45 years ago.

[Hal_Crawford]

45 years ago tonight I was supposed to be at a pack meeting. I was a Webelo, looking forward to joining Boy Scouts. The pack meeting was cancelled and instead I sat at home watching on a black and white TV as JFK's coffin was unloaded from Air Force One. We had learned that the president had been shot while I was in PE. Soon I sat in my fifth grade classroom and watched as Walter Cronkite told us all that he was dead. When I went home my father, an Army officer and a staunch Republican was sitting in the living room, crying. I had never seen my dad cry before and I don't think I ever did again. I asked him why he was crying for a man who he didn't like. He said, "I didn't like him as president but I never wanted this to happen". That was one of many lessons from that week that I will never forget.

 

In the coming days we saw the alleged assassin gunned down on TV; we saw a presidential funeral and we learned about all the pomp and ceremony that comes with mourning a nation's leader. From my neighbor's yard we watched the jets after they finished their fly-over of the funeral at Arlington Cemetery. As a scout and a safety patrol I soon learned the protocol for flying the flag at half mast. These are lessons and experiences that I have always remembered and always will and I hope and pray that our scouts today never experience a presidential assassination or anything similar.

 

God Bless America.

[packsaddle]

I was walking down the hall in Jr. High school when the announcement went out. I was in front of the library on my way to industrial arts class. The teacher was Mr. Phillips. The announcement was made by the Principal, Mr. Haywood. His voice was trembling. We had already previously had a series of drills in which the entire school crowded into a basement room, standing room only...in case of nuclear attack. Students around me laughed and cheered. I was confused. Doyle Shaw laughed as he said, "Whaddaya know, someone finally bumped off ol' Kennedy". Only a few were concerned. Johnny Kinley (student body president) was on the edge of tears. Marion Pruett just laughed. He later became a serial killer. Teachers came out into the halls to get some order to the chaos. Miss Cline, the librarian, (they all were Misses, regardless of marital status) was crying. She was short, dark hair, brown eyes, cute dimples, engaged to someone at another school. Miss Whaley (math teacher) was yelling at the boys who were laughing. She had red hair, freckles, and a fiery temper (decades later she resurfaced as a faith healer). Ray Miller came over to me and we sat down together, quietly, and waited for something to happen. Mr. Brown, social studies, who for some unknown reason liked me, sat down with us, tears in his eyes. His hair was short and he had a dark tan. He was wearing a white shirt and the sleeves were rolled up. Ray looked at him and started to cry.

I had almost finished Eagle but not quite. That came during Johnson.

Life started to move as in a blur.

[gwd-scouter]

I was five years old. My father was sitting in the big green leather rocking chair watching television. I was sitting on his lap and for the first and only time ever saw my father cry. "Was he a good man?" I asked. "Yes, honey, he was."

[evmori]

I was 7 and in 1st grade. We were sent home. I didn't understand it at the time. My friends & I thought we could catch the bad man who shot JFK.

[Kahuna]

I was in college in the South. We had a lot of guys whooping it up when the announcement came, just like Packsaddle was saying in his school, but most of the students were very somber and quite a lot showed up for the memorial service on Monday.

 

Last night I watched a VHS tape I recorded some years back. It was the NBC kinescope reoordings of the live feed from the time they picked up the first reports. Brinkley, Huntley and some others were all sitting around taking reports by phone and some live feeds from Dallas. Nothing from the scene, just announcers talking. Lots of misinformation. People in TV news say that was when it really came of age. It was a far cry from what we have today. No CNN, no live anything.

[Narraticong]

I was only five years old, but I do remember much of what happened those weeks. Their were many people who didn't like Mr. Kennedy, but it seems back then they still respected his office.

 

We seem to have lost so much stature in the world today. And I think it is because we have lost so much respect for ourselves. We no longer respect the Office of the President. We regularly mock him, no matter who it is. Candidates themselves go on TV and participate in the mockery.

 

It is difficult lesson I have been trying to teach my kids. You can dislike the man and who he is and what he stands for. But we must still respect the position he holds.

[Apache Bob]

I was at college packing to go home for Thanksgiving and heard that he had been shot. Just sat down and did nothing but listen to the radio until they came on and said that he had died.

I had not voted for him but he was my President and the leader of my country.

All in my family spend the Thanksgiving holidays that year watching TV. It was not the best Thanksgiving for the United States.

 

May all of you have a great Thanksgiving this year. Drive safe.

[kraut-60]

On friday Nov.22 1963, I arrived home from morning Kindergarten at the then Caswell elementary school in Fort Atkinson WI. I was 5 years old. I remember all the teachers at school seemed upset and that the afternoon kindergarteners were being sent home, classes were cancelled.

 

At home in the afternoon I was outside playing in the yard. At 4pm each weekday afternoon, I watched "Circus 3" on channel 3 from Madison...not that friday though. All 3 networks were showing what I then considered news and to my 5 yr old reasoning, I wasnt interested, I wanted to see Howie Olson and his sidekick Cowboy Eddie and some cartoons...My parents explained what had occured and I felt bad that the President had been shot.

 

The memory that has stuck with me the longest came several days later,when John-John stepped forward and saluted his dads coffin. The 60's seemed rather innocent before that and never quite the same after JFK was gunned down...I can recall some things earlier in my life as a little boy, but the events of 11-22-63 for some reason remain very clear to this day.

[Rooster7]

"The 60's seemed rather innocent before that and never quite the same after JFK was gunned down..."

 

I understand entirely what you're saying here...I was the same age and had similar memories (but different taste in TV viewing I leaned towards Captain Kangaroo and Bozo the Clown). But your statement begs the question: As a 5-year old, could the 60's have been anything but innocent?

 

In 30 or 40 years, I suspect many middle-aged men will be exchanging comparable thoughts on 9-11.

 

[Hal_Crawford]

"In 30 or 40 years, I suspect many middle-aged men will be exchanging comparable thoughts on 9-11."

 

As our parents felt about Pearl Harbor. I suppose that every generation has their pivotal day, the one that everyone remembers exactly what he or she was doing when they heard the news. My dad would always remember that day as he was already in uniform so it meant "get back to base 'cause we're at war soldier". The start of the Korean war was less significant to most but my parents were both in Seoul so it was hard for them to forget those events either.

 

For my son, I think 9-11 will always be that day. He was in 9th grade and they tried to shut down all outside information. I was shocked when I learned this thinking they had let a teachable moment pass them by but then I remembered how many kids in his school probably had a parent working at the Pentagon and how those parents might be casualties. I guess they made the right call.

 

But for me, it was November 22, 1963. As a 10 year old I'm not sure that the world seemed all that innocent. A year before we sat through the Cuban missile crises. Living in a suburb of DC there was no question where those missiles were pointed and not a lot of confidence that "duck and cover" was going to make it all better. Some of the families in the neighborhood started digging fallout shelters.

 

But I remember the days after Kennedy had been shot it all seemed to be unraveling. And then a few months later the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan show and not long after that girls started looking interesting and nothing but nothing was ever the same after that.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to all.