Where were you...???

[WILMASBOYL78]

Where were you on November 22, 1963..?? I just looked at the calendar and realized this was the day JFK was killed. It doesn't matter what your politics are, this day will always be considered one of the most tragic in American history...like Pearl Harbor or 911. The events of that day are still clouded in mystery and conjecture...it was a terrible shock and loss for our country.

I was in my third grade class when the announcement came over the school PA system...we all prayed silently.

RIP..JFK

wilma <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif

[m22mike]

WOW, I never thought I would not remember that Date.
I was a Sophomore in HS and it was the last period of the day, 1400 Ish, my desk was out in the hall just outside my class, I was having trouble concentrating late in the day.. <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/hmmm.gif..If you know what I mean.
I could see and here a some teachers and staff gathering out side the office as the word broke. I went back into class to the pass the word, probably not real good timing, as my teacher started to unload on me another teacher burst into the room.
I remember my Mom meeting us at the bottom of the drive where the school bus dropped us off and see was crying, she did not realize we already knew.
A sad time I will always remember.. <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif

[John Brown]

While I didn't commit the date to memory, I do remember exactly were I was when I heard the news. I heard the announcement on WLS radio while driving my mother home from that days shopping trip downtown. I commented that &quot;it must be a joke or something&quot;. My mother stated that they certainly wouldn't be joking about something like that on the radio. She was right, it wasn't a joke. Everyone spent the following week glued to the radio and the events that followed.

[ORIGLS6]

I was a Senior in HS, ironically sitting in Government class.
One of the darkest days in US History.

[m22mike]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: ORIGLS6</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I was a Senior in HS, ironically sitting in Government class.
One of the darkest days in US History. </div></div>

Ha, a senior in 1963, now we know how old you really are.. <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/grin.gif

[JRSully]

About that time, Mom found out I was on the way. JFK was BMT. My Father was Bobby Kennedy's pilot during his presidential campaign in '68. As my Mother told me over the years, 'your father called to say that Bobby was shot and he would be home tomorrow&quot; man of few words. But my father did tell me some very interesting stories over the years and I have some hilarious photos of Bobby and Ethel on the various campaign stops/plane trips, sad time in American History

[wheelhop]

I have a friend who was born on that exact day. His parents said it was a tough day to be happy about having a baby.

[chevy427450]

I was a sophmore in high school and heard the news while changing classes. The principal made an announcement over the speaker system and everyone just stopped and became silent. Very strange feeling.

[L72COPO]

I had graduated High School the previous June and was working as a delivery driver for a local parts store. I had a delivery to a Shell station on Stevenson Drive in Springfield, IL. When I walked in the radio in the station was playing and they interrupted for &quot;breaking news&quot;. Didn't get much done the rest of the day.

[427TJ]

My father was a reporter at the Oakland (CA) Tribune and told me (in later years) that at about 11:30 that morning (1:30 Dallas time) the news wire teletypes (UPI, etc.) all went off almost at once, a rare occurrence. No phones rang in those days, the teletypes usually started running. The staff looked over the reports and suddenly it was mayhem as they had to actually stop the presses (afternoon paper) and get the story written, edited and sent down to the basement printers. He called my mom at home to tell her that Kennedy had been shot and pretty soon the news followed that Kennedy had died. My mom, in shock, turned on the TV and actually saw Cronkite's announcement on CBS. She then started off walking (with me, one year old, in a stroller) for the elementary school where my two sisters were in Kindergarten and 3rd Grade and as she walked to the school other mothers came out of their houses and headed to the school to get their kids. My oldest sister, the 3rd Grader, remembered that the principal came on the PA system in her classroom and announced that the president had been shot and had died. (K-6th Grade school.) My sister said her teacher gasped and literally collapsed into a chair. School was let out early and everyone walked home. Later that evening my mom went to pick my dad up at the Tribune since we only had one car in those days. My dad would usually ride with our neighbor, the paper's sports writer, but my mom wanted to go get dad and drive him home and hear what had gone on at the paper as the news came in. While my dad was waiting for mom, the Tribune's senior photographer was down in the street-level foyer taking pictures of people as they left for home. The photo below is of my dad as he waited for my mom to arrive.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a234/BE427TJ/DadNovember221963.jpg

The back of the photo is ink-stamped NOV 23 1963 since Mr. Crouch, the photographer, went in the next morning to develop his photos.

Back to the hour the news broke over the teletypes. As the news room learned the gravity of the situation they hurriedly started gathering photos and information to get the story--stories--written quickly. The city editor placed an engraving (for the printing press) of Kennedy's face in front of my dad and said he needed a caption quickly. My dad, writing later about that moment, in the third person, said it this way,

&quot;John F. Kennedy was dead now, actually and officially. A little copy girl went about her duties in tears. The city editor brought an almost life size engraving of the face of the dead president to the desk of a reporter [my dad] and held it before him and said, &quot;I need a caption. Look at it for one minute because that's all the time we have.&quot;

My dad quickly decided on a sentence from Kennedy's inaugural address from January 20, 1961:

&quot;...ask what YOU can do for your country...&quot;

Dad died in 1989 but he put together a fascinating scrapbook of his 29 years at the Tribune. There is a page from 11-22-63 and a copy of the front page image with my dad's caption:

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a234/BE427TJ/Tribune11-22-63.jpg

The &quot;Kennedy myth&quot; has been fairly well beaten-down and broken into pieces since that day, both by the national media and various other organizations--even by Mrs. Kennedy's own private tapes recently published for sale to the public. Regardless of the truths behind the myth, that day was a terrible day for most Americans. Some celebrated his murder but the vast, vast majority of Americans just, as my dad wrote, wept.