I noticed a funny thread on MPSIMS about Happy assignation day and one about I’m tired of hearing about JFK, but not one for old timers that remember today.
I was 10 miles off of the coast of Russia, Kamchatka to be exact in the North Pacific Ocean, on a diesel submarine monitoring Russia missile data as it was transmitted from testing missiles sent up by Russia.
I’ll never forget waking up to go on watch as I was crawling out of my bunk in the torpedo room I over heard two torpedo men talking about how good a president JFK had been. I naturally asked, “what do you mean … was”? and that’s when they explained that the president had been shot in Dallas and that he was dead.
I went on watch with the whole ship talking about how this must mean war with Russia, but of course that didn’t happen and we returned to San Francisco alive and well.
How about you? Anyone else remember 50 years ago today?
Well, I guess this applies to me. High School, sophomore year, Latin class, I believe. Principal announced the assassination on the PA system. Dead silence.
Sister Theophane’s* third grade class. A student knocked, came in, and told us the news.
“Senior Citizens”, indeed!
*Theophane, I was surprised to learn, morphed and became the given name “Tiffany”. Our Teacher/nun, however, couldn’t conceivably be “Sister Tiffany”. She was every syllable of Theophane.
Mine is the much more usual one. While walking between classes in school a girl told me she heard the president had been shot. I flat out didn’t believe her.
Then we all went home and watched television for three days, except for a break I took that happened to be exactly when Rudy shot Oswald. Holy anticlimax, Batman!
I was in Mrs. Wright’s 4th grade class at Saint Anthony of Padua School in Baltimore, MD. There was an announcement on the PA that the president had been shot, then maybe a half-hour later that he was dead. They let us go shortly after that. My mother was crying when I got home.
Having lunch at a little diner acros the street from where I was working. The radio announced the news and there was a mixture of “oh, no!” and cheers from the patrons. I went home and spent the rest of the weekend watching TV non-stop. Saw Oswald get shot. Saw John-John salute.
Only a few weeks earlier Kennedy was in a motorcade that came down West End Avenue near where I worked. I saw him in his convertible.
I’m pretty sure the plane back to DC with his body on board flew over Nashville, but I have never seen that confirmed.
Second grade. Somebody came in and told our teacher, who started crying. Our teacher crying was news, some guy named Kennedy - meh, but she got some of the kids crying, if I remember correctly, so it was a big event.
I was 8 years old. Another teacher came in the room and broke the news to Mrs. Wilson. Then the whole school gathered at the flag pole to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
I was in eighth grade. An announcement came over the PA saying the president had been shot. A short time later they announced he was dead. I think they played some patriotic music after that.
They let us out early. Since it was a parochial school, many of us went next door to the church to pray. Then I went home where we all were glued to the TV for the next several days until the funeral.
Second grade. I was seated at the left side of the class by the window. The teacher answered the doot on the right side of the classroom and disappeared into hallway for a moment. Kimberly sat to my right and started saying “President Kennedy!” She must have had great hearing because I didn’t hear anything. A moment later, Mrs. Strum re-entered the room, went to the front of the class and said slowly “President Kennedy was in Texas today… and someone… with no heart… shot him.” As soon as they could arrange for buses, they sent us home. We had Monday off of school as well, most places were closed that day for the funeral.
Just talked with my mom. We were living on Otis Air Force Base then. She had just come out of the Bx and noticed the flag at half staff. She thought Hoover had died (he was very sick and in the news then). But got home and found out what happened on tv. It hit the people on the base hard because Kennedy flew in and out of Otis a lot. It’s close to the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port. Jackie’s premature baby was at the Otis hospital in August. Mom was a labor & delivery nurse and saw the baby in the nursery before it was transferred to Boston Children’s Hospital and died.
Mom was telling me all traffic on the base stopped any time Kennedy’s car was on the road. So they always knew when he was on the base.
Oddly enough Hoover outlived Kennedy. Hoover died the following year in 64.
In the eighth grade sitting in a two-room schoolhouse out in the country. Our teacher did her best to reassure us. Everybody was glued to the TV over the next several days. I was playing jacks on the floor in front of it when Ruby shot Oswald and only looked up when I heard the shot. I remember Oswald went “Orrr.”
I was in Mrs. Anderson’s eighth grade French class at Abbott Junior High School in San Mateo, California. It was the only time in class Mrs. Anderson ever spoke in English. The announcement was that both President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson had been shot and killed. We were in shock. The things I remember most were from later in the week - the slow somber funeral dirge. And the television coverage of Ruby shooting Oswald.
I was in fourth grade. They brought all the students to the auditorium and the principal told us what had happened. We were sent home. My mother, a Catholic and Kennedy supporter, cried for a week. They brought a TV into the classroom to show the funeral procession.
