<p>What do you remember? I was a high school student. It wasn’t until later, when I was in college, that I realized May 4, 1970, was even a +national+ story. I guess I was so accustomed to violence – urban riots, RFK and MLK assassinations, Vietnam – that I didn’t even realize what a watershed moment it was. </p>
<p>It was a violent time.</p>
<p>And I can still see that photo of the woman on her knees next to one of the fallen, mouth open in a shout or a scream, arms outstretched.</p>
<p>Anytime someone even mentions this university, that’s the first thing that comes to my mind. My problem…I guess;)</p>
<p>I agree with Toledo. May 4, 1970 was the first time I had ever heard of Kent State. So whenever I hear of the school, that’s the first thing I think of.</p>
<p>I had just (in March 1970) graduated from college and had returned to visit my friends. The demonstrations . . . the protests . . . they were never-ending.</p>
<p>I’ll never forget that photo. Definitely iconic for the era. I was still in high school, my mother though had gotten her college degree one year earlier! It was events like this that caused our whole family to get more active. We were living in DC at the time. My parents used to bail out kids who’d been arrested and let them spend the night with us instead. The whole family went to the big march in the spring of 1971.</p>
<p>I think it’s interesting that it’s now the college kids who are defending the status quo and “the man” against the anti-government insurrection of the grannies in the tea party movement. Such irony to see the riot police this week in Illinois.</p>
<p>I remember that day well-- it was the day I took my SATs</p>
<p>I was only 12 at the time, but was exposed to a lot through Life Magazine.</p>
<p>[The</a> Pop History Dig Kent State shootings](<a href=“http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LbAo3u2su7AJ:www.pophistorydig.com/%3Ftag%3Dkent-state-shootings+life+magazine+kent+state+massacre&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us]The”>http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LbAo3u2su7AJ:www.pophistorydig.com/%3Ftag%3Dkent-state-shootings+life+magazine+kent+state+massacre&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)</p>
<p>I was a high school student then & we protested by walking out of school en masse after 2nd period. Most of the teachers walked out with us. Kent State is an event that stays with you forever.</p>
<p>Clarification-- the actual shooting happened 2 daYs after the SATs, but the unrest on campus had begun that weekend, and we talked about it after we got out of the SAT. Toldeo-- you were 12? Ouch. :(</p>
<p>I believe the girl in the picture with her arms outstretched was really young at the time, 14 or so…? This song bounced right into my head: Tin soldiers and Nixons coming, we’re finally on our way, this summer I heard the drumming, 4 dead in Ohio… (words may not be quite accurate, but they are close.) I was ten at the time, and the kids killed seemed so old to me. Now I fully realize what a terrible, tragedy this was for civil rights of all of us, and how YOUNG those kids were.</p>
<p>
ten char…</p>
<p>The event prompted me to get a POW-MIA bracelet.
Twelve yr olds are very idealistic.
But I also remember mailing my bracelet to my soldiers family when he was freed,</p>
<p>It must have been on the 30th anniversary that NPR did a minute by minute account of the events of that day. How chilling!!! I agree, it WAS a violent time in which we grew but when I think about it now, I can’t believe they fired live ammo on those students!!!</p>
<p>I don’t remember the incident but I met someone once who was there. She said she ran back to her dorm room with her roommate and the whole student body was sent home that day. There was a month left of school and they finished by correspondence. The next year only half of the student body returned.</p>
<p>In 1970, I was a HS senior, about to graduate. I had protested the war, the draft, advocated for the right to vote at age 18. I would continue to do so in college. My younger brother attended Kent State for grad school about 10 years later. He had very little awareness of the 1970 event. </p>
<p>Anxiousmom, I think of that CSN song every time I think of Kent State.</p>
<p>What did not enter my awareness for many years was dynamic of the National Guard soldiers who were, for the most part, similar in age to the college students. The college kids AND the guard/soldier kids were young. As the mother of two sons, I am grateful that there is no draft.
Peace.</p>
<p>Whenever I hear “Kent State” I see the iconic picture in my mind. I was a college student at the time. I remember the name Jeffrey Miller, the young man who was shot. On the rare occasions that the song has come on the radio, I have explained the historical significance to my kids.</p>
<p>I was 12 and I remember crying along with my parents. We wore black armbands to school for several days. </p>
<p>The names of all 4 students were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Miller, Sandra Lee Scheuer and William Schroeder. Allison was the daughter of a Holocaust survivor.</p>
<p>I too think about the CSN song, too, and a girl a few year older than I from my town that was a music major at Kent State when that happened and during summers she would come home and give me lessons (on my instrument). I wonder where she is today?</p>
<p>Anxiousmom, I think of that CSN song every time I think of Kent State</p>
<p>Don’t forget “Y” especially since Neil was the one who wrote it.</p>