NWR: Where were you on November 22, 1963?

[JimHow]

I was in Mrs. Harvey's kindergarten class at Martel School in Lewiston. I remember the janitor knocked on the door and Mrs. Harvey went out into the hallway. She came back in the room crying, saying that the president had been shot in the head.

[Comte Flaneur]

Khartoum, Sudan - too young to know who JFK was - but the tragic history of that clan is fascinating. They seemed cursed.

[Claudius]

Jim
Yes it was a very sad day.
I was watching "Lost in Space" on TV and there was a newsflash to say that JFK had been shot - and that further flashes will provide more info.
Soon after the next newsflash was that he had been murdered.
I recall the quiet of the neighbourhood - and we were in Australia.

I remember a similar chilling feeling when Martin Luther King was assassinated.

In Australia no political leader has been assassinated - thank God we don't have guns everywhere.

[Rick]

I was in 5th grade in DeLand Florida. School was closed and we were all sent home. Very solomon time for sure.

rick

[JimHow]

I read a book last year about Bobby Kennedy's last 92 day campaign. I realize it was a different time and place back then, but I'm still amazed by the stunning lack of security back in those days. He basically had Rosie Grier and George Plimpton protecting him, I just don't get it.

I visited Dealy Plaza in Dallas a few years back, it is amazing how close everything is, the book depository is right above the corner of Houston and Elm strrets, where the president's limo at that point was travelling about seven miles an hour. I stood where Zapruder stood, you can almost reach out and touch the spot where the final shot hit.

What was wrong with those people at that time, how could they be so cavalier in their security?

Since 1900, I count at least nine assassination attempts on U.S. presidents in the last century, not including MLK, RFK, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, George Wallace, John Lennon, etc., etc.

mckinley
t. roosevelt
f. roosevelt
truman
kennedy
ford (twice in ten days)
reagan
bush sr. (after he left office)

[JimHow]

By the 1990s when I had my meetings with two presidents, there was very tight security, nobody was going to get near these guys....

[Rick]

Who is that good looking YOUNG guy from Miane?

[JimHow]

Boy, you shoulda seen me then, I was unbelieveable. I was going to be president of the United states....

Now, I defend child molesters for a living....

[Comte Flaneur]

I saw the Queen once driving down the M4 but I never met her...

So how would you rate Obama Jim in his first year?

Me Istill like the guy but he is far too consensual and he has surrounded himself with people who have a track record of failure and corruption/having been bought - he is on a fast track to being a lame duck

[JimHow]

I never met the queen but I once had my polaroid confiscated for taking pictures of the crown jewels at the Tower of London....

I like Obama, Ian, this mess is going to take time to clean up. Presidents and their parties are usually down in he polls a year or two after they take office. My biggest concerns are about Afghanistan, I wish we could get the hell out of that hell hole.

[hautbrionlover]

I was in 1st grade in public school in NYC. There was an old-fashioned speaker hooked up to the school's PA system, and the principal's voice came on to tell us the President had been shot. I went home shortly thereafter to find my father, who had always been a pillar of strength, simply in a state of shock. My folks had loved FDR when they were teens and they loved JFK when I was little. I remember that weekend well, including my whole (very small) family coming over to our place to watch the funeral with us, just because people wanted to mourn together (we had a B&W TV, just like the rest of the family).
I remember RFK's assassination really well, too. The spring and summer of 1968 were nothing less than traumatic.

[JimHow]

I remember that sickening morning in June 1968 when we found out about Bobby Kennedy at the school bus stop. That one really hurt.

Claudius, are you sure you were watching "Lost in Space"? The internets says that series ran from 1965 to 1968, which is more consistent with my recollection. And you know we should believe everything we read on the internets.... And wouldn't that have been at about 1:30 a.m. in Australia? Are you sure that wasn't the Bobby Kennedy assassination, which happened after midnight in Los Angeles? Although Bobby lived for another thirty hours or so after he was shot.

My mother was watching the legendary "As the World Turns" episode in 1963 with the frantic voice cut-in from Walter Cronkite followed five minutes later by his grainy image after they had gotten the cameras warmed up.

[stefan]

I was playing pickup basketball at Rice University. The news came, and of course we were stunned and immediately went to our rooms at college.
What a shock that was.

stefan

[DavidG]

I was in first grade. Mrs. Grissom sent us home. It was a weird and somber walk. Got home to find my mother on the couch in front of the TV crying.

I too visited Dealy plaza and the book repository. Things were way different back then.

[JCNorthway]

I was in Latin class in 9th grade (I'm the old guy here). A friend in my class had heard the news between classes (I don't remember how), and we both got in trouble for talking in class as he was trying to tell me what had happened. Our teacher had not yet heard the news.

And it's amazing what you remember about that day. It was a wet snowy day in Iowa that afternoon, and the afternoon paper that was delivered by a car going by and tossing it out the window was forever lost in the snow banks. So I did not have the newspaper headlines to save. I remember being really bothered by that at the time.

Jon

[Claudius]

Jim
You may well be correct - it may have been Bobby K instead.
I would have been in 2nd grade at school in 1963.
Having said that I certainly do recall the media coverage here of JFK's assassination with mass media coverage all over the place.