<p>I was in elementary school in a Dallas suburb–It was recess and I was playing on the monkey bars. Our teachers came rushing out of the building and made us hurry inside. Didn’t understand then why I had to cut my recess short!!</p>
<p>Clearly, I get it now as an adult and as a parent. They didn’t know what was going on–maybe a sniper was on the loose in Dallas and their kids were outside, on the playground. Just remember how sad all the adults were—Somebody mentioned the interrupted programming on TV. Didn’t have 24 hours news coverage in those days–My parents insisted I watch the funeral. “This is history and you need to watch it.”</p>
<p>It’s actually my first memory - my parents standing in line in Berlin for hours in the snow to sign the book… I was a baby and spent most of that time being held by one parent or another…</p>
<p>I was driving my S to high school one morning, and we were talking about his grandmother’s frequent references to WWII, when I said something about every generation having a “where were you when” moment. I told him about all my memories of the Kennedy assassination. He said he wondered what his moment would be, and hoped he wouldn’t have one. I remember this conversation vividly, because it was the first week of school, September 2001.</p>
<p>I was 4 years old and we lived in Texas at the time. My dad was a grad student in the AF at Texas A&M. My older brother was in second grade. I don’t remember exactly being told the President was shot but I do remember my brother going home and knowing it was because Caroline and John-John’s dad was shot. We had spent a few days the summer of '63 in DC at my uncle’s house and when we drove by the White House, I wanted to know if Caroline could play. I remember my mother crying but I don’t remember a lot of details.
The next thing I remember is watching the funeral procession on our grainy black and white TV.</p>
<p>Wow, so many people who have posted on this thread lived in Texas 47 years ago.</p>
<p>Here is something that really dates me. I remember being a little kid and my mom saying one day, “The war is over.”</p>
<p>I asked, “What war?”</p>
<p>It was 1953 and the war was the Korean War. I was six.</p>
<p>For people in the U.S. who did not have a special reason to be particularly aware of misfortunes elsewhere in the world, the years between 1953 and the Cuban Missile Crisis seem like quite an idyll, in retrospect.</p>
<p>People reading this thread who grew up foreign countries probably think we sound like wimps and are struggling to hold their tongues. :)</p>
<p>I was home from school because I was sick that day. I was lying on the living room couch and my Mom was watching “As the World Turns” when they interrupted the show. I seem to remember that at first they announced that the President was shot and then announced that he was dead. I remember feeling somewhat scared and somewhat fascinated at the same time (I was only 6).</p>
<p>I was in 7th grade algebra class and the princpal came on the intercom and played the radio directly into the classrooms. At that point Pres. Kenneday had been rushed to the hospital but his death had not yet beeen announced.</p>
<p>The next period was lunch and we still sat listening to the radio and not eating much. They soon announced he was dead and some kids started crying. They dismissed school after lunch, and I trudged home very sad and depressed. As I recall it was a Friday, so there followed a long, sad weekend of endless coverage on all three TV channels. (there were only three in those days).</p>
<p>The world changed that day. Something broke that still hasn’t been completely put right.</p>
<p>Remember it very clearly. I was seven in 2nd grade and we were sent home early.</p>
<p>I remember crying loudly the entire walk home (about a mile) from our neighborhood school.
Snot dripping down my face, no tissue, the whole nine yards.</p>
<p>When I got home, my mother and I hugged and cried. Then we watched TV footage for days. So sad. And it wasn’t because we were Democrats in our family.
He was our President. And a young husband and father.</p>
<p>I don’t remember it, which is weird because I do remember cutting out pictures of Caroline and John-john and putting them in a scrap book. We were living in Japan at the time, so I don’t think it got talked about at my (international) school as much as it might have been at an American school. I remember the deaths of April 1968 much better - those are the ones that really had an impact on me.</p>
<p>I was in Kindergarten. The principle came in and told our teacher that President Kennedy had been killed. My teacher told us and then turned off the lights for a moment of silence. I remember feeling very confused. We were let out of school early. I don’t remember who brought me home, it must have been a friend, because I remember going into the house and my mom and brother were crying. I also remember watching the coverage on TV and feeling very sad.</p>
<p>Very clear memory. I was five and we were in Montreal, my mother’s hometown, visiting her parents. I remember my mother crying and wishing she was home in the States. Even though she never became an American citizen, she always remembered that day as one when she “felt American” and wanted to be with her American friends.</p>
<p>I had just turned 15 a few days earlier (and this year I just turned 62!) and heard about it as we were changing classes in HS. Came home to our black cleaning lady and my mother sitting together, watching TV, and crying. </p>
<p>That Sunday, we were at my grandparents for an early Thanksgiving dinner. My grandfather, who was blind, kept yapping at us to turn off the TV. Then Ruby shot Oswald and everyone told my grandfather to be quiet. He had no idea why and just kept yelping to “turn off the goddamned TV!”</p>
<p>And as far as I’m concerned, THAT was the day the music died.</p>
<p>After 9/11, my son had an assignment to interview people who remembered Kennedy’s assassination and ask them which event they thought was more significant. Even though thousands of people died on 9/11, for me, the assassination was more significant, because it was the first time I ever realized that bad things could happen that were completely out of our control.</p>
<p>I was 13 and lived in Dallas. We were one of the schools that was reported to have cheered when President Kennedy’s death was announced on the PA. Not true, exactly. The Principal came on and the first thing that was said was “Students, school has been cancelled tomorrow–the President has been shot.” The cheers came at the pause, not after the information that he had been shot.</p>
<p>Then there were angry teachers in the hall yelling at each other, including “well, I hope you are happy!” Back then we had teachers who wore John Birch Society pins at school. I also recall adults speculating that LBJ had it done.</p>
<p>I threw the afternoon paper (the Dallas Times Herald, RIP) which was very late coming out that day. I recall waiting on my route corner and noticing how gray/black and ominous the clouds looked.</p>
<p>It was surreal to watch TV and see it all go down in your home town.</p>
<p>Funny how these threads recycle on the anniversary date…
I was in 5th grade-- was on a field trip. Sitting in front row of the bus one theay back. See flags at half staff. Teacher chaperoning the trip is crying… I remember it well.</p>
<p>Right, because when I think about it, I can visualize my kindergarten classroom, my teacher and the third grade teacher standing at the door. But for that, I doubt that I would have a visual image of my kg classroom.</p>
<p>Perfect “where were you” visual images:</p>
<ol>
<li> Hearing about Kennedy assassination</li>
<li> First Bruce Springsteen concert</li>
<li> Birth of kids (esp #3 - other two were c-sections so I was a bit foggy)</li>
<li> 9/11</li>
</ol>
<p>I recall at the time that it was reported that someone had shot into Walker’s house. Later it was suggested that it was Oswald. I recall that the house was later sold. I have driven past it everytime I go the non-Tollroad way to the courthouse downtown. PM me and I might recognize the buyer, but I don’t remember off hand who it was.</p>
<p>I had a shrink who officed with Jim Dolan, the son of James Dolan who some think played a part in the Dallas Mob’s alleged involvment with the Kennedy/Oswald/Ruby triangle. </p>
<p>My wife’s parents were personal friends “Jim” Moore. I read a bunch of conspiracy books years ago and ran across J. Walton Moore. I asked my in-laws if Mr. Moore had ever been CIA (I knew he had been FBI and OSS in WWII). They mentioned that yes he had, but that he never talked much about that time. Within the last 10 years the Dallas Morning News ran a story on Jim Moore and his adventures as OSS inside China in WWII. Not a mention of the CIA time. He’s dead now. No–I never asked him any questions.</p>
<p>I was a seventh grader at the time…I would say everyone who was old enough to remember will remember exactly where they were when they heard. I was in study hall in the library…I can even picture the seat where I was sitting. It was the second to the last period of the day and we all went to the last class and just spent 45 minutes crying. Then we walked home (back in the day when there were neighborhood schools).</p>