Where were you ?

Big Dave

Dead from the neck up
I was not alive yet when President Kennedy was assassinated. How did you find out?

My mother was teaching school in Cleveland at the time, but on 22 November, had called in sick She was watching the TV when they cut in for the bulletins. She remembered watching As the World Turns and eventually switching to NBC. She vividly remembered when Frank McGee was relaying the confirmation (on the phone with Robert MacNeil) that the President had died.
 
I was a young boy living in National City [suburb of San Diego]. I don't recall the details but I heard the news from my 1st grade teacher. I don't remember her exact words but I do recall that hearing the news struck me like nothing else in my short life. I'm sure my sober mood passed the following day but at that moment I realized the world was a much larger place than I'd known and in retrospect, a small part of my innocence was lost that day.

MikE
 
Sitting in school, 6th grade in Brooklyn. One teacher walked in the class, whispered in my teachers ear, they both went out in the hallway for a cry, and then came back in and told us kids.

Toasted Almond
 
i was in sister mary theresa's 7th grade classroom, at st. cecilia's school in the oak cliff area of dallas,watching the TV that someone had brought for the big event. we watched the drama unfold. sister collapsed in tears, the school came as close to chaos as i ever saw it, and we were sent home.

i lived on 10th street, a few blocks east of where tippet was shot at 10th and patton. by the time i got home, met up with friends, and starting playing around on a vacant lot on 10th and windomere, the shooting of tippet had just occurred about six blocks east and the neighborhood exploded with black ford galaxie police cruisers -- they grabbed him at my favorite neighborhood movie house, the Texas.

yeah, i remember it....
 
I was just 3 years old, so no personal memories. We were living in Dallas at the time, not far from the Texas Theater. My parents don't discuss it much, but when they do it centers around being glued to the TV in shock and disbelief, hearing the police sirens wailing in the distance.

-Dave
 
I was in the field playing touch football in 7th grade. Mr. Wheelock, our history teacher, came running out telling everyone. Alot of the teachers were crying. We all looked at each other and said, "Whoa!!!.......ok next play, Steve you go long and Ed go out to the sideline................"
Guess it took a few years to sink in.
 
Count me in with the schoolkids.

I was in 5th grade and remember that they came and told us JFK had been shot, and rolled in the TVs for coverage. Of course, we were too young to realize what happened. My biggest concern was that the funeral coverage preempted "Frankenstein meets the Wolfman" that Saturday night on channel 18. Damn, I was pissed!!!

To be 11 years old again!!
 
Wasent born yet.

Am I the only one who is sick of seeing his face on the history channel this month ?
 
Originally posted by grumpy
Wasent born yet.

Am I the only one who is sick of seeing his face on the history channel this month ?

While TV may be guilty of over coverage of this historical aniversery, I belive this remark is in poor taste amd un-called for.

-Dave
 
I can remember sitting in the living room watching it on T.V. The ole black and white. It seemed we were all numb from this. Even as a child of 8 years I felt the pain. He was a very popular president. It only seems like yesterday....
 
Dave

I had no plans on explaining myself but since you called me out on this I will not back down.

Funny how he was known for being this great equal rights Pres and it was all just a front. He couldn't have cared less bout people of color....Least according to all these Documentary's on him. He was just another politician and NO current day politician deserves the statis of a god that has been lumped upon him.

I make no apologies for my statement.
 
I was about 5 fingers old at the time. Don't recall the exact where and when but 2 things stick in my mind.

Watching someone carrying the rifle out and an oversized flowers long box which he said was used to smuggle the rifle into the depository (curtain rods was the cover story).

We've all seen this over and over, but what is so strange and which I have never seen repeated to this day is that a reporter asked this person to go back inside and to come out again (for whatever reason, maybe their camera malfunctioned).

Obviously this was live television so it may have been lost to history. Just strikes me as strange. Can't help but think that this must've been within minutes of the shooting.

I can recall the funeral procession thru DC, our TV had either died or was in the shop at the time and we had to borrow a friend's extra portable.

Anthony
 
sigh

Actually, I found the coverage fascinating. What with the new developments in technology that helped de-mystify what was a very tragic and bizarre moment in this country's history. As such, I feel to make light of the anniversary is in poor taste. I’m not a JFK lover or a historian on the conspiracy but for many he represented an ideal, as he was, in spite of his many faults or weakness’, an idealist. Acknowledging that his legacy is indeed blemished when you consider the family legacy - principally Bobby and John John - it will, I believe, continue to inspire interest for many years to come. In spite of what people may think of his faults as a politician or frailties as a man, he was a dreamer, and for many the dream that died that day still hurts today.

MikE
 
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Yes it does MikE. :cry: I think for the extreme difficult times he had to deal with that he did an exceptional job. The nuclear war was upon us and he didn't blink in the face of the Russians. I will always admire the man for that.
 
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I fail to see where I made light of him
 
Well grump, you are, of course, entitled to your opinion. I agree - no man deserves to be elevated to the status level you describe. I, for one, do respect JFK for what he was – a man that I feel truly wanted to make a difference, which was the intent of my thread ‘In Remembrance’. However, I feel that the primary purpose of remembering November 22, 1963 is to reflect upon the impact that moment in history had on America, and the rest of the world for that matter. For me it goes far beyond the man himself. I was to young to remember the assassination, but I grew up in a country that was forever changed by it as well as the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy. And that’s the way I interpreted the purpose of this thread. To reflect on the event, not the man – maybe I was wrong.

-Dave
 
Originally posted by grumpy
Dave

I had no plans on explaining myself but since you called me out on this I will not back down.

Funny how he was known for being this great equal rights Pres and it was all just a front. He couldn't have cared less bout people of color....Least according to all these Documentary's on him. He was just another politician and NO current day politician deserves the statis of a god that has been lumped upon him.

I make no apologies for my statement.

I for one don't have a clue as to what you're talking about when you claim that "He couldn't have cared less bout people of color..." Where did you come up with that?

While it's easy to understand why someone could get tired of hearing all about any issue in the media, why do you disgrace his or anyone else's memory in such a way? I bet if he wasn't President when he was we may have be vaporized in some pretty mushroom shaped clouds.

He was no saint by anyone's measure, and there's no way I'm defending his faults but one must consider the job he had done and the general tone that his administration set for the country, one of hope and prosperity.

We could go on and on about how he wanted to wind down the Vietnam war which was actually accelerated under Johnson (who by the way created the uber liberal policies that only today have begun to be dismantled).

Hoo boy, this thread stands a good chance of becoming a conflagration the likes of which O'Leary's cow would've been shamed. :)

Anthony
 
Dave

I could understand how the whole event could impact so many people in the way it did. If I were older and had went through the ordeal I am sure I would look upon this whole thing with in a different light.

What I fail to see is how my initial comment was in bad tastes.

The only TV I watch is the history channel So I find nearly all history interesting. what I meant is exactly what I said. I was tired of the immense coverage of JFK. The only ones benefiting from it are the sponsors and corporates.
 
Anthony

Maybe you should have watched some of the new Documentary's on JFK. Then you would see how he really felt on mny issues that so many people thought differently.

If the documentary's are wrong then I am cus thats what my opinions are based on
 
Originally posted by grumpy
Dave

I could understand how the whole event could impact so many people in the way it did. If I were older and had went through the ordeal I am sure I would look upon this whole thing with in a different light.

What I fail to see is how my initial comment was in bad tastes.

The only TV I watch is the history channel So I find nearly all history interesting. what I meant is exactly what I said. I was tired of the immense coverage of JFK. The only ones benefiting from it are the sponsors and corporates.

Seems to me there are 2 dynamics in play here.

By your own admission you weren't born then so don't have the experience of having lived thru those times. As someone who has an interest in history you should develop a way of looking at events outside of your own time frame.....I would like to feel that I have. Example, during WWII there were many references to "Japs and Krauts" which even then may have been considered racist but for the most part were acceptable as they were the enemy. A point lost on most PC tree hugger types nowadays.

The other dynamic is your particular phrasing allows the reader to interpret it as either being very cold hearted or by inference insulting to the man and the events.

That's MY opinion.

Anthony
 
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