November 22, 1963

[Rocky]

It is hard to believe that it has been 50 years since that horrific day in Dallas. I have heard a number of stories from people relating what they were doing when they heard the appalling news flash from Texas. I would like to hear what some of you were doing and how you recall that day.

I will start because my personal experience was eerie! It was a Friday, of course, and I was enrolled in Art Institute of Pittsburgh. A friend and I decided to cut classes and get a start on the weekend. I picked her up and we had breakfast and were meandering around in my car as you could when gas was $.35 a gallon. Our travels took us to Wilkinsburg and East Hills Shopping Center. The center was best described as an "outdoor mall" with many shops on a number of streets and the center was contained by the surrounding parking lot.

The ironic thing was that the streets were named after US Presidents. We had the radio on and were listening to pop music. Carol said something to me and I turned the radio down, not off, to continue the conversation. We stopped at a stop sign in the mall that let shoppers go from the shopping area to their cars and I looked up at the "street" sign and it said, "James Garfield Way." I thought idly to myself, ' That was one of the Presidents that was assassinated.' We continued our drive and the conversation waned as we drove through Wilkinsburg on Penn Avenue. I noticed that the radio volume was down and I turned it up only to hear, "Governor Connally was also hit and was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Witnesses said there were multiple shots fired." I thought, "Wow, someone tried to assassinate Governor Connally, whoever he is." I had no idea he was Governor of Texas or that President Kennedy was in Texas. Then a confusing bunch of flashes started to come in and we were riveted to the radio. "Mrs. Kennedy was not hit." "Witnesses said the President was hit in the head." I pulled the car over to the curb on Fifth Avenue to listen and the next thing I heard (I believe it was Walter Cronkite) "This just in from Dallas. The President of the United States is dead!"

I cannot describe the shock we both felt. We went to her apartment to watch TV and spent most of that day getting the details. I say it was an eerie experience for me because, give or take 10 minutes either way, we were sitting at that stop sign at just about the exact time the shots were fired in Dallas. It is seared into my memory and I recall it as though it happened yesterday.

 

[winointraining]

I was 11 and had stayed home from school because i was sick, i heard the news flashes and I really didn't understand the importance of what was happening. When Oswald got shot I was watching that. still think Oswald was a patsy, and LBJ was behind it all. but like I say I really didn't understand the importance of it all.

 

[jamesngalveston]

I was in the 4th grade, they announced of the loud speaker that he had been shot, all i could think about was if we were getting out of school early, so i could go fishing,.
It did not matter to me, was to young to really put it all together.
And 50 years later, it still does not matter much. I doubt that if he were to have lived, that things would be any different then now.
Gas would not still be .35, are bread, .29 are milk .31

 

[s0615353]

I was not born yet, but my grandfather actually got his US Citizenship on that fateful day.

 

[LoneStarLori]

That is an eerie story Rocky.
I was only 5 at the time. I remember coming downstairs to see my mother crying heavily in the living room in front of our B&W TV. I tried to hug her and make her stop but she wouldn't stop crying.
It's funny, that is one of the very few early childhood memories I had. I think it scarred me for life.

 

[JohnT]

I was only a baby at the time, but I always remember my dad saying that the communists must have had something to do with this (Dad being an die hard anti-communist due to his experiences growing up in Hungary).

Turns out that he was right. Lee Harvey Oswald was indeed a communist, spent time living in Russia, and even held protests to support Castro.

 

[tonyt]

I too was in the forth grade, St. Anne School. Like every other Catholic School in the nation the principal (Sr. Agnes) came on the intercom and announced that the President had been shot in Dallas and we were all to kneel at our desks and she lead us in lengthy prayers. Later in the afternoon she announced that President Kennedy had died. I remember thinking "but we all prayed that he wouldn't". The nuns cried.

 

[Kraffty]

I just turned 6 and couldn't understand the magnitude of the news but was keenly aware of the fact that it was having such an impact on everyone around me. We lived at my grandmother's house and my 7 aunts and uncles and their spouses and families seemed to be around the house 24-7 for the next week. I'd never seen and haven't since seen all of the adults in my life so distraught and saddened by one event. I do remember days of everyone crowded around the black and white set, the powerful silence of no one speaking or even moving much. It was so amazing to see this crowd that was usually loud, laughing, animated at everything so still for so long.
Mike

 

[Kraffty]

I read last week that CBSNEWS.com will be replaying all the news reports of that 4 day period in live time over 4 full days. It should be interesting to listen to. I think it starts around 12:30 ET.
Mike

 

[cimbaliw]

JFK was shot on my 2nd birthday. That's right I'll be 52 on Friday. I am holding a thin hardcover document titled "The torch is passed." The Associated Press story of the death of a president. Maybe some of you had this in your house growing up. I guess it was a real limited edition, I see they're going for 1 cent on Amazon.

 

[LoneStarLori]

JFK was shot on my 2nd birthday. That's right I'll be 52 on Friday. I am holding a thin hardcover document titled "The torch is passed." The Associated Press story of the death of a president. Maybe some of you had this in your house growing up. I guess it was a real limited edition, I see they're going for 1 cent on Amazon.

I have a copy of that too. My mother had one and it was always on the coffee table. I don't know what happened to it after she passed away. One of my girls heard me talk about the book and what a big part of my childhood it was and bought me an old copy for Christmas a while back.

 

[pjd]

It's a bit off topic but I see there is a whole bunch of us 50 something's here. I often wondered the age group of forum participants.

 

[bakervinyard]

I was in second grade at a catholic grade school. The school had recently gotten televsions in its class rooms. The principal came on the intercom and made the anouncement and to turn on the television. Other than that I don't recall to much more except for watching the funeral on tv. Bakervinyard

 

[Runningwolf]

Phil, I was thinking the same thing. I was 7 years old when it was broadcast over the school intercom. That was back in the day when we had air raid drills and would all go to the basement fall out shelter area. Who remembers theses signs (sorry not to change the subject). How many folks ran out and got the Kennedy half dollar when they came out. My parents got each of us kids one.

 

[cmason1957]

I was six when it happened, in morning kindergarten. I remember watching accounts of it and being upset that the normal shows weren't on Tv. I was to young to really understand what it meant.

 

[ibglowin]

I was 5 and in first grade (private school) in San Antonio. Got sent home after it happened. Being in Texas at even that age I can remember it very clearly.

 

[rob]

I was 6 years old

 

[e_weaver]

i was in 3rd grade, i thought it was sad he died so young

 

[Rocky]

Wow, you guys and gals are really young! I was 21 when it happened and the experience was surreal. I recall just returning from Mass on Sunday, November 24th just in time to see Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald. It was a scene of confusion and we were all saying, "What happened?!" My Mother said, "It was the guy in the fedora hat! I saw it." She was right, too. Ruby was wearing a fedora.

 

[sour_grapes]

Well, add me to the 50-something demographic. However, I was 6 weeks old. I have been told where I was, but, obviously, do not remember it.