# Senior citizens thread: "Where were you 50 years ago today"? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 22, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536 "2013-11-22T16:53:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Mr\_Quatro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc8723/32.png) [@Mr\_Quatro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Quatro)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/61 "2013-11-23T17:19:11Z")
Thanks all you mature citizens for remembering with me this special day … I seem to have been the only one that was in the military. See you for JFK’s number 75 in 2038 … in case I’m not here you have a good morning and a nice day. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/62 "2013-11-23T21:01:52Z")
I was working part time at the California Youth Authority in Chino, California. We had a TV on, and the announcement of Kennedy’s assignation was shocking, especially to the many black families who were visiting their relatives. That was the first time I came to see how much he meant to the black population. I personally remember thinking “What has our nation become?” ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/63 "2013-11-23T21:21:28Z")
Lying in a bassinet in Spokane, WA. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/64 "2013-11-23T21:23:21Z")
> [@Subterraneanus](#): > > Lying in a bassinet in Spokane, WA. Watchin the ti-ide rollin away :: whistle solo :: ---
**Author:** ![swampbear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampbear/32/467_2.png) [@swampbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampbear)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/65 "2013-11-23T21:33:30Z")
School was over for the day and my fourth grade teacher was leading the class downstairs to go home. My second grade teacher (who was a little BSI) came running up to tell us the president had been shot and was dead. We really didn’t believe her. I remember my fourth grade teacher looked a little skeptical as well. I wasn’t for real sure it had happened until I got to my grandmother’s house after school and saw it on tv. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/66 "2013-11-24T01:08:15Z")
I was 24 and working in a Pub in the UK. The boss rang down about 6.30pm approx. and said tha Kennedy had been shot. I said,“your joking” He said " I don’t joke about that". I passed the news on to the customers who then drank up and went home to watch TV. ---
**Author:** ![SerafinaPekala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecae2f/32.png) [@SerafinaPekala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SerafinaPekala)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/67 "2013-11-24T02:15:04Z")
Salvation Army Home for Girls on Pulaski. TV Lounge. Stunned, like everyone, else to hear it. And yes, we thought we were going to be at war with Russia now. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/68 "2013-11-24T02:43:24Z")
> [@Mr\_Quatro](#): > > See you for JFK’s number 75 in 2038 … in case I’m not here you have a good morning and a nice day. 🙂 I think we’ll all be preoccupied with the [UNIX end of time.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem) ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/69 "2013-11-24T03:04:06Z")
Nine years old, in fifth grade. They turned on the classroom TV that only got used for educational TV and the Mercury missions. > [@R.P.McMurphy](#): > > What a weird experience that I will never forget. > > I was in school and a friend said to me “Kenny has been shot.” There was a kid in our class named Kenny and I imagined that some guy had come into the school with a deer rifle and shot him. Nothing made sense. And nobody said, _You bastard! You killed Kenny!_ OK, so it was a few decades too early for that. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/70 "2013-11-24T05:12:21Z")
I was in the second grade at a little primary school that was for the first and second grade only. Four classrooms, a gym, cafeteria, basement play room, a really cool old building that probably cost too much to operate and has been torn down years ago. The principal came in to the classroom and was crying, soon the teachers were crying and we were told that the buses were on the way and we would all be going home. It was about 10 or 11 am west coast time. I think that they told us that the president had been shot, but I am not sure. Anyway, all the kids seeing the adults so upset, were standing in line very quietly. Then, Erik S. peed his pants and I was standing there in line, and watching a little stream of pee slowly run across the hardwood floor right next to the line of students. So that is my major memory of the day, a little pool of pee slowly making it’s way across a hardwood floor. Two months earlier at the beginning of the school year we all got to go see JFK in person at a local Naval Air Station. All of the schools brought buses and many other people came too. There was no way that us little kids were going to see anything in a crowd of about 6000, so the bus drivers hoisted the boys up and put them on top of the bus, something they would never get away with now. So I saw him fly in on helicopters and then shaking hands with the crowd. And a couple months later I saw a little stream of pee on a hardwood floor. Memories are odd things, but that is what I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Diver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@Diver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diver)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/71 "2013-11-24T08:41:04Z")
Saigon Vietnam. We were put on alert. I was in the ASA (Army Security Agency) think NSA. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/72 "2013-11-24T10:52:11Z")
I was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. That’s where my family lived at the time. We had not moved to Texas yet but would in just a few more months. Kennedy’s funeral is the first memory I can put a date to. I have earlier memories too but not that I can date with any accuracy. Even birthdays – I couldn’t tell you if it was my second or fifth that I might be recalling. I remember being confused about why the regular TV shows were not on. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/73 "2013-11-24T12:39:55Z")
I’m interested to read from various posters, that at the time, they feared that Kennedy’s assassination might speedily lead to nuclear war with the USSR. I’m British, born 1948: was at boarding school in England when the news came through – it was early evening in our part of the world. School routine just continued as normal. I spent the rest of the evening in a muck-sweat of anxiety re the prospect of World War III being about to start. I conceived this notion all by myself: none of my peers brought up the idea, and I didn’t talk about it with any of them (I was a solitary and unpopular kid). Have subsequently cringed at my perceived very great naivete, for having this reaction to the news (I had overall, little interest in, or understanding of, world affairs). Learning that this same fear was experienced at the time by a fair number of people in the US, makes me feel that my 15-year-old self was perhaps not quite such an idiot, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/74 "2013-11-24T13:23:48Z")
I’m surprised that no-one picked up on the word “[assignation](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/assignation)” in the OP, but as for me, I was about three and a half at the time, and I remember being aware of the phrase “President Kennedy” but not understanding what it meant - but then, I’m English and it wouldn’t have quite the same impact. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/75 "2013-11-24T13:36:49Z")
I had just turned three. I vaguely remember my parents watching a newsreel of the limousine and a woman in pink trying to climb into the back seat. What has stuck with me, though, is John-John saluting the casket. I’ve told people I think it’s because we were so close in age. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/76 "2013-11-24T15:12:48Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. That’s where my family lived at the time. We had not moved to Texas yet but would in just a few more months. > > Kennedy’s funeral is the first memory I can put a date to. I have earlier memories too but not that I can date with any accuracy. Even birthdays – I couldn’t tell you if it was my second or fifth that I might be recalling. I remember being confused about why the regular TV shows were not on. I just remembered too that my father, who worked at a radio station in Fort Smith, at the end of that day salvaged the news teletype detailing Kennedy’s assassination from the trash and kept it. He ended up selling it to a collector for a few hundred dollars in the 1990s, not too long before he himself died. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/77 "2013-11-24T15:44:49Z")
I was in a high chair being fed by my mother when she receive a telephone call from my aunt that the President had been shot. Like many others my mom was a big Kennedy fan and she remembers the moment exactly. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2013, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536/78 "2013-11-24T16:30:04Z")
I was 10 years old. It was early evening here in England. I was watching TV, when the programme was interrupted to announce that Kennedy had been shot. It didn’t mean anything to me, so I went to the kitchen to ask my parents what it meant. The horrified expression on their faces made me decide there and then to start reading a daily newspaper, so I could learn about the World. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/senior-citizens-thread-where-were-you-50-years-ago-today/674536.md?page=3)