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President John F. Kennedy was Assassinated 56 Years Ago Today: November 22, 1963

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 at 12:30 p.m. while riding in a motorcade in Dallas during a campaign visit. Kennedy’s motorcade was turning past the Texas School Book Depository at Dealey Plaza with crowds lining the streets—when shots rang out.

Where were you?

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by Anonymousreply 143December 4, 2019 3:08 PM

I was 5 1/2 yrs old. I remember my mother crying

by Anonymousreply 1November 23, 2019 12:43 AM

I was on my second husband.

by Anonymousreply 2November 23, 2019 12:46 AM

I was in the fourth grade in Boston. It was a Friday afternoon, right around 2:30 so we were about to be dismissed from school. But then at the last minute, they wouldn't let us leave as we normally would. We were told that something had happened to the president and that we had to go home immediately.

by Anonymousreply 3November 23, 2019 12:48 AM

My mother cried all weekend. And then on Sunday morning, November 24, they were transporting Lee Harvey Oswald from the the courthouse to the jail (or vice versa), when Jack Ruby stepped out the shadows and shot Oswald on live television. My father yelled, my mother screamed, "Oh my God, he shot him!" I was eight year old, but I remember it vividly as I was sitting in the living room watching television with my parents. Even then, I knew this was a crazy, sad time.

by Anonymousreply 4November 23, 2019 12:55 AM

I remember watching the funeral and John-John saluting. I was only eight. My mother cried the entire week.

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by Anonymousreply 5November 23, 2019 12:57 AM

I was not born.

by Anonymousreply 6November 23, 2019 1:03 AM

My grandmother was watching "As The World Turns" which was interrupted by the news bulletin. After about 10 minutes, she yelled at the TV "Okay, okay, he's dead, now go back to my show!".

by Anonymousreply 7November 23, 2019 1:11 AM

Lee Harvey Oswald was shot two days later on Sunday, November 24. JFK's funeral was the following day on Monday, November 25, which was also the birthday of JFK, Jr.

Crazy, terribly sad times.

by Anonymousreply 8November 23, 2019 1:16 AM

I was in the second grade, age 8. I didn't hear about the assassination until after school, when a fourth grader told me.

I recall watching TV that Sunday morning when Oswald was shot live on camera.

by Anonymousreply 9November 23, 2019 1:17 AM

I was in school and the principal announced it over the intercom. Everything just sort of stopped and I think they let out school early. I didn’t understand what had happened but I remember teachers out in the halls hugging and crying. Television had nothing else on for days and all the adults were so sad.

by Anonymousreply 10November 23, 2019 1:18 AM

JFK was due to deliver these remarks 56 years ago today. He never made it to the speech

"Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake," Kennedy's undelivered speech says. "Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause -- united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future -- and determined that this land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance."

by Anonymousreply 11November 23, 2019 1:29 AM

The entire country was crying. I remember watching the funeral with my mother. She cried all day. It was all so sad.

by Anonymousreply 12November 23, 2019 1:31 AM

I was 10 years old.

What's strange is I vividly remember listening to the radio a few days before when the newscaster announced that Jackie would be going to Dallas too. Apparently she had originally planned not to go.

My school was having half day sessions due to work on our school building, so I was home the afternoon of the 22nd.. I heard from one of the kids that Kennedy had been shot. I ran home, sat on the floor in front of the TV and watched this:

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by Anonymousreply 13November 23, 2019 1:57 AM

Ted Kennedy was shot?

by Anonymousreply 14November 23, 2019 2:00 AM

I was 15 years old in my ROTC class in high school when our Sergeant told us what happened. Some of us thought this meant war and we would be joining up soon. That was at first, before we heard about Oswald.

by Anonymousreply 15November 23, 2019 2:04 AM

I was at the parade that day in Dallas and even admired the pill box hat.

by Anonymousreply 16November 23, 2019 2:05 AM

I was only two months old but my sister was 7 years old. We're Canadian, living in a suburb of Toronto in the fall of 1963 and after school that day, my sister went over to play with two new neighbours who had moved in around Labour Day-they were from South Carolina. Anyway, after playing with the two American girls while their mother apparently watched news about the assassination on tv, my sister came home and at dinner asked, "Mommy, what's a nigger-lover?". Obviously, our new neighbours from South Carolina weren't exactly fans of JFK. My sister was never allowed in their home again. (Sorry about using the N word).

by Anonymousreply 17November 23, 2019 2:09 AM

I was 11 and living in a Boston suburb. There was no school that day in my town due to a Teachers Convention. I remember watching The Mike Douglas Show while eating my lunch when there was a bulletin announcing JFK had been shot. Soon came another bulletin announcing JFK had died. The television in our house remained on that entire weekend. I was watching when Oswald was shot and I watched the entire funeral.

by Anonymousreply 18November 23, 2019 2:17 AM

I was in first grade and they closed the school. I went to my friend's and waited for my mother to pick me up. I wasn't that concerned because, after watching reruns of police shows and westerns, I thought JFK could have been shot in the arm or something. What most pissed little 7 year old me off was there was no normal TV that weekend (he was killed on Friday).

by Anonymousreply 19November 23, 2019 2:19 AM

I wasn't born until 25 years later when Kennedy was shot. My parents weren't even born yet. My dad was born in 64 and my mother 65. I've heard the story from my grandmother many times about the day Kennedy was shot. It was very sad, and she said she was sad and upset about his assassination.

What a sad day that was. I sometimes wonder, if that day can be compared to September 11? Both sad tragedies for America indeed.

by Anonymousreply 20November 23, 2019 3:09 AM

I was in 1st grade in Detroit. We were seated on the floor around our teacher when she left the room in tears. I don’t remember now how we got the news, but I recall telling my classmates that this meant Rockefeller would now be president. I ran home thinking I would tell my mother the news, but I found her crying on her bed.

by Anonymousreply 21November 23, 2019 3:37 AM

R16 did you dial the phone with a pencil?

by Anonymousreply 22November 23, 2019 3:53 AM

I was in third grade of my Catholic grammar school. The principal (a nun) came into the classroom to announce the news, after which the class was shepherded to the church across the way to pray for JFK.

The Sunday when Ruby plugged Oswald, I was on the phone with my friend, Andrew, and he (watching tv) started shouting, "They just shot the guy who killed the President." Naturally I thought he was confused and I rose to my full nine-year old height and in condescending fashion (which I retain to this day) corrected him, "No, no, no, you mean they GOT the guy that shot the President." Of course I soon discovered that Andrew was right.

by Anonymousreply 23November 23, 2019 4:10 AM

I was 5 and after going to morning kindergarten and eating lunch with my mother, she set me to work ironing pillow cases (we had a big family, so lots to iron). We had the tv on while I worked (I was waiting to watch Art Linkletter's "House Party"), and I remember when the report came on. I couldn't believe it.

by Anonymousreply 24November 23, 2019 4:22 AM

Sophomore in high school in NY. Still remember how awful it was to see Oswald shot, live. We're so desensitized nowadays....

by Anonymousreply 25November 23, 2019 4:28 AM

I wasn't born, but I remember much later looking through a commemorative book about Kennedy that had a lot of color pictures and I was too young to understand what "assassination" meant.

by Anonymousreply 26November 23, 2019 4:29 AM

I was 10 years old in Grade 6. We were hurriedly assembled in the lunch room where the school principal announced that the President had been shot. It didn't make much of an impression on a bunch of kids.

I think we were again gathered in the lunch room to watch the funeral. I do remember watching the news footage on CBS of Oswald being shot.

by Anonymousreply 27November 23, 2019 4:31 AM

It's fascinating to me how the image of the motorcade seems to have been art directed to remain contemporary.

Jackie's pink suit is timeless. Always in style.

The '63 Continental was one the simplest cleanest car designs ever.

JFK and the other men all have those early 60's slim suits that still look good.

by Anonymousreply 28November 23, 2019 4:46 AM

I was 6. My mom was mad that I wasn't more upset. All I knew was that they took my cartoons off the air.

I think I felt guilty that I didn't feel worse, because later, when Robert Kennedy was shot, I was a basket case, breaking down crying in my elementary school.

by Anonymousreply 29November 23, 2019 4:54 AM

The day that changed America forever.

by Anonymousreply 30November 23, 2019 5:03 AM

In a playpen & have no recollection of the event.

by Anonymousreply 31November 23, 2019 5:10 AM

Most of DL was probably in college.

by Anonymousreply 32November 23, 2019 5:16 AM

I was on the grassy knoll. Why?

by Anonymousreply 33November 23, 2019 5:17 AM

[quote]I sometimes wonder, if that day can be compared to September 11?

R20, they were comparable in terms of being very traumatic national events – the sort of thing where you always remember where and how you heard about them. On the other hand, 9/11 was different because there was, or was perceived to be, a national threat and because thousands of people died, not just one very important person. The JFK assassination was an awful tragedy, but no one was frightened that their town would be next, and only one family experienced personal loss. There was also no aftermath that directly affected ordinary Americans, whereas we all know what happened after 9/11.

In 2001, the usual comparison to 9/11 was Pearl Harbor; that’s probably closer but still not the same.

Then again, I was a little kid when JFK was shot, a middle-aged man on 9/11/2001, and not even in a gleam in my parents' eyes in 1941. No doubt the experience of each event was influenced by one's stage in life at the time.

by Anonymousreply 34November 23, 2019 5:33 AM

I was born three years later in an Irish Catholic Boston neighborhood so no recollection of the actual event but I would grow up to think JFK was literally part of the holy trinity or something. In every single home I was ever in as a kid, there was a miniature bust of Kennedy on a mantle or bookshelf along with a framed headshot of JFK next to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every single home. (Along with those weird religious statues that they change the vestments based on liturgical season or something. My Catholic schooling failed me).

R17 Years later I would find out vast segments of the South cheered his death and it was like hearing applause at the death of god. Boston was a hotbed of racism but I never once heard "N-Lover" from a northerner to describe JFK.

Side note: I'm still in Boston and I live in Rose Fitzgerald Square where Rose grew up with a Honey Fitz.

by Anonymousreply 35November 23, 2019 6:20 AM

^^^ sorry for the unintended "a"

Honey Fitz was Rose's father, Massachusetts Congressman and two-term mayor John Fitzgerald, of course.

by Anonymousreply 36November 23, 2019 6:32 AM

I didn't see any of this crying everyone talks about.

by Anonymousreply 37November 23, 2019 1:41 PM

r35, where is Rose Fitzgerald Square? I lived in Boston for 8 years in the 80s and don't remember it. When I googled all I found was Rose Fitzgerald Greenway.

by Anonymousreply 38November 23, 2019 1:55 PM

"The JFK assassination was an awful tragedy, but no one was frightened that their town would be next, and only one family experienced personal loss"

On the contrary, R34, to many informed adults, the assassination meant we were closer to nuclear war. If the Soviets were behind it, this was an attack on the United States, not an attack on "one family." The government (and later Warren Commission) quickly defined the assassination as bringing down one man instead of an attack on our country. Even if they didn't know what really happened at the time, they were quick to frame it for the public to prevent them from fearing what "would come next."

by Anonymousreply 39November 23, 2019 1:56 PM

I was murdered three weeks earlier.

by Anonymousreply 40November 23, 2019 1:59 PM

I was that little girl boarding the bus.

by Anonymousreply 41November 23, 2019 2:01 PM

I was negotiating my recording contract with Columbia Records all by myself! I was 21 years old.

by Anonymousreply 42November 23, 2019 2:03 PM

I was in elementary school and I remember my mother crying when she picked me up at the end of the school day. I have a vivid memory of her scrubbing the kitchen floor later on that day, and sobbing while doing so.

November 24th was my 8th birthday. I remember sitting on the couch watching television that day, watching as Lee Harvey Oswald was shot. There was no birthday party as the adults were all grieving.

by Anonymousreply 43November 23, 2019 2:06 PM

wasn't born yet, but i find it so so jarring that you could see him and jackie at the dallas airport smiling and greeting a throng, then riding into downtown dallas and them BAM! he's dead!

hard to wrap one's head around....

by Anonymousreply 44November 23, 2019 2:10 PM

In Utero.

by Anonymousreply 45November 23, 2019 2:11 PM

I was in grade school and I knew my parents had voted for him. It was quiet, no discussion that I remember. I didn't believe that things like that happened in America.

by Anonymousreply 46November 23, 2019 2:20 PM

What was with Kennedy and that that whole generation got so upset and cried and carried in when he got offed? I was 9. I understood that this was a momentous and historical event, but why all the crying over someone who was not a close friend or family? I didn’t understand it then, I don’t understand it now. Kennedy was a shmuck from a family of shmucks, but maybe he resonated in some way with the depression era generation, that is most rightly called, “the greatest generation,” I don’t know. I do know there were no cartoon shows on television for a week, and that was cartoon watching time I never got back. That’s what really mattered.

by Anonymousreply 47November 23, 2019 2:27 PM

I was a junior in High School sitting in my Business Math class when it was announced.

by Anonymousreply 48November 23, 2019 2:30 PM

Important to note that the Zapruder film of the assassination wasn't shown until twelve years later, in 1975. Life magazine published frames from it in '63, R44. They were not the frames of his head exploding, just falling to his left onto Jackie.

by Anonymousreply 49November 23, 2019 2:33 PM

I wasnt born yet. Actually my mother would have been 8 months old at the time. It most have been so shocking to see that live. I was shocked when I first learned about it.

by Anonymousreply 50November 23, 2019 2:37 PM

It wasn’t about Kennedy the man for everyone R47. There was concern when it happened as it was during the Cold War period, that is was part of a larger attack against the US.

by Anonymousreply 51November 23, 2019 2:42 PM

R50, the Kennedy assassination was not shown live on TV, only the people there saw it "live."

by Anonymousreply 52November 23, 2019 2:43 PM

The Zapruder Film, stablized. Naturally, a warning for the graphic content.

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by Anonymousreply 53November 23, 2019 2:45 PM

I was 7 years old, in second grade at Catholic school. The Mother Superior made an announcement over the rarely-used intercom, although the only part I remember was her saying the buses would be coming to take us home early. The actual news of JFK's death made no impression on me I guess. Then I remember the TV was on all weekend, but not really knowing what was going on while I played with my toys on the floor, and then my mother saying "He shot him!" when Ruby shot Oswald. That’s it.

by Anonymousreply 54November 23, 2019 2:48 PM

The assassination was not live on tv, but millions watched this live.

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by Anonymousreply 55November 23, 2019 2:49 PM

I know I’m opening up a can of worms on this thread, but I just do not understand the physics that would explain how JFK was thrown backwards by the last shot, if it came from above and behind.

by Anonymousreply 56November 23, 2019 2:53 PM

Jackie clocked him as she was scrambling to get out of the car R56.

by Anonymousreply 57November 23, 2019 2:54 PM

r56, note how the upper right part of JFK's face blows OUT -- that's the result of a bullet coming through his head from the back.

by Anonymousreply 58November 23, 2019 2:59 PM

Sixth grade, northern California public school. It happened in the morning for us (Pacific time zone.) Everyone was out on the playground and there were lots of rumors going around about what had happened. I do remember the four days of national mourning, when EVERYTHING was shut down.

It really was a pivotal event in American history. In my opinion, it's when a lot of attitudes started to change, and we became more cynical and pessimistic. Remember that it was followed by other assassinations (MLK and RFK), as well as the Vietnam debacle, and then Watergate. People really started to mistrust the government in a much more profound way.

The generation before mine (my parents') had Pearl Harbor. The next generation down had 9/11. For Americans, anyway, those are events you'll always remember -- and remember where you were when they happened.

by Anonymousreply 59November 23, 2019 3:19 PM

I was in class getting ready to go to lunch. The principal came to the door and called the teacher outside into the hall. She didn't close the door so we could see them talking. The teacher started crying and a couple of other teachers walked her away. The principal came in and told us to get our things ready to go home. One of the kids asked what had happened and we were just told that something had happened with the President, but not that he was dead. I was picked up and driven home and my mother and sister were watching the TV. My sister was crying hysterically (as usual). My mother told me what had happened, but it didn't really register with me until a coupe days later when I saw what it had done to the whole country. All entertainment programming was cancelled on TV and for 4 days it was nothing but news about the assassination. The whole family was watching the day they were transferring Lee Harvey Oswald from the jail and Jack Ruby walked up and shot him. That was the first time I had ever seen someone murdered, but because it was live TV the networks couldn't do a thing to protect the kids from seeing such things.

by Anonymousreply 60November 23, 2019 3:30 PM

R52 I meant live in Texas and reacting to the news right after it happened rather than when I learned about it years later in school which was still a surprise.

by Anonymousreply 61November 23, 2019 3:31 PM

R56, do you know that when you're hit from behind in a car you're thrown BACKWARDS?

by Anonymousreply 62November 23, 2019 3:40 PM

I was molested.

by Anonymousreply 63November 23, 2019 3:52 PM

IMO I don't either R56. I believe he was either hit from the side or the front. If you look at the Zapruder film, that first shot, to the throat, his head went back as he put his hand to his throat. I'm still trying to recall the number of bullets. Were there two or three? One bullet hit both the PResident and Connolly. Did the one bullet hit Kennedy only, and wasn't a third bullet found on the Gurney in the ER?

As I watched the Cronkite video I realized they had to know he was dead even long before Dan Rather broke the news from Dallas. Because the preliminary reports said Kennedy was in the ER, he had been shot in the head, and Connolly was in surgery. Now. If the POTUS was hit and he was not in surgery, and it was a head shot, and priests were called, that adds up to a kill shot. I understand why they needed to wait to confirm it, but the facts added up to Kennedy being dead moments after they heard the first report. It was interesting to me how they claimed that he was taken by bus to the hospital, or that there was a fusillade of gun fire and a police officer was dead. So much confusion.

by Anonymousreply 64November 23, 2019 3:53 PM

One theory about the shooting was the "triangulation" tactic. I still believe that Oswald was a patsy. For no other reason than because of the weapon they claimed he used. It was a bolt action rifle ...with a faulty scope. Even the most effective sharpshooter would have had difficulty getting off three shots within the time frame those shots were fired, and with that degree of accuracy. So, no. Oswald said he was a patsy, and I believe him. If he were a rigid ideological extremist he would have been stoic and remained proudly defiant and silent, or he would have simply admitted it. Look at the behavior subsequent snipers and mass shooters. None of them proclaimed innocence.

by Anonymousreply 65November 23, 2019 3:58 PM

The rumors of course are that JFK was killed by someone else. The mob is often mentioned as a possibility, or that someone within our own government did it.

Sounds like a conspiracy theory of course, but anything is possible.

by Anonymousreply 66November 23, 2019 4:00 PM

[quote]I was 10 years old in Grade 6.

Where?

Because an American would say sixth grade.

by Anonymousreply 67November 23, 2019 4:01 PM

Even if Oswald was the lone shooter, it doesn't eliminate the possibility of the assassination being a conspiracy.

by Anonymousreply 68November 23, 2019 4:01 PM

The election of Trump and the utter failure by the CIA, the FBI and the Dems in Congress to get rid of him has destroyed any belief I might've ever had in a conspiracy against JFK.

by Anonymousreply 69November 23, 2019 4:58 PM

[quote]As I watched the Cronkite video I realized they had to know he was dead even long before Dan Rather broke the news from Dallas. Because the preliminary reports said Kennedy was in the ER, he had been shot in the head, and Connolly was in surgery. Now. If the POTUS was hit and he was not in surgery, and it was a head shot, and priests were called, that adds up to a kill shot.

Yes. Especially the fact that priests had been called.

But Cronkite does get choked up when he finally announces the official word. So maybe he and others in the newsroom where still holding out hope?

by Anonymousreply 70November 23, 2019 5:23 PM

We need to send Trump out in a convertable

by Anonymousreply 71November 23, 2019 5:38 PM

I was born twenty two years after JFK was assassinated. My mother was 13 at the time and attended a Catholic school. She said one of the school nuns went around to each classroom saying that Kennedy had been shot and for the classes to pray for him. Then later it was announced he was dead over the PA system. The Catholic church in the neighborhood held a special Mass that night and my mom and her family attended. Two days later, when they were driving home from Sunday Mass, they heard on the radio about Oswald being shot.

by Anonymousreply 72November 23, 2019 5:58 PM

I was born twenty two years after JFK was assassinated. My mother was 13 at the time and attended a Catholic school. She said one of the school nuns went around to each classroom saying that Kennedy had been shot and for the classes to pray for him. Then later it was announced he was dead over the PA system. The Catholic church in the neighborhood held a special Mass that night and my mom and her family attended. Two days later, when they were driving home from Sunday Mass, they heard on the radio about Oswald being shot.

by Anonymousreply 73November 23, 2019 5:58 PM

DIFFERENT TIME, DIFFERENT WORLD.. THE END OF AMERICA'S "INNOCENCE"..

FLASH FORWARD TO my high school and announced over the intercom, that president reagan had been shot and people in my class laughed...

by Anonymousreply 74November 23, 2019 6:05 PM

First announcement cut-in on early-afternoon TV in Dallas

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by Anonymousreply 75November 23, 2019 6:06 PM

[quote]So maybe he and others in the newsroom where still holding out hope?

R70: Or he knew, but saying it out loud and knowing he was reporting something awful to millions of people momentarily overcame his journalistic impassivity.

by Anonymousreply 76November 24, 2019 6:58 AM

Shocking acts of public violence were less common in 1963 than than would become in later years. As I recall, the coverage of Columbine was filled with shock and near disbelief, too. Horribly enough, we're used to this kind of thing now (not that it isn't awful when it happens). In the early '60s, not so much.

Also, in fairness to the 21st century, there was no 24-hour news cycle in 1963. Even when terrible things happened, their impact was slightly muted by the fact that they were rarely reported as they were happening. Most people read about them in the newspapers, hours or days after the event. The JFK assassination was doubly shocking because of its immediacy.

by Anonymousreply 77November 24, 2019 7:03 AM

If Trump were assassinated today, there would be parties in the streets across the country.

by Anonymousreply 78November 24, 2019 11:57 AM

Mind blowing when you think about it. x

by Anonymousreply 79November 24, 2019 12:04 PM

The Zapruder film was confiscated by the Feds and edited to depict the car still traveling at speed when the kill shot came in. What actually happened was that the limo driver, Will Greer, slowed the car to almost a stop for the kill shot to be made. It was the last resort shot from several gunmen along that way. The kill shot came from the storm drain at the curb to JFK's right and some distance ahead.

by Anonymousreply 80November 24, 2019 12:17 PM

R78, There were stories of Dallas schoolchildren cheering when it was announced that JFK had died.

by Anonymousreply 81November 24, 2019 12:19 PM

I was only a couple of years old, and we had just moved into our house (where I still live). I remember my Mom crying, and wondered what I had done to make her cry.

by Anonymousreply 82November 24, 2019 12:37 PM

I've done a lot of reading about this event and as I understand it, the limo only slowed to make a turn . The Zapruder film was altered when finally show on TV because the networks felt the footage of the PResident's brains being blown out were too graphic. Today, they'd probably do a slow motion close-up. I never heard the "storm drain theory" . But a lot of people felt like the shots were coming from an area around the "grassy knoll." Texas was a very volatile state, in terms of extremists on the Right.

by Anonymousreply 83November 24, 2019 12:43 PM

This may seem like a stupid question, but as I recall, years ago, the movie, JFK with Kevin Costner, directed by Oliver Stone, used some pretty graphic photos of the PResident dead on either a hospital gurney or autopsy photos. I was shocked at the time because the pictures looked so realistic. I wonder now if they were fakes or real photos that were in the pubic domain. Also read recently that Jackie's pink suit, covered in blood, is in a sealed temperature-controlled container and will not be opened for many years. And then, only if the family decides to open it.

by Anonymousreply 84November 24, 2019 12:47 PM

Where is Lee Harvey Oswald now that we need him?

by Anonymousreply 85November 24, 2019 1:05 PM

I was in the third grade at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School. We were all excited that Friday we only had 3 days of school the next week because of Thanksgiving and we were having a Thanksgiving Pageant the next Monday. Sister Columba our principal came over the intercom and said for all of us to kneel by our desks and she started the Rosary. No mention of what happened to JFK though the teachers started going room to room whispering the truth. Then our teachers told us after the full Rosary and that the buses were to take us home. We asked what happened and she told us the President 'died' - didn't find out until we got on the bus he was shot in Dallas. We were sheltered for no good reason. Of course they canceled our pageant for Monday because we were off school. I never got to wear my page boy Pilgrim wig made from one of my Mom's mops that she died yellow.

by Anonymousreply 86November 24, 2019 1:36 PM

JFK assassination announced by Boston Symphony Orchestra Conductor during a live performance - begins at 01:30

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by Anonymousreply 87November 24, 2019 1:51 PM

R77 nailed it.

by Anonymousreply 88November 24, 2019 2:06 PM

"The Zapruder film was altered when finally show on TV because the networks felt the footage of the PResident's brains being blown out were too graphic"

Total bullshit. R83, the Zapruder film was NOT shown on TV at all until 1975 - the entire film - on Geraldo Rivera's late night ABC show. I saw it.

R84, In 1989 many JFK autopsy photos were released, I have no idea why. I bought a book called High Treason which included the photos. That's where Oliver Stone got the images for the scenes in his movie.

Although everyone went ballistic over the cockamamie JFK conspiracy theories in "JFK," the fact is Stone simply used most every theory already out there up until that point, all listed and described in the book Crossfire. He didn't make them up.

by Anonymousreply 89November 24, 2019 2:33 PM

I was 14. I spent lot of time with my friends watching tv for the next few days. We were almost as horrified when Oswald was shot but even at 14 I knew it wasn't just one man. He had terminal cancer and people felt he had been hired to do a hit job.

Feeling about these incidents. People were terribly sad because this was a time where there was still respect for the office. People were not in the streets protesting about anything and we never witnessed anything like it. Then Bobby was killed. I always thought how odd that both of those Kennedy brothers who worked together had been killed but none of the rest of the family. Then MLK was killed and this was how we started out our lives.

9/11 was a mix of shock and horror and people were terrified until they gathered their wits about them.

by Anonymousreply 90November 24, 2019 3:05 PM

[quote]Where were you?

In my daddy's balls.

by Anonymousreply 91November 24, 2019 3:16 PM

[quote]Then Bobby was killed. I always thought how odd that both of those Kennedy brothers who worked together had been killed but none of the rest of the family. Then MLK was killed and this was how we started out our lives.

MLK was killed BEFORE RFK.

by Anonymousreply 92November 24, 2019 3:34 PM

R87 That really gave me chills. Thanks for posting.

by Anonymousreply 93November 24, 2019 3:38 PM

I had just turned 5. I was in my aunt's car and we were picking up my cousin from school. I asked why she was crying and my aunt told me that someone killed our president. I had a horrible nightmare about it that night. Two days later we watched Oswald get killed. I recall that my Mom dropped the phone. I now teach at the school where we were when I found out. I have a photo of him framed in my office of him giving a speech at my school in 1960. His death had a significant impact 9n my life.

by Anonymousreply 94November 24, 2019 4:11 PM

Happy 64th birthday, R43!

by Anonymousreply 95November 24, 2019 11:20 PM

R90, by any chance are you within the employ of Trump and/or the RNC? Jack Ruby's cancer diagnosis would not come for more than three years after he killed Oswald. But keep peddling your false conspiracy theories.

by Anonymousreply 96November 24, 2019 11:34 PM

I was in junior high and it was the last period on a Friday. They suddenly dismissed us with no reason given and when I got on the bus my best friend told me he was dead. I lived in the Boston area and people were freaking out.

by Anonymousreply 97November 24, 2019 11:46 PM

R87. I'm from Boston. I was eight years old when JFK was killed, and I never knew his death was announced from Symphony Hall just before a performance. Fascinating. Thanks for posting.

Listen at 2:00 when the conductor makes the announcement . And then the Symphony went onto play Funeral March from Beethoven's Third Symphony instead of the planned repertoire of Rimsky-Korsakov. Amazing. I wonder how many people left the Hall and didn't stay to listen to Beethoven.

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by Anonymousreply 98November 24, 2019 11:53 PM

R81, I’m sure there were many incidents like that. Human nature doesn’t change. What has changed is access to public attention. In 1963, a small number of people decided what was reported, publicized or otherwise presented to the public and what was left in the dark. They also decided how each news item would be presented. There were fringe sources of news, but their methods of distribution were limited, and management of public opinion was so thorough that their radical ideas – be they of the right or left – made them beyond the pale among ordinary Americans of both parties.

People cheering the assassination of the President probably wouldn’t be reported widely at all. If it was, it would be presented as the grossest, most tasteless and despicable news of the day. (This would be true in Republican mainstream media as well.)

We all see every day how different things are now.

I know this is an “OK boomer” thing to say, but we were better off when the masses couldn’t blurt out their off-the-cuff feelings to the entire world and gin up a “movement” based on their often-ignorant and ill-informed emotions. The US was far from perfect in 1963, but one thing is for sure: No early-‘60s equivalent of Donald Trump could have been nominated, let alone elected, in the more controlled postwar era.

by Anonymousreply 99November 24, 2019 11:57 PM

Not really true R99. Think of Lester Maddux. Think of Ben Tillman. Think of George Wallace. Think of Tom Watson. Think of Theodore Bilbo. Warren Harding was elected.

by Anonymousreply 100November 25, 2019 12:07 AM

R100, with the exception of Harding, who, for all his faults, was not in Trump's category, all of those you named were regional figures who were never elected president. To our time's great shame, a black mark in history, indeed, we elected this monstrous clown, our child king, our president.

by Anonymousreply 101November 25, 2019 1:13 AM

I was 4 1/2 and I lived for Saturday morning cartoons. I remember getting up at about 6:30 to start my usual marathon, and all that was on was a picture of the casket sitting in the East Room of the White House.. I started flipping back and forth from channel to channel and it was on all three channels. I couldn't believe it. I sat. there flipping back and forth until 7 when I thought sure they would start cartoons, at least on one channel. Then 7:30, then 8:00 then 8:30--I don't think I gave up until about 10.

by Anonymousreply 102November 25, 2019 1:46 AM

[quote]First announcement cut-in on early-afternoon TV in Dallas

It’s amazing watching videos of the news coverage, how primitive technology was then. The local news reporter with a telephone receiver in each ear, waiting for updates. And they all chain smoked on air, stubbing one cigarette out in an ashtray and immediately lighting another one, taking big drags and blowing the smoke out through their nose. R75

by Anonymousreply 103November 25, 2019 4:11 AM

In the color footage, at least, JFK never looks like a dated, historical figure.

by Anonymousreply 104November 25, 2019 9:39 AM

Not many people have the power and influence to have people know where they were when someone dies. President Kennedy and Princess Diana were two of those people. To a lesser degree and as ironic as it is, JFK, Jr. and Robert Kennedy as well.

by Anonymousreply 105November 25, 2019 11:09 AM

R101, exactly! a trump in 1963 would have the public (except for the racists) aghast in shock to have even CONTEMPLATE running for office! morality and ethically beyond unfit, he would be seen! imagine him acting the way he does and saying the things he says at rallies INCLUDING PROFANITY in 1963!!!... the 99% of the public would be shocked he would have ANY job even as a businessman, much less want to be president! and of course without a shred of governing political experience as well!..

by Anonymousreply 106November 25, 2019 12:58 PM

R104, JFK IS a dated, historical figure.

by Anonymousreply 107November 25, 2019 1:24 PM

Yes, R107, but I was commenting on his timeless appearance.

by Anonymousreply 108November 25, 2019 1:41 PM

I was watching my mother iron. Her tears were falling and causing steam to rise, I thought my dad had been killed.

by Anonymousreply 109November 25, 2019 1:52 PM

JFK looks very good today, R108. But in 1975-1999, he was hopelessly dated and silly with the early sixties look. It's relative, in ten years he'll be dated again.

by Anonymousreply 110November 25, 2019 3:26 PM

[quote]And they all chain smoked on air, stubbing one cigarette out in an ashtray and immediately lighting another one, taking big drags and blowing the smoke out through their nose.

Well, we had to support our sponsors.

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by Anonymousreply 111November 25, 2019 3:48 PM

Thank you R95

by Anonymousreply 112November 25, 2019 5:58 PM

I assume that R107 has gone into mourning over the death of Goo Hara, or is that so yesterday?

by Anonymousreply 113November 25, 2019 6:01 PM

LBJ's Thanksgiving Day message, November 28,1963.

The contrast with today is heartbreaking, but much of the message is more relevant than ever.

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by Anonymousreply 114November 29, 2019 7:12 AM

The more things change R114

by Anonymousreply 115November 29, 2019 1:18 PM

Where was I? I was 14 months from being born.

by Anonymousreply 116November 29, 2019 2:28 PM

I had never seen the video at R114. It's quite sad.

by Anonymousreply 117November 29, 2019 9:35 PM

I'm reading the book, I Hear You Paint Houses, and man, Jimmy Hoffa really hated the Kennedys. This is the book The Irishman is based on. Al Pacino plays Hoffa. I watched the movie on Netflix over Thanksgiving, andI have to say the book gives you a lot more. On the day JFK was killed, Hoffa was on trial, and as he left the courthouse, media asked him for a reaction and all he said was, "Bobby Kennedy is just another lawyer now."

The Mafia felt anger and a sense of betrayal towards on the Kennedys. They helped JFK get elected and he fucked up the Bay of Pigs invasion. The mob was hoping JFK would get rid of Castro so they could get their casinos back. They never counted on the POTUS and the AG crusading against organized crime and their influence in the labor unions.

Carlos Marcello, Sam Giancana, and Tony Provenzano were especially involved in labor racketeering and they also hated Bobby Kennedy. Their creed was that you cut off the head of the dog, not the tail. They thought Bobby would be neutralized once JFK was dead, because they knew LBJ hated Bobby. But LBJ kept Bobby on, and allowed him to continue to go after the mob and Hoffa. The Irishman sort of confirms the mob killed Kennedy.

by Anonymousreply 118December 3, 2019 1:54 AM

According to my Father, I was conceived on this infamous date of JFK’s assassination.

I was born EXACTLY nine months later.

by Anonymousreply 119December 3, 2019 2:33 AM

R118, as a 15-year old Kennedyphile, and one who was particularly attached to RFK, I angrily glared at Jimmy Hoffa in August 1972 at the airport in Detroit as he bid farewell to his wife, who was on the same flight to Miami as my family & me.

by Anonymousreply 120December 3, 2019 3:21 AM

I was 18 months old, so.

CBS' live coverage is archived on YouTube, and it's nuts. There's a reason they drop commercial coverage now when something horrible happens in the news.

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by Anonymousreply 121December 3, 2019 4:03 AM

I’m not an American - why was Walter Cronkite’s emotional face such a big deal?

by Anonymousreply 122December 3, 2019 6:03 AM

When he announced JFK was dead all Uncle Walter did was remove his glasses, clear his throat and put his glasses back on. That is all he had to do to show emotion. Compare this to the histrionics of his successor Dan Rather when JFK Jr died. I was waiting for Dano to rend his garments and throw dirt in his head. When Trump croaks Tucker Carlson will slit his wrists on air.

by Anonymousreply 123December 3, 2019 6:13 AM

[quote] Jackie's pink suit is timeless. Always in style.

Especially with the red splatter pattern providing a forever fashion-forward contrast!

[quote] The '63 Continental was one the simplest cleanest car designs ever.

It's the Death Car with Pizzazz!®

by Anonymousreply 124December 3, 2019 6:20 AM

[quote] According to my Father, I was conceived on this infamous date of JFK’s assassination.

The natural reaction on hearing this news being to fuck your spouse, of course.

by Anonymousreply 125December 3, 2019 6:23 AM

R122 because in those days, most national TV news anchors did not show emotion. They still worked in the newspaper (respectable newspaper, that is) tradition of reporting stories in a serious, unemotional tone. So, when this usually calm, unemotional and serious man appeared to choke up for a very brief moment, it underlined the extreme shock and gravity of the situation.

by Anonymousreply 126December 3, 2019 7:50 AM

Dan Rather wasn't even remotely hysterical.

by Anonymousreply 127December 3, 2019 7:58 AM

R99, Lee Harvey Oswald was the product of one of those "ginned-up movements" that you said didn't exist back then.

All movements spread, more slowly than they do today of course, but they were still dynamic, gathering membership through meetings, pamphlets, local news coverage, and word of mouth. Far right preachers, both real and pretend, had radio shows and traveled the country spreading the same kind of fake news propaganda we have today. Editorials written by literal fascists were printed in the newspaper or in magazines with only a handful of rebuttals printed a month later. The US Nazi movement in the 1930s was quite large before their PR disaster of a meeting in NYC.

Everything today is the same as it ever was. There were no good old days. There have always been Tucker Carlsons and Donald Trumps and Mark Zuckerbergs. The internet is just showing you what people really are; in 1963, you didn't see below the surface of many people, and you didn't get exposed to as many people as you do now. That's the only difference.

by Anonymousreply 128December 3, 2019 8:08 AM

R127 When JFK Jr died Rather went on Letterman and broke down in sobs while reciting the lyric from Camelot. Jeez Louise

by Anonymousreply 129December 3, 2019 5:04 PM

R128 The right wing crazies have all ways been there.The Koch brothers father was a founder of the John Birch Society. They organization that passed out wanted sheets in Dallas. On the morning he was killed JFK was shown them he looked over at Jackie and said" We're in nut country".... and nearly 60 years later we still are.

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by Anonymousreply 130December 3, 2019 5:12 PM

True, R130, but how ironic that it was a self-proclaimed - albeit dimwitted - Marxist who did the deed.

by Anonymousreply 131December 4, 2019 12:47 AM

Ran across a strange factoid. The last film JFK screened in the White House a week before Dallas was JOHNNY COOL About a sociopath mafia assassin. He ordered it because Peter Lawford his brother in law produced the film. It was non stop graphic violence. Pretty gruesome for 1963. JFK liked the movie a lot. He was particularly impressed by a scene in which the assassin targets a man at LAX. He bumps up against him in a crowd and shoots him dead with a revolver hidden in a brief case. In the hotel the morning of Dallas JFK reenacted the entire scene for his aides and Jackie, Saying " "Last night with the dark and the crowds it would be easy to shoot me this way. Drop the case and escape." The scene linked is at 54:03

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by Anonymousreply 132December 4, 2019 1:20 AM

R131 LHO was far from dimwitted.

by Anonymousreply 133December 4, 2019 1:23 AM

R132 Thurston Howell III assassination.

by Anonymousreply 134December 4, 2019 1:25 AM

Jackie members her last night with JFK

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by Anonymousreply 135December 4, 2019 1:31 AM

Link, please, R133.

by Anonymousreply 136December 4, 2019 2:01 AM

R135 Thanks for posting. Besides his smug attitude Jackie had additional reason to dislike Connolly. Post assassination in her unedited testimony to the Warren Comission she said "my husband didn't make a sound (after he was shot) but Governor Connolly screamed like a stuck pig." In the film you see Jackie glances away from stricken JFK to stare at Connolly apparently distracted by him screaming "They're gonna kill us all." By the time Jackie goes back to JFK it's too late to push him down. So yes she was bitter towards Connolly for what she viewed (unfairly) as distracting her from saving her husband in time.

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by Anonymousreply 137December 4, 2019 2:32 AM

I really thought the Zubreter film was shone right away. Whatever, no such thing as a magic bullet.

by Anonymousreply 138December 4, 2019 2:39 AM

R137, to be fair, the nature of JFK’s wounds didn’t really lend itself to him having much of an audible reaction.

Agreed, R138, and it really would’ve been a magic bullet if it completely disappeared (rather than being found on Connally’s stretcher).

by Anonymousreply 139December 4, 2019 2:54 AM

The secret service man in the front of the car testified he heard JFK say "I'm hit". He was the only one who heard this, but he never retracted his testimony.

by Anonymousreply 140December 4, 2019 3:00 AM

R128, I think things spreading more slowly and not being exposed to as many people's deepest and ugliest feelings makes a difference in maintaining a level of public civility of discourse.

by Anonymousreply 141December 4, 2019 7:00 AM

In 1963 only 3 TV networks controlled broadcast news media. The nightly news had just been expanded to 30 minutes. It was a tightly controlled filtered operation. In todays for profit 24/7 news cycle every brain fart is broadcast and profitized. Hence the cesspool of dreck the viewer has to wade though every day.

by Anonymousreply 142December 4, 2019 2:45 PM

It ruined the career of a comedian named Vaughan Meader. A comedy album called The First Family came out & was a huge hit. Meader did a JFK impersonation throughout the album. Boom. Goodbye, career.

I think That Was the Week That Was got cancelled too because no one wanted to be funny about politics for a long while.

by Anonymousreply 143December 4, 2019 3:08 PM
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