I was on the school bus waiting for the bus to leave school. A teacher came on the bus to let us know President Kennedy had just died. It was a very sad day.
I was 10 years old, living in the north of England. I remember watching all the news coverage on TV. Most of the shows scheduled for that evening were cancelled and we kept watching all the developments of the day as they happened. Although he was not my President, I was aware of JFK and thought he seemed like a good person, so I did feel sad as well as being shocked.
I was in elementary school may first or second grade. I don't recall anything other than seeing the video of the parade and seeing him slump over. I started crying because the people on tv were crying. Too young to understand the impact of such a crucial time for our country. That was my first experience with the cruelness in the world.
Ruth, I so appreciate your feelings during this time when you were 10 years old. It sounds like you were a very caring young person.
Von, it was a cruel reality and the ensuing months to follow would show us more and more tragedies. It was a decade of great turmoil.
I was in the eighth grade, which was still considered elementary school. The principal came by our classroom and called our teacher out of the room. She came back later crying, and announced that the president had been assassinated. Being in the eighth grade, I suppose I should have been more sensitive to it but it didn't really affect me at all. I can remember wondering why anyone would cry about the president being assassinated since it wasn't likely that she knew him or anything. I really didn't get it. In fact, when they announced that school would be closing early, and we'd have a long weekend, I joked to someone about hoping they shot him again on Monday. Okay, I know that it sounds horrible but I just didn't connect with his being a real person, since I had seen him only on television.
I was only 2 at the time, so I don't remember it. For me, the first tragic event I was aware of was the Space Shuttle Challenger blowing up - I remember I was at work and everyone starting talking and running around. They brought a TV into the office and we watched it - and were just stunned. I was about 25 at the time, and had never really experienced anything like that. You didn't want to watch because it was so awful, but you couldn't look away.
Ken, really, we as kids did not know the reality of what had happened. From my perspective, Walter Cronkite was a true authority when broadcasting the news. My understanding of what occurred came from his commentary.
Mal, I can so relate to what you have written. I was at home that day, not feeling well, and was watching as the Space Shuttle exploded. I was so very sad, thinking about Christa, the first teacher in space, and how devastating is was to her family.
I was a junior in hight school in Biloxi, MS. We were between classes and an announcement was made of the address system. I remember students breaking out in tears and just sitting on the floor. It was such a devistating thing to all of us. School was called off for the rest of the day and the next day. I remember watching the news casts at home with my family and wondering how such a thing could have happened. It took several days for people to stop crying. When the funeral was telivisded, school was let out so we could watch it with our families. I will never forget the sight of little JonJon saluting his father's coffin.
It seems I got on a forum with a bunch of youngsters. I was 21 and in the USAF stationed in Tennessee when Kennedy was shot.
So it seems!! I will be 68 this year. My Dad was in the Air Force and stationed at Biloxi, MS when Kennedy was shot. When I see President Kennedy's daughter, Caroline, I still remember his death and how it affected the people in our country. He was much loved, as was his wife and childrent.
Well, it was four years before I was actually born. I did hear from my parents what that day was like. Having lived through other monumental tragedies in the United States myself which lncluded the explosion of two space shuttles and September 11th, I know how hard such a day can be for a nation. Its odd though, I wasn't born yet when President Kennedy was assasinated, I can only hear about the event from others such as yourselves. Now I find that there are kids who weren't born yet when these monumental tragedies that I lived through happened, and it makes me appreciate history a whole lot more then I did when I was growing up and learning it in school.
While others may find your attitude one of dismissal and levity over the announcement, I too had little feelings about the president's death. In the days that followed, it even angered me a bit about all of the commotion the news media was providing. Prior to his death, I recalled that the media was not particularly friendly with JFK and the way he was handling "foreign affairs," and then suddenly he was the best president who ever lived. Then, it really ticked me off because we had just bought a new TV and all three stations stopped broadcasting the good stuff and only aired the political ramifications of the assassination, Lee Harvey, and the commercials until a week after the funeral. Then, after Ruby did his deed, it was another week of pre-empted programming. It may seem strange, but I still have very little feelings on the subject. But then, I have no feelings about death either. I never have, which made me a very good candidate for Kennedy's, Johnson's, and Nixon's war in Vietnam.
I was a senior in high school on summer break. I grew up during the the time that all the walks for equal rights was going on. President Kennedy just seemed like he was the person that was going to help get the country balanced and equal rights was not just a word. The whole situation was very hard.