# November 22, 1963  Do you remember????



## Marie5656 (Nov 22, 2022)

*On that day we were in the auditorium watching a movie..about plants.  Suddenly the Principal ran in and turned on the television.  The news of the assassination of President Kennedy was on.  We were all dismissed and sent home.   
I remember walking past a classroom and saw a teacher standing by the window, crying.  I was 9 years old.

*


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## ArnoldC (Nov 22, 2022)

At that moment in history, I was a young airman in the U.S. Air Force.  Everything changed.  Rather rapidly.

After having stood up for the 'Cuban Missile Crisis', earlier, this put an exclamation point on what it means to serve one's country.  My Command-in-Chief was gone.


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## Alizerine (Nov 22, 2022)

I was going up the stairs at my job to read some instruments and one of the scientists was coming down to tell us that the president had been shot. I was 26 at the time


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## Bella (Nov 22, 2022)

I was at choir practice that Friday afternoon when one of the sisters came up to the loft to tell us that President Kennedy had been assassinated. I'll never forget it or how I felt when I heard the news. We all immediately knelt down and prayed.


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## Ruthanne (Nov 22, 2022)

I remember walking down the street and somehow finding out that JFK had been assassinated.  I was 6 years old and recall feeling shocked and sad that this tragedy happened.


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## Murrmurr (Nov 22, 2022)

I was 8. Old enough to understand the president had been shot and killed, that the word for that is assassination, and that there's a set list of officials who can take over the position. Too young to understand the likely consequences.

Also, I got overly focused on "Jackie" because TV news and my mom, aunts, and gramma kept talking about her. Will you ever forget the blood-stained pink suit?


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## Disgustedman (Nov 22, 2022)

I was 3.5, in Mrs. Degners childcare. Wondering why the women were all sobbing.


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## caroln (Nov 22, 2022)

I was a sophomore in high school.  I heard the announcement over the loud speaker in between classes.


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## hearlady (Nov 22, 2022)

I was 6 and walking home from school with my two big sisters. I knew something b happened.
It was my sister's birthday. She will always share this day.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 22, 2022)

Yep, I was in grade school in Florida.  The news broke as I was walking home and I heard it from my mother.  I was only about 10 or 11, but I still remember it clearly.  One thing I remember - probably because of my youth.  We had tickets to the high school football game that night, I was equally upset at the game being canceled.  Kind of embarrassing to admit, but hey, I was a kid.

I also remember watching Jack Ruby getting shot on TV, not an image I will be able to erase in this lifetime.


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## DebraMae (Nov 22, 2022)

I was 12 and in the school office and heard it on the radio.  My mom was a teacher.  I went and knocked on her classroom door and told her what had happened.


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## Knight (Nov 22, 2022)

I was on the tarmac in front of hanger #1 at the Lakehurst Naval air station just completing the final run tests for a GE turbo shaft engine developed for helicopter use. We were tasked for repairing complete drop in engines for use in  HU2K helicopters used by the Marines in Viet Nam.


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## MountainRa (Nov 22, 2022)

I remember it well. I was 10, it was announced in the classroom. I think most of us kids were scared and a little confused. 
Also saw Jack Ruby get shot on TV.


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## Chet (Nov 22, 2022)

I was in the Air Force at McGuire Air Base in the middle of a training class when one of the Sgts. came into the room to interrupt and told us the news. Class ended and we all went into the shop and listened to the radio.


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## Alligatorob (Nov 22, 2022)

MountainRa said:


> Also saw Jack Ruby get shot on TV


I would bet that was the most witnessed murder in history.  We were all glued to the TV that day...


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## Fyrefox (Nov 23, 2022)

I was in 6th grade.  The teacher was called out of the room…not uncommon…then returned a few minutes later, visibly fighting back tears, and struggling to maintain her composure…very uncommon!  We 12-year-old males were very defensive of our young female teacher, being secretly in love with her on a pre-adolescent level.  What could be troubling her so? 

School was dismissed that afternoon, quite extraordinary, and we all got sent home and found out what had so troubled our teacher…


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## Sassycakes (Nov 23, 2022)

I remember it like it was just yesterday. I was walking my older sister's friend to the door when we heard it on tv. We wee speechless and shocked.


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## Lewkat (Nov 23, 2022)

MountainRa said:


> I remember it well. I was 10, it was announced in the classroom. I think most of us kids were scared and a little confused.
> Also saw Jack Ruby get shot on TV.


Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's assassin.


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## Buckeye (Nov 23, 2022)

I was a senior in high school, and, tbh, don't really remember much about it.  Don't remember if I was still at school or if I had left to go to my part time job.  Lost in the mists of time...


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## Furryanimal (Nov 23, 2022)

I was six.
Only learnt about this much,much later.


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## MountainRa (Nov 23, 2022)

Lewkat said:


> Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's assassin.


Of course ! My mistake . That’s what I get for grabbing a few seconds here and there to look at SF. Didn’t take time to compose carefully.


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## Lewkat (Nov 23, 2022)

MountainRa said:


> Of course ! My mistake . That’s what I get for grabbing a few seconds here and there to look at SF. Didn’t take time to compose carefully.


I thought perhaps you were too young at the time, so got the two mixed up.


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## Della (Nov 23, 2022)

I was in high school class when the principal announced it over the intercom.  We all sat stunned until the teacher said, "What did he say?"  I, who was so shy I had never spoken in class, forgot about myself for once and said, "He said the president had been shot."  We were all stunned by both the assassination and the sound of my voice.

Then the teacher said, "You are all dismissed to go to the library."  I'm sure she wanted to run to the other teachers.

In the library we all sat shaking and speculating that the Russians would probably bomb us now that, 'We don't have a leader." Apparently none of us had learned a thing in Civics class.

I don't remember anyone crying, including my parents.  It all seemed very far away and unreal, but extremely unsettling, too. My general feeling was, "This can't be happening in America!"  I didn't feel the same way again until our recent January 6 attack on the Capitol.


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## charry (Nov 23, 2022)

i was 8 yrs old , and dont remember ....


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## Gary O' (Nov 23, 2022)

Alligatorob said:


> I also remember watching Jack Ruby getting shot on TV, not an image I will be able to erase in this lifetime


Yup
My sis and I watched it on TV
We looked at each other like 'did you see that?!'
I was 13 I think


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## fuzzybuddy (Nov 23, 2022)

In November, 1963, I was a teenager in a small, totally Democratic town in Massachusetts. My granddad worked on Kennedy's congressional/senatorial campaigns. Attended Catholic high school,  and had a "Boston" accent. Every Thanksgiving time brings a sense of hurt.


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## spectratg (Nov 23, 2022)

I was an 18-year old college freshman.  I was having lunch in the cafeteria with my roommate, and some of the other students were listening to a portable radio.  One came over to us with the devastating news.


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## Don M. (Nov 23, 2022)

I was playing poker in the barracks, in Germany, when one of the guys rushed in with the news being broadcasted on Armed Forces radio.  We all jumped up and headed for the shop,  We were on full alert for about 2 days, until the facts came out.


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## Ruthanne (Nov 23, 2022)

Buckeye said:


> I was a senior in high school, and, tbh, don't really remember much about it.  Don't remember if I was still at school or if I had left to go to my part time job.  Lost in the mists of time...


I don't have a real clear memory of it either.


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## Geezerette (Dec 10, 2022)

I was 26 and in a room at the VA hospital where my 84 year old father was in dying in a coma. A nurse came in crying  and told me. My beloved Pop passed on 3 days later. A veteran’s funeral with tears and folded  flags. My 4 year old son was staying with his paternal grandma, and she was trying to shield him from both the tv stuff about Kennedy and our own funeral plans. 
I believed in JFK. The first vote of my life was cast for him.


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## Jaiden (Dec 10, 2022)

I was a senior in high school.  I had a boyfriend named Tony, and as we walked out of the main school building, heading across to the library, a teacher came running out in tears and told us the news.

I remember that it felt like a very personal loss to me.  It was a frightening and confusing time.


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## Marie5656 (Dec 10, 2022)

*I wonder what we would have learned from Oswald had he not been killed? Like who approached him. Not sure how true this is, but it had been speculated that Oswald did not act alone, or was, as he claimed a Patsy. I remember hearing that in the military he was classified a FAIR marksman, and likely would have not made the shot on his own*


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## jimintoronto (Dec 10, 2022)

Marie5656 said:


> *I wonder what we would have learned from Oswald had he not been killed? Like who approached him. Not sure how true this is, but it had been speculated that Oswald did not act alone, or was, as he claimed a Patsy. I remember hearing that in the military he was classified a FAIR marksman, and likely would have not made the shot on his own*


Let us remember that Oswald defected to Russia, married a woman whose Father was a KGB Colonel, then came back to the USA with her. That sure does not sound like an innocent guy to me. JimB.


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## Been There (Dec 11, 2022)

I was 2 years old. After I started school, maybe in 5th or 6th grade, we learned about the assassination. I had heard about it prior to that from my parents and grandparents, but didn’t understand why.


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## jimintoronto (Dec 11, 2022)

I was at home in Toronto, on a day off from work. Listening to CFRB 1010 AM. News flash. Shooting In Dallas. Turned on the TV and sat and watched for the next 8 hours. I started writing notes on a legal size note pad, eventually filling 16 pages with point form info. I was born in 1946 so in 1963 I was 17. My Parents came home and sat with me, in silence. I still have my hand written notes from that day. My other memory is of the drum cadence during the funeral on TV. My Dad said that the silence was awful to see and hear. This from a man who survived 3 years in France during WW1, as a member of the Canadian Army. JimB.


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## Been There (Dec 11, 2022)

I wanted to add to my first post that when the young Kennedy, JFK, Jr died when he crashed his Piper Saratoga into the Atlantic, I had to explore this event a bit more. 

Being in aviation myself, it concerned me that why would he attempt to fly at night out over the water with no visible landmarks or lights below him? I found out that he didn’t initially plan on a nighttime flight, but his wife was late getting to the airport. 

He also did not hold an IFR certificate, which really causes me to believe that he used poor judgment to attempt a nighttime flight. When he found he was in trouble and lost communications and before he became spatially disoriented, my question was “Why didn’t he use the plane’s autopilot?” 

That would have given him a chance to get his radio on the correct frequency and also to get vectors to where he was going. The plane also had a GPS, so having vectors should have made it possible for him to figure it out. He was very intelligent.


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## Been There (Dec 11, 2022)

jimintoronto said:


> I was at home in Toronto, on a day off from work. Listening to CFRB 1010 AM. News flash. Shooting In Dallas. Turned on the TV and sat and watched for the next 8 hours. I started writing notes on a legal size note pad, eventually filling 16 pages with point form info. I was born in 1946 so in 1963 I was 17. My Parents came home and sat with me, in silence. I still have my hand written notes from that day. My other memory is of the drum cadence during the funeral on TV. My Dad said that the silence was awful to see and hear. This from a man who survived 3 years in France during WW1, as a member of the Canadian Army. JimB.


Your dad served in WWI? Or was it your granddad?


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## SeniorBen (Dec 11, 2022)

jimintoronto said:


> Let us remember that Oswald defected to Russia, married a woman whose Father was a KGB Colonel, then came back to the USA with her. That sure does not sound like an innocent guy to me. JimB.


He might have been spying for the U.S. In those days, the CIA recruited ex-servicemen to go to Russia for that purpose, and Oswald may have been one of them. That's one theory, anyway. The government is hiding information about him and that may be why. And he did have connections with CIA operatives, which would be strange for just a run-of-the-mill ex-serviceman.


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## jimintoronto (Dec 11, 2022)

Been There said:


> Your dad served in WWI? Or was it your granddad?


My Father. John Carl Bunting serial 201018, served in the 3rd Battalion of the CEF, enlisting in October of 1915, here in Toronto. He served in France until the armistice on November 11th of 1918, then he volunteered to stay behind for an additional 6 months, as a POW camp guard in Belgium. The bonus was that he would get a full year's pay, for 6 months of VERY easy duty. 

The Germans were simply waiting to be sent home. Dad finally arrived back in Toronto on July the 9th of 1919, and he was released the next day. Dad was born in rural Garafraxia township about 100 miles west of Toronto in December of 1899. I was born in 1946, from his second marriage, when he was 48. He lived to be 83 dying here in Toronto in 1981. I am now 76. 

He said he had a "good war " despite being wounded three times, and on one attack he was the only man out of his 12 man machine gun team who was not killed. He came home and used his "bonus money " to buy a used car in 1921, and he started the Toronto Veteran's Taxi Company, which eventually grew to 30 cars. He sold the business for cash in 1928, and bought a 25 room hotel in downtown Toronto. 

The hotel was his future retirement fund. He lived long enough to see jet aircraft travel, and men on the moon. He was a crusty old bugger, at times. But he was also proud to be able to say "  I was at Vimy Ridge, and all of the rest right up to the end ". JimB.


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## Sassycakes (Dec 11, 2022)

*I remember it like it was only yesterday. My older sister was staying at our house and she had just given birth to her son. I didn't go to school that day to be with her. Her friend Mary came to see the baby. As I was walking Mary to the door it was announced on TV. We both froze and cried while we were watching it on TV.*


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## mrstime (Dec 11, 2022)

I Had just sat down to watch my favorite soap opera and fold diapers, Walter Cronkite cut in and announced the president had been shot in Dallas, as I sat there then he announced that the president was dead. Then from that it was shock after shock that weekend. People stopped turning off their TV's!


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## dobielvr (Dec 11, 2022)

IIRC Walter Cronkite even shed a few tears on TV while broadcasting the news about JFK.


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## Victoria (Dec 11, 2022)

mrstime said:


> I Had just sat down to watch my favorite soap opera and fold diapers, Walter Cronkite cut in and announced the president had been shot in Dallas, as I sat there then he announced that the president was dead. Then from that it was shock after shock that weekend. People stopped turning off their TV's!


Wow, that must have been something!


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## Marie5656 (Dec 11, 2022)




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## OldFeller (Dec 11, 2022)

I was 4 years old. I remember being annoyed that the TV was always about the assassination.
In my life time I've visited JFK grave site in Arlington and Dealy Plaza in Dallas. I thought it would be exciting to see Dealy Plaza but instead I was overcome with sadness to realize what it now represents. I didn't bother to visit the 6th Floor Depository Museum because i found it appalling that someone found a way to capitalize on the tragedy.


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## win231 (Dec 11, 2022)

Marie5656 said:


> *I wonder what we would have learned from Oswald had he not been killed? Like who approached him. Not sure how true this is, but it had been speculated that Oswald did not act alone, or was, as he claimed a Patsy. I remember hearing that in the military he was classified a FAIR marksman, and likely would have not made the shot on his own*


Especially not with the rickety rifle found in the book store, with the barrel rattling from a loose fit to the stock.
FBI agents test fired it & it wouldn't keep all its shots on a 12-inch paper plate at 50 yards. - a stationary target.  That means it wasn't capable of a 12-inch group at 50 yards.  Kennedy was hit twice - in the neck & head with the two shots 3-4 inches apart.  Not a chance.
Much less a moving car from a longer distance - difficult shots with an expert.
They might sell that fairy tale to someone with little long-range target experience........


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## spectratg (Dec 11, 2022)

In the spring of 1963, I was a senior at an all boys, Catholic high school in the Cleveland Ohio area.  JFK gave some speech or something in the downtown area and, as had been arranged for with the Secret Service, his motorcade, on the way to the airport, briefly stopped in front of our school.  JFK shook hands with our principal and the president of our senior class handed him a football!  I caught a brief glance of the man as his car passed my location.  What struck me was how tanned he look.


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## Paladin1950 (Dec 11, 2022)

Yes, I was in 7th grade in Florida. He is still my favorite President.


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## Paladin1950 (Dec 12, 2022)

Not really a Tom Petty fan but I thought it was funny.


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## Lara (Dec 16, 2022)

I remember that day very well. I was a freshman in HS and they let us out an hour early after announcing the Kennedy assassination over the loudspeaker. I remember watching it alone on TV and got sadder and sadder as I watched things unfold...until one day, much later, when I learned about his multiple infidelities and being a womanizer. That cooled my heels with "Jack" (aka John F). I'm just not a fan of men who cheat and use women.


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## Tempsontime65 (Dec 23, 2022)

Sadly I do, one of my Elementary school classmates told me, but I didn't believe it til I got home.


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## ElCastor (Dec 24, 2022)

I was at sea below decks walking down a passageway on an aircraft carrier. It was a moment I will never forget.


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## win231 (Dec 24, 2022)

Lewkat said:


> Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, the president's assassin.


That's what aroused my suspicions about the whole thing.  First, why would anyone do something like that in front of several cops, knowing they wouldn't get away with it.  And why would one shot to the stomach kill Oswald with immediate medical attention, when the Pope (much older than Oswald) survived a more-serious gunshot wound with a much-more powerful cartridge?


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## Timewise 60+ (Dec 24, 2022)

I was in 8th grade.  I lived in a small town in the Colorado mountains.  I recall that our principal told us what had happened and told us to go directly home.  My best friend and I were shocked, we didn't know what to do on the walk home.  Oddly, for us we stopped in the Community Church and quietly said a prayer.  Then we both went home.  It was a really strange experience, and the town was so very quiet all during that week.  I remember watching everything on TV, but I mainly recall how odd it seemed all around.

Hope we never again go through that....


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## Timewise 60+ (Dec 24, 2022)

Paladin1950 said:


> Not really a Tom Petty fan but I thought it was funny.


A bit off topic I think...!  Did you go to the wrong thread or... Nothing about November 22, 1963, was funny. 
​


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## Lewkat (Dec 24, 2022)

win231 said:


> That's what aroused my suspicions about the whole thing.  First, why would anyone do something like that in front of several cops, knowing they wouldn't get away with it.  And why would one shot to the stomach kill Oswald with immediate medical attention, when the Pope (much older than Oswald) survived a more-serious gunshot wound with a much-more powerful cartridge?


Of course, it's all weird.  He didn't even belong in that basement.


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## RobinWren (Dec 24, 2022)

It still stands out in my mind where I was, what I was doing, just like other moments in history.


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## smilingmore (Dec 24, 2022)

I was in Misawa, Japan as a military dependent.  The air base went on alert and I sat rocking my baby and listening to the news.  I cried because I loved that president so much.


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## win231 (Dec 24, 2022)

Lara said:


> I remember that day very well. I was a freshman in HS and they let us out an hour early after announcing the Kennedy assassination over the loudspeaker. I remember watching it alone on TV and got sadder and sadder as I watched things unfold...until one day, much later, when I learned about his multiple infidelities and being a womanizer. That cooled my heels with "Jack" (aka John F). I'm just not a fan of men who cheat and use women.


And he & his brothers did much worse than cheating & womanizing.
People are really desperate for hero worship.  Or, perhaps they just like anyone who they find good looking & charming.


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## CallMeKate (Dec 25, 2022)

I remember... yes.  I was 6 and in first grade.  It was announced over the PA system and we were dismissed early.


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## Timewise 60+ (Dec 29, 2022)

win231 said:


> And he & his brothers did much worse than cheating & womanizing.
> People are really desperate for hero worship.  Or, perhaps they just like anyone who they find good looking & charming.


I was in eighth grade, I was shocked, sad, it was scary to have our President assassinated, I did not know what to think about it!  He was young and good looking, and he could give moving speeches, e.g., "Ask not what your country can do for you...etc."   But I also clearly knew he was a bad guy, cheated on his wife, came from a family of crime, and was very Liberal, etc. etc.   

So, I still was shocked, but knew the context of what he was....


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## MikeyDude (Dec 29, 2022)

I was 7 years old and living in Reno, Nevada. I rode my 1st bicycle to school and came home for lunch every day. When I got home for lunch that day my mom was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said someone shot the President. I didn't really understand the magnitude of it, but I soon learned. This is when I started to understand that the world wasn't really like my sheltered child's mind thought it was.


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## JaniceM (Dec 31, 2022)

MikeyDude said:


> I was 7 years old and living in Reno, Nevada. I rode my 1st bicycle to school and came home for lunch every day. When I got home for lunch that day my mom was crying. I asked her what was wrong and she said someone shot the President. I didn't really understand the magnitude of it, but I soon learned. *This is when I started to understand that the world wasn't really like my sheltered child's mind thought it was*


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## MikeyDude (Dec 31, 2022)

JaniceM said:


> "innocence lost"- the end of childhood..  I can relate.



Well - it was the beginning of the loss... I was only 7.


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## Jean-Paul (Dec 31, 2022)

So I recall the event on TV, the weeekend  of continously watching the TV news, and seeing Jack Ruby Assisanation of Lee Harvey Oswald.

Subsequently I Worked as an EE at a signal analysis firm for the gov, mil, défense.

in 1977 the House Commitee on Assination  assigned  our top acoustics experts Dr Mark  Weissman and Dr Ernie Ashkenazi to make an analysis of the sound recordings from the police motorcycle radios, in the motorcade.

They Reported to the HCA, indeed some shots originated at the upper floor of the Texas School Book  Depository where Oswald was.

HEADLINE.....A 90% certainty that other shots originated at the area in front and to the right of the Presidents Cadillac, and the railroad overpass.  This was in the House committee final report.

Just the ramblings of an old retired EE 

Bon Soirée 

Jon


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## oldmontana (Dec 31, 2022)

Marie5656 said:


> *On that day we were in the auditorium watching a movie..about plants.  Suddenly the Principal ran in and turned on the television.  The news of the assassination of President Kennedy was on.  We were all dismissed and sent home.
> I remember walking past a classroom and saw a teacher standing by the window, crying.  I was 9 years old.
> 
> View attachment 251746*


I was working at JC Penney in Fargo ND.


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## perChance (Dec 31, 2022)

I recently read a book by Stephen Hunter "The Third Bullet".  It's fiction, but it was an interesting take on what could have happened.


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## Supernatural (Monday at 8:36 PM)

Yes! Was watching television with Papa when the program was interrupted and the news broke with Walter Cronkite. Then watching the funeral and witnessing the salute by John Jr to his father's casket. Sad to know that so many Kennedys have gone the same way. John Jr died in a plane crash years later.

Father believed it was a conspiracy, so do I. The promised release of the truth, wondering if we'll ever hear it...


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