, NO! THE RUSSIANS ARE GOING TO INVADE US!”. She was hysterical, and I was terrified. She had a “heart spell” and I was in the kitchen trying to find her medicine when my mother came through the back door. We got her medicine and went back to the living room where Grandma was freaking out. She had the TV turned on by then, and I remember seeing Walter Cronkite announce JFK’s death. Mom and Grandma were both crying. A few minutes later, Grandpa came home from work. I knew something was really bad because I had never seen Grandpa come home early. Once he arrived, Mom and I walked back across the alley to our house and, not long after, Dad came home. And then I knew something truly terrible had happened. I had never seen my father come home in the middle of the day.

After that, all I remember is watching the funeral with my parents. To this day, when I hear hoofbeats, I am transported back to the sofa in that little house and watching that funeral. And I also remember not long after, watching Lee Harvey Oswald get shot.

That was a lot for a five-year old.

colsohlibgal

(5,275 posts)
7. What A Shocking Day
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 11:08 AM
Nov 2020

Like most everyone we were told to go home. When I got to my house my Mom was sobbing.

The next 4 days were surreal down to Oswald being shot.

For years I believed Oswald did it.....till someone finally got ahold of the film and it’s pretty obvious he was killed from that Grassy Knoll, the big exit would was in the back of his head.

The House Committee said there was likely a a Conspiracy involving the Mob with some help from....others.....they said the only reason they couldn’t nail it down was Mob witnesses kept getting whacked before they could testify, most famously Johnny Roselli stuffed into an oil drum floating in the Potomac.

Chili

(1,725 posts)
8. I was 4 but I remember
Sun Nov 22, 2020, 11:40 AM
Nov 2020

My Mom worked for the DoD, was sent home. She picked me up at my nursery school and took me home. I don't know how she did it, but that took 2 bus rides, then a four-block walk home. I don't remember her breaking down during that time. But almost the minute we got into the apartment, she fell to her knees in front of the couch and wept. I'll never forget it.

She couldn't turn on the TV, it was old and broken, so we went downstairs to our neighbor's who always let us watch TV when ours stopped working. So there we were Sunday, watching Lee Harvey Oswald being moved from the Dallas jail... and there it happened. I was sitting on the floor, right in front of the screen. Can't forget that, either.

Late this morning, around 4:00am, I watched "Parkland." My eyes are still burning from crying for most of that movie.

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