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[Rhiannon12866]

38. And I still remember that day vividly. I was in elementary school.

My "reading group" was allowed to go to the school library on our own with the warning to walk in line, no running or talking in the hall. Turns out that "Coach," the gym teacher, had a free period and had turned on his radio - and heard that the president had been shot! He immediately headed for the nearest classroom, sixth grade teacher, told him - and that teacher, in turn, rushed to the school library and told the librarian - and that's when we heard!

So we all took right off, we knew this was serious, forgot all about not talking or running, ran all the way back to our classroom to tell our teacher - who, in turn, ran out to find out more. I don't remember hearing a lot more then, no TV in classrooms in those days (except when there was a space mission), but we were immediately sent home, remember sitting in the school gym, everybody was pretty scared, waiting for the school buses to arrive.

When we got home (my brother went to the same elementary school), my mother already knew, she'd been told by our closest neighbor who loved President Kennedy and was in hysterics. And my mother was pretty distraught and I knew she'd voted for Nixon. That's the way things were in those days, he was everybody's president.

And I remember that there was no school, this was a national tragedy, and the TV at my house was on all of the time. I remember seeing Lee Harvey Oswald getting shot on live TV and I went into the kitchen to tell my mother - who hung onto the counter and said she couldn't take any more.

We lost so much that day and are still learning exactly how much. The loss of both President Kennedy - and later his brother (my senator) who stood a good chance of being elected president - has changed the course of this country's history forever.