Where Were You When President Kennedy Was Shot?
November 22, 1963
To fellow readers and writers, I sent out this query November 22, 2024 on the 61st anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy. The question was inspired by George Cummins a former member of the US Peace Corps who had contacted his Peace Corps group Tanzania 5, about their memories of that day. So I followed up with a similar question to my former Peace Corps team Tanzania 10, who went to that country at the end of 1965, already two years after the assassination. I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of responses, approximately 65 in less than a week. I also sent it out to readers of my track and field blog that I’ve been writing for the past 14 years, and then to a few other friends and acquaintances. We have travelled on many different paths since 1963 and we’ve been molded and shaped by many events in our lives. I’ve realize that you have to be about 71 years of age to answer the question. A few of the younger respondents are relating what they’ve been told by others. On the other end of that spectrum, about 85 years, our memories though fading still have some indelible marks and interesting tales to tell. Some only responded to say where they were on the map at the time, but others were much more willing to share memories, thoughts, and opinions. Answers came from many points on the globe, primarily the US, but also Zimbabwe, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Canada, Morocco, , and Canada. One respondent also sent the front page story from their college newspaper which I’ve attached at the end of this. In checking out the papers of that date, I learned of another tragedy on that day that was long forgotten, a nursing home fire in Norwalk, Ohio where 63 residents died, many held in their beds by restraints. It reminds me that these things are happening everyday somewhere on the planet. In refugee camps, in The Congo, the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Israel, the Sudan, Mynamar, Syria, and many, many other places. We become immune to terrible news in many instances, but the big events such as JFK, 9-11, the Challenger, and a very few others tend to be those that link us to shock and sadness. I hope that if you read some or all of these accounts you will be moved to a few moments of reflection and be able to show a good side of humanity to someone who needs and deserves it, maybe even to someone who doesn’t. It may be one of the few paths on which people and nations can heal. Thank you so much for sharing your stories.
All names and identities have been scrubbed from the accounts.
George Brose
1. I was playing pickup basketball in the Alumni Gym of Capital University (Columbus, Ohio) on that fateful Friday. in 1963. We were playing cross court when mysteriously the guys at the other end stopped playing and were just wandering around aimlessly, most talking in hushed tones. Eventually, one came down to announce to those in our game "the President has been shot." My first thought was "why would anyone want to shoot President Yochum (the very popular Capital University president). When he corrected me I was even more concerned because I knew the ramifications were much larger.
Strangely my eventual wife was in her Belmont High School (Dayton, OH) English class when the announcement came over the speaker.
Since I eventually became a coach and she an English teacher, it seemed only appropriate that we were both where we should have been when this tragic event took place.
2. I was on the way to the Baptist Student Center in Norman (OK) at the time JFK was shot. When I got there and while I was walking up the staircase to the main floor, a guy yelled down at me, “Did you know Kennedy was just shot?” At that time I didn’t know it was fatal and tried to get to a TV to see how he was. A couple of minutes later the news came that he had been killed.
My first reaction was to blame the hard-line right- wingers that Dallas was known for, for Jack’s death. The Kennedy’s had had some reservations about going to Dallas at that time—not sure they would be welcome or that it would be safe to be out in public in Dallas. So my first reaction followed that logic: they had gone into hostile territory and the trip ended up with him getting killed.
Then as other details came out about Oswald I began to realize it was not the type of people I had imagined that were responsible for his death.
Then Jack Ruby killed Oswald and the whole thing got way more confusing. The biggest mystery to me is how Ruby was ever allowed to get close enough to Oswald to shoot him. I don’t think that question has ever been adequately answered. What were the Dallas police doing?How could Ruby ever be allowed to get close enough with a pistol to shoot him? I don’t think we’ll ever know.
Jackie’s life since Jack’s death has been a disappointment. If there ever was a marriage for money, her marriage to Onassis was one—a disappointment. I hope it gave her some happiness—she surely deserved some—but I doubt that it did.
3. I was in the 6th grade, 11yrs old. I don’t remember very much. I knew it was a big deal. (My parents were Nixon people)
4. I recall it clearly. I was making my way from the LBSC (Long Beach State College) locker room out across the grass field toward the track for my Friday work-out, always an early workout as I had only one class in the morning. One of our team mates was holding some kind of conference out in the middle of the field, which was out of the ordinary. Much excited talking as I got closer. We were all in a state of shock, as JFK was one of the most liked politicians of my lifetime. I was starting my Junior year and cross-country was just finishing up and no one felt like training that day or over the week-end. I recall that network TV was covering the news almost 24 hours a day and eventually I heard growling about enough being enough. I didn't really have time to sit in front of the TV anyway with school, training, work and a newborn baby and wife to care for. I was especially taken by his service in WWII and looked up to him as a genuine hero for his service on PT 109. Sad Sad day in US history.
5. I had picked up my new car at the Rambler factory in Wisconsin and started driving southeast to get my Mother in Yellow Springs, OH where she had been visiting my sister. It started to rain so I went to the Rambler agency somewhere on the way and they fixed my wipers OK. All along the drive I had been listening to the radio and heard about the assassination. I "think" he was shot when I was just entering Illinois and he died almost right away. Interesting for you George, I stopped in Warsaw Indiana, home of Max Truex and phoned his parents for a short phone call.
I was in the Air Force on leave to get the car and thus when I returned to Oxnard AFB in Calif, the atmosphere had certainly changed.
6. I was working on Wall Street at the time and was finishing up lunch at a local diner with some friends when we got the word that the President had been shot. By the time we got back to our office, trading had been halted on the NY Stock Exchange and we sat around listening to transistor radios until it was confirmed that he had died.
7. Doing my college part-time job - washing test tubes for the School of Applied Medicine
at UPenn with the radio on - shared the dreadful news with students in a nearby classroom.
Last night, I was washing up after some pre-Thanksgiving prep and realised it was
that fateful day 22 November and had no one nearby to "remember".
8. I was just leaving class at UC Berkeley and walking back to my apartment at Channing and Shattuck. Soon after I got in the door, my sister called, and I remember her words, “What are we going to do now?” She told me JFK had been shot and killed.
Like nearly everyone in the country I spent the next two weeks glued to the TV as the saga unfolded.
9. I was cashing my graduate student assistant paycheck in West Lafayette Indiana at Purdue. I heard it on the radio and went into the bank and told them to turn on their radio. My 1:30 class was not cancelled even though Kennedy had already died. Since there was a John Birch Society sign on the main drag saying "Less Profile, More Courage" my friends decided they were to blame and they were planning to deface the sign. Then the Oswald news came. On Sunday people were bitching that the NFL games were pre-empted for assassination coverage but I saw Ruby shoot Oswald on live TV.
10. I was in my final semester of college (I finished in the fall semester) at Alfred University. Myers Hall had the chemistry department and modern languages, among other departments at that time. I was walking out of the building to go to the student union when I saw an elderly lady, a faculty member from modern languages, sobbing while sitting on the steps to the second floor. Between sobs she reported that President Kennedy had been shot and killed in Texas. I was shocked and very sad, as one who saw Kennedy as “my President,” rather than the "national grandfather” as we saw Eisenhower in those days. I was in mourning for quite some time after that, and actually visited the White House that winter. Later I have visited the Kennedy grave site in Arlington National Cemetery several times. The event remains seared in my memory, and later I was in the same hallway, then as a member of the faculty, when I learned of the Challenger explosion. Those two memories will remain with me as long as I am alive.
11. I was in 10th grade Biology class. First thought was,”Oh no, they are going to cancel the basketball game”. Drove by the “grassy knoll’ a couple yrs ago with my brother. He had read the whole Warren Report, and reported on his analysis. He’s a deeper thinker than me!
12. I was in the 5th grade and they came in and announced that the President had been shot. My immediate reaction was - why would somebody do that? Even, how could somebody do that? To me, at that time, the President was like some indestructible person. We were not too well off and did not have a television at the time. I remember my dad going to the appliance store and buying one so we could watch what was happening that weekend.
It was around the Thanksgiving break and we always traveled to my mother's family in upstate New York for that holiday. While we were at the gas station near home filling up we had the coverage on the car radio. I heard a pop-pop and the announcer screaming that somebody shot Lee Harvey Oswald. I remember thinking that everything was falling apart and worrying if we were going to make it to the relatives house safely.
13. I was a 28-year-old freshman at Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, the only older, married (with two children) commuting student there at the time. Classes were over for the day; I'd just gotten into my green '63 VW bug for the 20 mile drive home, when Phil, one of the track and CC boys I trained with (since girls' track didn't exist yet) came running over to my car to tell me the terrible news.
I sobbed all the way home, saying out loud, "Oh, the poor country! The poor country! What will we ever do?" Did the car have a radio? I don't remember. The 20 miles were a blur, as if it were raining. The rest of the day, and days after, were spent by the TV, crying. And again, even now.
14. On JFK's assassination date I was a junior in school at U. of Oklahoma. There were mixed feelings on campus about his death. I heard one coaching staff member say, “Well, they shot Santa Claus in Dallas”. I spent the afternoon at the student union watching the only color tv on campus. One of our tennis players Paul Gregory knew Lee Harvey Oswald, from his association with the Russian emigre community in Dallas. He made the mistake of mentioning that and was picked up by some federal agency within hours for questioning.
There have been lots of theories about the assassination. One of the best I ever heard was by someone who spoke on campus a year or so later from the Bertrand Russell Foundation, but I can't remember his name or tell you what his theory was. I do remember the hall was packed and he spoke for several hours. No one left the room believing anything the Warren Commission had proposed after listening to the speaker.
15. I distinctly remember when JFK was shot. I was in a stall in the
Michigan State University veterinary large-animal clinic holding a thermometer in the anus of a cow.
A colleague student yelled down the hallway that "John Kennedy has been shot!!"
For some reason that I do not understand, my thought was that it was "John-John", the son.
I guess that my brain automatically shut off the enormity of it actually being the President.
What a horrendous and tragic loss to our country.
16. I was on my way home from Peace Corps assignment in India. Staying at a Youth hostel in West Berlin eating breakfast with some Americans. A German girl stood at our table and said President Kennedy was killed. We did not react. Kept on talking and eating. She stood and said what is wrong with you Americans? Don’t you care about your president? She repeated that he was Killed. We really did not comprehend what she first said. We apologized her and realized what she said. Of course our lives were changed that day
17. When I got to Tanzania, wtih the Peace Corps ,I was sent to Mwanza by myself. Eventually they gave me a Danish volunteer as a roommate. His take on JFK's death was completely different than mine. After reading that famous (Warren) report our government published, I thought the "lone gun man theory" was correct-yes I was naive. He said that most Europeans thought the report was a coverup. He was shocked that Americans were so easily taken in. Do you think we'll ever know what happened?
18. He was the first president I was old enough to vote for. I was eating lunch in the Portland State College around noon when it came over the PA system.
19. I was getting ready to enlist in the army in 1963.
20. I was 5 years old in kindergarten at Fairport grade school in Dayton Ohio.
21. Northwestern University campus sitting in the library getting ready for afternoon seminar, suddenly hearing a low murmur of voices all around me in a space usually dead quiet in the morning.
22. 1963 Kitchener, Ontario driving a delivery truck back to Arnold Brothers. Many people standing around talking which seemed quite strange to me. Then, it was announced that the President of the United States was shot and killed! Shocking news to hear that day! And everyone quit work that day. Many people were sure the Russians had something to do with it because everything at that time was so confusing.
23. At St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, England, for a concert (age 16).
25.
What
follows is my reaction to your question:
The day JFK was
shot, I was an undergrad at Laval University in Québec
City.
Second year of a Bsc. in Biology, first year of living in a city,
off
campus.
My mind was still in the French, Roman catholic
mode of my youth. What
happened in the USA was part of the
English speaking world, hence of
marginal interest.
Nevertheless, there was the catholic connection that
had been
formed through the Irish Catholic migrants who had settled in
and
around Québec City, in the vicinity of the Grosse Isle,
the
quarantine island.
To me the JFK assassination
had a flavour of religious persecution and
of religious
intolerance. I sensed that this was a momentous event,
although
I could not really fathom the social or political causes
nor
effects. When Robert Kennedy
was
killed in 1968, I became convinced that America
harboured dark
and powerful interests.
Today, I wonder if the apparition
of a Kennedy in the Trump Cabinet,
has any connection with
that distant past of the 1960's and the tragic
end of two
prominent American politicians.
26. In November of 1963 I was a freshman at Rutgers University in New Brunswick NJ- I had a German 1 class in New Jersey Hall, Hamilton Street. The class began around 1 o’clock and the professor was a very demanding “strict” person originally from Austria. There was no time margin - be a few minutes early. The class was 75 minutes, ending as usual with the challenge of a difficult quiz on Monday. Leaving that class was exciting for a freshman because outside the steps of New Jersey Hall a group of football players and RU fans predictably would gather to discuss Saturday’s game.
As I left the building it was noticeably quiet. When I got outside there was absolutely no one around. I headed for my dorm by walking up College Avenue. As I passed Ford Hall a lone resident was sitting in a window holding a transistor radio. I shouted to him, “Where is everybody?” He replied simply, “The President has been shot”. I walked all the way ( .5 miles) to my dorm (Livingston, now Campbell Hall) encountering no one. When I got to my room someone told me the President was dead.
The football game was postponed. A memorial service was held in the Rutgers Chapel a day or two later. I remember facial expressions as being “blank”. Classes were cancelled. That Sunday while returning from lunch I learned that the alleged assassin too had been murdered while in Dallas police custody.Thanksgiving recess was ahead. My plan was to go to Washington DC with a friend I had known while living in Tehran, Iran. During the stay at his home we went to JFK’s grave. It was a temporary grave surrounded by a white fence, probably a 10X10 yard square. Flowers we heaped to overflowing the fence itself.
As an 18 year old in 1963 this was jolting and confounding. I certainly did not understand much beyond the actual shooting . So much lay ahead.
27. I was 12 years old at the time and school was getting out and we were all getting on the school buses to be taken home. The bus was filled with kids all talking abut their day and then one of the teachers came on the bus and said, "I wanted all of you to know that the President has been shot and killed". Very quickly the bus became quiet. I could hear some kids beginning to cry, and as I looked around everyone had their head down. It became strangely quiet. I'm not sure reflecting back that most on the bus could actually comprehend the magnitude of what we had heard. Obviously, at that time of the US news did not travel quickly, and no one was sure exactly what had happened. As the buses left the school and took us on our way home their wasn't much talk. And some of the kids were trying to understand the devastating news that we had received. When I got home my mother had the black and white TV on and she was fixated on the what she was hearing. So it wasn't until I got home and watched the news that I began to understand what happened.
28. Heard about it walking back to my dorm. Went to the fraternity house, and several of us talked about the historical significance. We jumped in the car and drove to DC. Senator Nye took us through the Capitol, and we walked past the casket.
29. I
was on my way to my 4th period class when over the PA system they
made the announcement that
JFK
had been shot in Dallas. Mr. Hart, our geometry teacher, didn't
think we were in the learning mode at that point and asked us to just
pray for our President. When class ended, I went to
my locker to put
away
my books and go to lunch. While at lunch they made another
announcement over
the
PA system saying the President was dead and that school was cancelled
for the rest of the day.
Most
of us were in total shock and a few kids started crying. It was
a very surreal day and one I'll never
forget...
30. I was a freshman at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. I was in the process of changing classes when a friend hurriedly claimed Kennedy was killed. I didn’t believe him. I arrived at my next class where I was welcomed by many classmates sobbing at their desks. That’s when it hit me. My world imploded. The professor arrived, calmly announced the tragic event and incredibly proceeded to teach the class. No one listened as we were trying to process the tragedy. I ran to the dorm to watch the news unfold on TV. Later that day I sadly walked to the cafeteria for supper. As I entered the line, I was met with silence in the large area. Everyone had succumbed quietly to the tragedy and began the mourning process.
I frequently draw on that memory because it hit me so hard. Thanks for letting me log that terrible event.
31. It seems that every generation has a unique event which they will never forget.
For our parents it was Pearl harbor.
For
our generation it was Kennedy's assassination.
For
my children it was 9-11.
For my grandchildren it may be the swearing in of Mr. Trump.
32. Biology Lab, University of Dayton, freshman year.
33. I was a sophomore at The University of Kansas and came out of American History class to learn of the assassination of JFK. Our cross country team then flew the next day to East Lansing MI for the NCAA championships. The meet was scheduled for Monday and due to a national day of mourning the meet was moved to Tuesday. We sat around watching all the commentary and discussion of the assassination of JFK and it was very depressing. Plus it was cold!
34. I was working as an insurance claims adjuster for Farmers Insurance Group in their Hayward, California office. I was in the "bullpen" with four or five other adjusters and had to call our regional office in Merced, California for some policy information. I was told by the woman I called in Merced of the assassination attempt, but the fact that JFK had died was not yet known......I was also coach of the St. Joseph's High school (Alameda, California) cross country and the regional Catholic championships were scheduled for later that day at Bellarmine High School, north of San Jose. I had to make many calls to determine if the meet was still on and to let the team members know. It was decided to continue with the meet. My best runner, Bill Fairwell, won the race, but, needless to say, the excitement of the event was dampened significantly by the tragic news.
P.S. There are only two historical events in which I know where i was and what I was doing at the time. The other was Bobby Thomson's "shot heard around the world" in the 1951 playoff game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants. I was in my Modern History class at Alameda High School. The principal was a big baseball fan and had the final innings piped over the school's loud-speaker system. Miss Grace Powers, our teacher, was clearly upset by this. I was a fanatic Dodgers fan and the probably the only kid in the class with any interest in the game. It was a depressing moment when Thomson hit the game-winning homer. .
35. I
was in fourth grade. We had just come in from recess where the
boys played basketball and
tormented the girls, which is what most central Indiana fourth grade
boys are apt to do..
Mrs.
Everett was reading us another chapter from “Heidi” to settle us
down.
Our
principal, Mr. Alicehouse, (I swear that was his real name)….
Anyway, Mr. Alicehouse interrupted the class with a school-wide
announcement that President Kennedy had been shot. He then
played the live radio news broadcast for the rest of the school day.
We were all kind of stunned and didn’t know what to say, however
soon after the radio news broadcast said “The President is dead”.
At that point Mrs. Everett ran out of the room crying. We
looked around at each other with the confusion one could expect of
scared ten year olds, and in that moment all 24 of us were wailing
out loud and I remember distinctly the fear we all shared of the
unknown and what would happen next.
School
was dismissed for a week where I stayed home with my sisters and
brother and watched everything on the news in black and white on our
Philco TV.
It
was a very sad time at Northeast Elementary in Greenwood, Indiana
(South side of Indianapolis).
36. I was in 9th Grade English Class at Campbell Hall in North Hollywood, California on the afternoon of November 22, 1963 when our teacher told us President Kennedy had been assassinated. Everyone was stunned. One of the girls in class broke down and cried. My parents were very concerned but calm that day. We all liked JFK, it was hard to believe he was gone.
37. I am 62 years old and was just short of 22 months old on that day. Can’t remember it, surprise, surprise. However, I know my mom was walking me around the block in a stroller when she heard the news blaring out from somebody’s TV or radio. They must have had their front door open. I grew up in a suburb of Los Angeles. Guess it was a warm late fall day.
38. I was walking to class at the University of Arizona when I heard people talking about Kennedy being shot . I couldn’t believe this was true. As I was rushing to my dorm so I could watch the news, I heard someone say, “I wonder what this will do to Goldwater’s chances.” I was shocked by the news and angry about the reaction I had heard. The world suddenly felt less safe and the partisan response made it much worse. Looking back, it was a preview of today’s world.
39. I was 13 and a freshman in high school when this happened. I remember that I was in gym class. We didn’t finish the class ~ everyone was so upset. On the way home my friend and I stopped at a church and said prayers for him. What a time!
40. I was a 19 year old sitting in the Library at McMaster University in Hamilton Ontario. I recall it was a grey damp November day. Late in the afternoon the PA came on in the library...the PA was used rarely except to announce: "The library will be closing in 10 minutes"... but I remember clearly the shock and my unsettling response that one of the rocks of the western world had just been shaken. I felt a bit fearful and vulnerable as if nothing was safe.
41. I was in the Air Force in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the early afternoon after finishing a 24-hour alert plus traveling and the debriefing—and was just getting ready to take a nap. I was shocked and disappointed. I did not get my nap in.
42. I was in grade 9 and as I recall walking home from school in Halifax and someone I did not know simply said President Kennedy had been shot.
My father was in his first year as President of the University of King's College. He kept a guest book in his office and he noted the death of JFK in this book. It was the end of innocence as we knew it. Very sad.
43. I was in grade six walking to school when I heard about it. We lived in an area where we never locked our cars or homes. It was a safe place. I couldn't understand why someone would want to shoot him.
44. I was in middle school when this happened I remember the day and the following weekend But other than that I have no real story to share
45. I was then living in Seville Spain, paying the equivalent of $35./month for room & board in a family-run hostel for labourers when my landlady came knocking, shouting that the
American president had been "asesinado" ...I was flabbergasted ! watching a very greyish re-play on the family's b&w TV, I began to feel nauseous and upset; can remember going to the toilet afterwards, being comforted by the turkey gobbling in the adjacent shower room, being fattened up for Christmas, strange consolation ?!
46. I was taking a test in a Russian language class at Oklahoma U. How ironic is that?
47. I was at a boarder at Holmwood School (Scotland), sadly now gone. We were in bed in our dormitories. I cannot remember who but one of the staff came into the dormitory, switched on the lights and announced that the President of the United States had been shot and killed. Why this sticks in my memory is because one of the inmates of the dormitory immediately
went into hysterics and started shouting that this was the end and there was going to be a 3rd world war. He had to be pacified.
48. I was in the hallway at high school just outside of the principal’s office (no, I was NOT waiting to be called inside)!
49. JFK was shot Nov 22 1963. There were only two or three buildings at UAC (University of Alberta Calgary) during this period. We all gathered in the Arts building to hear the terrible news. I was in my first year………….what a change evolved from there on!
50. We were both in our senior year in high school. I was in Detroit Michigan sitting at a desk in my classroom at Benedictine High School when there was an announcement over the overhead speaker.
B. said all the classes were sent back to their homerooms at Chaminade high in Dayton Ohio and an announcement was made over the speaker.
Hard to believe - 61 years ago
51. Remember all of it vividly...still! I had just finished lunch in the athletic dining hall (U. Of Texas, Austin) and was walking down the hall on the third floor of the athletic dorm to my room to take a nap before workout. I noticed several guys standing in the doorway of a room. None of the guys were talking...just standing and trying to see the TV set inside the room. I asked what was going on. Someone turned to me and said, "President Kennedy has been shot in Dallas." I still remember that exact moment as all the hair on my arms stood up and my first thought was denial. It can't be true...it cannot be true.
52. Northwestern University campus sitting in the library getting ready for afternoon seminar, suddenly hearing a low murmur of voices all around me in a space usually dead quiet in the morning.
53. I was in bed in my Bachelors' Officers Quarters (BOQ) room in Okinawa. I heard it on the radio. I was an ROTC lieutenant in the Military Police.
54. I was a new freshman student at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco. After lunch, the entire school of 800 boys were assembled in the auditorium. No one had a clue as to what was going on at this emergency gathering. We knew it was serious. Our principal announced that President Kennedy was shot and died in Dallas,Texas. We were all stunned and saddened by the tragic event. He told everyone to go home and that the next day was a National Day of Mourning.
55. I was walking to a history class at the University of Oklahoma when a girl ran up and said the President has been shot. My response was “What President?” When I got to class, everyone seemed to be there listening to the radio. Some were just looking stunned and some were crying, including the Professor.
56. I WAS TEACHING ENGLISH AND COACHING TRACK AT DETROIT. FINNEY HIGH SCHOOL--ONE OF THE MANY DPS (DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS) WHERE I TAUGHT A ND COACHED--AND A KID NAMED VINCE CAME INTO CLASS LATE. HE WAS LAUGHING, AND HE SAID THAT JFK HAD JUST BEEN SHOT. IT DEVASTATED ME.
57. I was working stuffing envelopes with a bunch of really old women prolly way younger that I am now but I was 17 years old and working my first job ever, in New York City and all of a sudden all the old women started getting their coats on and they were crying and they all rushed out the door. There I sat all by myself in the room where the silence was deafening. I had no idea what they were doing and where they were going. I looked out the window and saw that the traffic had stopped and I saw that people were going to the cars and talking to the drivers, and then people would get out of their cars and be telling something to the folks in other cars. It was mayhem. So I went out and asked someone what was happening and they told me. I decided to walk home as I could see the old biddies were not coming back so I walked home and my parents were freaking out. The rest is history.
58. I was still in my first few months in the Peace Corps in Casablanca, Morocco. My roommate and I were returning to our apartment late in the evening after a long day when one of our young neighbours stopped us on the street, saying, "Your president has been shot." My roommate & I looked at each other and asked, "What is he talking about?" The young man touched his chest and said, "I am sorry,' before walking away. Neither of us understood what he meant. There were no computers, mobile phones, etc. at that time. We had no quick contacts from home. We left our apartment the next morning, giving no thought about what the kid told us, only to find a long line of our neighbors waiting to shake our hands to express their sorrow for us. We were totally stunned and bewildered, But we were given several newspapers confirming the current details. The rest of the day, at work and our other activities continued the like that. The memory of that day has stayed with me forever.
59. George, I vividly remember that day. I was in the last couple of weeks of US Army Helicopter School. We were on a search and survival week of training. An order came down for us to cease the training as there was a “rumor” that JFK had been shot. We all thought that was part of the training as a way to play with our mindset. Sadly, that was not the case.
60. I wasn’t around on December 7, 1941, but I remember November 22, 1963, like it was yesterday.
It was cloudy day in the Bronx, New York. I was in the 7th grade. I remember walking out of John Peter Tetard Junior High School stunned and in a state of shock. It was feeling I had never experienced before. The school had a winding walkway to exit. I was the only person leaving at the time and it was a lonely lost feeling as I began my walk home.
61. George: I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was a sophomore at Miami U. I had a noon speech class, and upon leaving for the gym to get ready for practice, a friend was kneeling at a car listening to the radio, I just waved and walked past. Upon arriving at the gym locker room, I was confronted with the news.
62. What I found interesting about that day was the reaction I got from trying to tell people about a horrific happening, which then was repeated when the Challenger exploded and on 9/11. Normally,I am not a media junkie listening to radio or watching news, but on each of the occasions I mention, I was privy to hearing about it very quickly following the tragedy: on the radio for Kennedy and the Challenger and on television on 9/11.
So, to your question, I was on a bus returning from a geology field trip while at the University of Oklahoma. I happened to be seated in the second or third row to the right of the driver who had the radio playing. I was not chatting with anyone, and found myself listening to the radio when the program was interrupted to announce President Kennedy had just been shot. There was no announcement of his death, and I believe they said he had been taken to Parkland. My reaction was immediate horror and I turned to those around me to relay what I had heard. They all looked at me like I had three heads, and went back to their conversations. I continued on and got the same reaction, each time explaining I had overheard it on the radio. It felt like a very iappropriate time had passed before some people seemed interested in this news. I did not understand their reaction at all. Fast forward to a time when I was working for the Boston Athletic Association at their office. Again, the radio was playing and I was following the take-off of the Challenger and so heard immediately when it exploded. The Board of Governors was having a closed meeting, but I felt this merited an interruption. Again, I got absolutely no response from anyone (and there were 6-8 people in the meeting). Some 15 minutes went by before someone finally walked out to ask me to clarify again what I had told them. And then when 9/11 happened our son was visiting and had a Good Morning show on. We never had the TV on during the day, but there it was, and immediately the programming was interrupted to relay the news regarding the first plane hitting one building only to follow up with the second one. My husband was working in NYC that day in mid-town so I quickly called him, and once again, I could not convince him of what was occurring. They had no TV, and he kept telling me he could not leave, because they had a lot of work to do! I consider myself "Dr. Danger" who reacts quickly when anything odd begins to happen. Clearly I am in the minority.
63. Stanford University.
64. I was in my junior year at Washington & Lee in Lexington, VA. I believe I was playing handball about the time JFK was shot so was a little behind in hearing about it.
I don't recall any great sorrow, more just a numbness. I can't remember if I was a real fan of JFK. Although my dad was a a union man and described himself as a "yellow-dog" democrat I may have been partial to Nixon in 1960 since that was the choice of many friends and JFK was a Catholic and suspect to my Baptist faith.
I had just returned from a summer in East Africa where I worked in a Baptist Secondary School in Mombasa and also visited Zanibar for a few hours, Dar for a week where I had to preach in a "revival" and also climbed Kilimanjaro from the Marangu Hotel with a group of Brit school boys and two parents. (The mother parent and I were only ones to suceed in getting to Gilman's Point.)
That summer's experience was still being processed but had a definite liberalizing impact
In any event I was a dorm counselor in the freshman dorm that year and one of my charges was a kid from Staunton, only about thirty miles away. He decided to get a car from his home and invited me to drive up to Washington for the funeral on Tuesday. It must have been a three hour drive since I just checked Google maps and DC is 190 miles way from Lexington.
We must have gotten there in early moring and proceeded to park the car and look for a place to see the procession from the Capitol to the Church. I don't remember exactly what we saw. It passed very quickly. I don't remember seeing anyone I recognized in the large group of family, but I do remember picking out Haile Selassi, Prince Philip and maybe Charles DeGaulle from the large group of world leaders who attended and walked. We left afterwards since attendees of the burial in Arlington Cemetary were taken there by car.
I gradually became much more political at W&L espousing Democratic leaders. Students at W&L were incredibly conservative at this time. All men and all white, plus heavily fraternity. All worshiped Lee. It wasn't enough to be a member of the Young Republicans; there was also a Conservative Society. We liberals were vastly outnumbered but managed to hold on to the student newspaper and make voices heard. In the 1964 election the student body favored Goldwater by about 4 to 1 but faculty was 80% for Johnson. We liberals managed to keep Johnson posters up. Students were generally shocked by Johnson's massacre of Goldwater.
I had an especially interesting experience at a Conservative Society lecture. A Vice-Counsul or something similar. from South Africa was invited to speak and he gave a glowing report on the South African apartheid goverment. During the question & answer period I asked him why Albert Luthuli, a Nobel Peace Prize winner was imprisoned on an off shore island without any hope of release. He said he was a criminal and besides we all knew from Martin Luther King's award that a Nobel Peace Prize meant nothing. Loud applause.
Btw I was in Dar during my third year when word came that Robert Kennedy had been shot. A bunch of Americans gathered around a teletype machine in the Kilimanjaro Hotel late into the night until word came that he was dead. One of the persons there was an American black who was a sort of well known refugee from the USA. He was interesting to talk with. No memory of his name.
65. I was in a class at college when someone ran through the halls telling each class what had happened. Everyone immediately scattered back to their dorms. The whole dorm spent the next few days clued to the TV in the living room. Our campus had a small lake and when people took a break from the TV, they walked around that lake. I had met Kennedy over a year before and intended to go into the Peace Corps. It was hard to think that all that hope was gone.
65. Hi George: Friday, Nov 22, 1963 was cold in Omaha when the news came over the small TV in the Student Union building at the Muni. Univ of Omaha. We had a scheduled cross country meet that afternoon. Of course, the news had hundreds of students watching the events unfold in Dallas. We were hoping that the cross-country meet would be called off, as we were not sure that we could perform well, with the news that Kennedy was dead. Of course, our coach kept the meet and we all ran somewhat better than normal-mental adrenaline? Next two days were spent sitting in front of the TV watching the news coverage.at college.
66. I was working for Dover Publications on Varick Street in New York, writing blurbs for paperback covers, when the news came. We were all stunned, of course, and the office was closed. I walked home to our 6th St. apartment, soon joined by my wife who was working at St. Luke’s Hospital. We spent the next day or two watching television through the Oswald shooting. One shock after the other. The next few years we followed all the conspiracy theories—and the Warren Report smacked of cover-up. The American Camelot over much too soon.
67. I was a college student at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green Ohio.
I was shopping in downtown Bowling Green when the news hit and spread like wildfire. Walter Cronkite reported that evening near tears. It was a shocking nightmare.
I saved the college newspaper, the B-G News when it next came out on Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1963 and have attached it. I hope you can read it.
For those not too exhausted, here is the front page of the Norwalk Reflector Herald in Ohio about that nursing home fire story. Probably the only newspaper in the country with a headline above the assassination.
