I was 2, and I was probably crying. Because it was so sad.
Maybe a few days for some people but there is no way that it took months for anyone except for the very rare hermit. The small regional papers would have gotten news from the big papers. Telegraphs were everywhere. It is a ridiculous assertion.
Interesting that this year there was little to no media remembrance coverage of the event. I don’t remember a year when there wasn’t some reference to the day. Perhaps I just didn’t look at the right sources yesterday, but I know that NBC didn’t say anything. I guess Trump has taken over most of the coverage for now.
**Chefguy **- I guess we’re to the point where it’ll just be remembered on multiple-of-10 anniversaries.
There were several shows on about it.
Yes, in many ways it was an innocent world.
But not of course in every way. These were also times when schoolchildren had “duck and cover” drills in case the Commies launched a nuclear weapon. Also I have a vague recollection of the adults in my world being pretty much scared shitless over the Cuban missile crisis, although I didn’t really understand what was going on.
I was in First grade, heard it over the PA. I cried, the teacher cried, most of the other kids were just confused.
Went home to find my mom crying. I really thought it was the end of the world.
A few years ago, I ran into a woman who was in First Grade with me. She remembered me as the kid who cried over Kennedy being shot, and admitted she had not known who Kennedy was. She said she always felt stupid for that.
Did most people see it as unthinkable? I mean, the same group had already blown up a bomb in one of the towers previously. More like unlikely.
Count me as having a hard time understanding why it was THAT big a deal. I think because in my living people have never really respected the president. No doubt it would be huge news that would go for weeks, but I don’t think I know anyone that would be truly emotionally upset that it happened. It would be more like “HOLY SMOKES! SOMEONE SHOT THE PRESIDENT!”
I certainly don’t mean to make light of the day, but I find it amusing how many people recall their elementary school closing and being sent home early. It’s clearly a feature of a different era, when it was presumably assumed that there would be a parent at the house (mom, most likely) who would greet them when they got home.
These days…cancelling my son’s elementary school?! It’s bad enough that the President was shot, but now I have to leave work to come get my son?! WTF?!
2nd grade in a primary school with 2 classes of 1st and two classes of 2nd grade kids. A teacher came in crying and talked to our teacher, who started crying too.
Then we were told that the buses would be coming and we were all going home. Kids are not stupid, they know when major shit is going down.
So we all lined up quietly and waited. Eric peed his pants and my indelible memory of that morning is standing quietly in line and watching a little river of pee flow across a beautiful hardwood floor.
While the teachers were crying, and Eric was peeing a little stream.
As I mentioned, I was a few weeks from being born then but a memory of mine is an interesting contrast. I was in 11th Grade Chemistry class when Reagan was shot. The Principal made an announcement over the PA in an emotional voice that the President has been shot and was being rushed to the hospital. He really thought it was his Kennedy Moment.
The teacher, who was at UCLA during the Viet Nam protests and the Governor Reagan days, reacted with a smirk and continued the lesson. The class jokingly for a few minutes tried to get him to cancel class and then went back to our note taking. The school went through the rest of the day as if it were any other. I watched the replay on tv a couple of times when I got home and that was it. Clearly it was a very different era.
I was in eighth grade. The principal put a radio broadcast over the PA system without letting any of us know what was going on. The broadcast was in mid-event and it took several minutes with us scratching our heads before we heard, “The President has been shot.”
They sent us home. Oswald was shot on Sunday, but we never had the TV on on Sundays before church, so I only found out after I got to church.
I wasn’t born until 1981, but I’m a historian who concentrated in U.S. history during my undergrad so I studied the Kennedy assassination in depth when I was in school.
Currently I teach reading and language arts (what used to be called “English”) for my local community college. One of my goals during the term is to enhance and build my student’s visual literacy: being able to glean meaning from pictures. To do this I’ll use classical works of art, political cartoons, and famous photographs as tools to enhance and build a student’s understanding. I absolutely love this as my students usually have different interpretations as I do or did when I first saw whatever picture I’m using.
Last week I put on the overhead the famous picture of Ruby shooting Oswald. I didn’t expect much considering how famous the picture is. However, not one single person in my class recognized it. Most of my students are 20-somethings, but one woman is in her 50’s. Still, the photo was completely foreign to them. I was stunned.
The students initially thought that it was some sort of mob hit (cuz all movie mobsters wear hats, apparently). However, as they discussed the photo they noticed that there were uniformed police in the background, there were no windows in any of the walls, the victim was dressed differently than everyone else, and numerous other details. I sat in the back of the room and watched my students. They eventually determined that it was an assassination of someone in police custody, most likely happening in a basement. The victim was most likely famous for some reason since there were so many cops around as well as photographers. I finally told them what the photo was really depicting, and most of the students gave a non-committal “oh.”
As a teacher I was thrilled that they were able to study the picture and actually come to fairly accurate conclusion of what it depicted. As a historian I’m shocked that a room full of American citizens who, I assume, passed middle-school civics and social studies classes had no idea who Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby were.
Thanks for that very interesting anecdote.
I get a lot of those kinds of shocks when I read this board.
Except me. 
I was 4 and in pre-K. They did not stop class early. When I went home, if they told me, I don’t remember. My dad was teaching in high school and they shut down early and he gave the news to my mom when he got home. I kind of doubt they told me anything that Friday. The first thing I remember of it was watching the funeral on Monday with my mom. Obviously by that time I knew, but how the news first got to me I cannot remember. I have definite earlier memories of the Kennedy administration. But my 11/22/63 memories are missing. I don’t like being the exception that proves this rule.
I will grant you that most people knew within a week. But I’ll leave it up to you to prove that everyone in the USA knew by, say, August 31, 1865.
The article just referenced is a really interesting account of how the news spread first by word of mouth:
The assassination of Lincoln sent shock waves around the world much like the assassination of Kennedy.