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Where were you when JFK died?

skald posted on Mar 30, 2007 | views: 996 | Tags: JFK, childhood memories, nostalgia, field hockey, present, family, life, blog
Everyone who is old enough remembers exactly where he or she was when he or she got  the new of Johns Kennedy's death.

I was 17 and I was upstairs in my parents house watching TV. At that time Iceland did not have a TV of it´s own so I was watching AFTS. That is the  US military station in Keflavík .


It was a silly show but nice for teenagers called Doby Gilles. Suddenly the show stopped and some one put a pop record on. Odd that.
Then there was nothing for a while and finally the announcer came and said that Kennedy was dead. I was devastated.

My grandparents lived upstairs. My grandma was ironing and granddad came into the room and got the news. He started to cry.
He said John Kennedy was like a family friend to most people.

So if you are old where were you? Or where were your parents?




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Comments

  • wombat said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was in the third grade.  The teacher was called to the office and came back crying.  They closed the school and we went home.  What I remember is seeing the telecast of little John-John, standing there in that little coat, saluting, during the funeral.  Famous photo now, but I remember seeing it then.
  • skald said on Mar 30, 2007....
    Wombat.  I remember that well too. I remember both of the children. thank you. 
  • silverwhisper said on Mar 30, 2007....
    floating in the infinite ether of potential. :>

    ed
  • skald said on Mar 30, 2007....
    Ed. Well put into words. I get your meaning. 
  • dailyachesandpains said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was not even thought of and neither were my sisters!
     
    OJ verdict, I was working in Downtown Boston and had to hear it because EVERYONE had their radio's on and it sounded like it was on loud speaker!
     
    9/11 I was in my Parent's finished basement watching it live as I was doing some wedding stuff.  My Sister was getting laid off and my other sister was at work on high alert.
     
    Daily
  • penmom said on Mar 30, 2007....

    I was in fourth grade in small town Nebraska. The fifth grade teacher came to the classroom door, whispered something to our teacher, who burst into tears. I don't remember after that what she told us or whether we were sent home.

    Kat

  • MissMimi said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was in the fourth grade (age 9). I remember watching the funeral on the TV, and my mom with tears in her eyes. To this day, seeing footage of the few days of funeral events still affects me.
  • mobil said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was in High School playing field hockey. It was a rough game and we
    were lining up to go back in the school.
     
    Someone yelled from the school down to the athletic fields about what
    happened. It was confused and it was thought that the superintendent of
    the school shot a kid who was always in trouble.
     
    His name was Kennedy. We gossiped about how Kennedy probably had
    it coming, but that it was out of character for our superintendent who's
    name also sounded like Oswald.  Us kids figured this Kennedy kid had
    pushed him too far and we all agreed he had it coming.
     
    Wasn't till we got up into the school that we found out what really happened.
    I got kicked off the school bus going home for laughing. I wasn't laughing
    about the President being shot, just joking around with buddies.
     
    The bus driver had been crying and he figured laughing of any sort to be out
    of line. So I walked home. When I got home I grabbed my 410 shotgun and
    went squirrel hunting. I remember shooting three squirrels before supper
    that nite. I think that was November 23 1963, if not the day, damn close.
  • mom said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was sitting in my 2nd grade classroom, when we heard.
  • sweetsoul said on Mar 30, 2007....
    Sitting at the back of the class in public school when the principal came and told our teacher who told us.
  • RollingC said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was in 7th or 8th grade in class at the time and yes I remember the look in everyone's eyes.  Amazement and sadness.
  • CreativeWoman said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I wasn't born yet.

    CW
  • LadyGamer said on Mar 30, 2007....
    I was with SilverWhisper, reveling in ethereal allness.
  • momsrock said on Mar 31, 2007....

    My mom was 8 and my dad was 14 so I guess I wasn't even thought of yet.... they didn't even know each other yet. :)

    Daily: I remember the OJ white bronco chase...i was on the couch waiting to see a dramatic shootout or something and stayed up so late that I was exhausted for my softball tournament the next day. And I was working on 9/11...it was my boss's birthday... I didn't know anyone involved in it but my Dad has the same name as one of the Americans on the flight that crashed in PA... so during all of the media attention they got for trying to stop the terrorists it was constant phone calls because everyone thought it was my father...same name/same state and my dad travels constantly/works for the government... it was hell.

  • skald said on Mar 31, 2007....
    Daily. Thank you, I remember 9-11 very well. I was coming out of the pool when some woman said  crazy people doing a thing like that. I had no idea what and thought this woman was overreacting. Than I opened the radio in the car and heard all.
    Penmom.Thank you very much. It shows that many people burst into tears that day.
    MissMimi.thank you too. Yes, your mom had also tears in her eyes.
    Mobil. thank you for your story. I can see what was funny and it had nothing to do with JFK.
    Mom. Thank you.
    Sweetsoul.Thank you
    RollinqC Thanks a lot, yes people were sad, all over.
    Creative. Thank you
    LadyGamer.You were in good company. Thanks
    Momstock. Well you are here now and it´s good. Thank you
  • RELICOLONY said on Mar 31, 2007....
    I was doing this then, skald!
  • LadyGamer said on Mar 31, 2007....

    I remember when the Space Shuttle exploded. I was in the cafeteria at school having lunch and thinking how nice it was of the principal to wheel in the only tv in the school for all of us to watch such a cool thing. When everything went wrong, I remember wondering if that was supposed to happen. I didn't connect the people inside of it until the next day.

    The OJ chase, I was in a bar, being stood up for a date. I remember thinking "Why do we care about some has been in a piece of crap?" I did not watch the tv and I did not follow the trial that later ensued.

    On 9/11, I was outside in my garden, hoping to get the tomatoes cleared before it got too hot. My husband called and told me to turn on the tv. I watched with the world, horrified and crying. I remember thinking what a horrific waste of life it was. I remember thinking how blessed I am that my children and I do not live in a society where people are raised that dying with as high a body count as possible is a good thing. I remember wondering how this would change our lives, and feeling it couldn't be good in any way.

     

     

  • dailyachesandpains said on Mar 31, 2007....
    Momsr:  WOW!!!  That's got to be hard answering the phone and someone asking you about your living father thought to have been on the flight!  Imagine what the real victims families had to deal with on top of their horrific loss!
     
    We knew people that were murdered on 9/11.  Everyone around here knew someone, or someone that knew someone.  My wedding followed the memorial mass at the same church as the Captain of flight 11.  We had our wedding pictures taken on his family farm.  It never had been done before.  We asked permission well before that horrific day and they were so happy to allow us to use their farm.  They still wanted us to use their property after.  My wedding day was the best and worst day.  I could tell you all about the people we lost, but it's still so difficult. 
     
    Skald:  I remember calling my Husband at work to tell him and he thought I meant the trade center in Boston.  I was freaking out!  I made him come home from work. 
     
    LG:  Space Shuttle, I was in 6th grade and, of course, we watched it live on TV in the classroom.  The last space shuttle I was cleaning my old apartment and listening to the news on TV that it was "delayed". 
     
    O.J.  I had no choice but to listen to the verdict. 
     
    Daily
  • skald said on Mar 31, 2007....
    Daily.Thanks for sharing this with us. ♥♥♥
  • TinSoldier said on Mar 31, 2007....
    I wasn't born when JFK died. My dad was in the navy at the time and I don't think I ever asked him about it.

    I remember when Reagan was shot. I think I was in fifth grade at the time.

    I remember when Challenger blew up. I remember this more clearly -- I was a sophomore in high school and I was in second period French class. I remember the disbelief of it. Much like the reasons that NASA stopped sending astronauts to the moon, at the time Space Shuttle missions had become practically routine.

    I remember when the Murrah building in Oklahoma City was bombed, and how we all suspected Muslim terrorists at the time. The one image of the firefighter with the little girl still makes me cry to think about it.

    I remember when Columbia fell to earth. It didn't have the same effect as Challenger, but it was still a sad day.

    I remember the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, especially since I found myself as a US Marine in Saudi Arabia just over two weeks after that happened.

    I also remember 9/11 very vividly as I have written elsewhere.

    Oh, and I remember the whole OJ thing and the LA riots. I was stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time (40 miles north of San Diego) and we all wondered whether we would be called up.

    And I also remember Somalia. Not the actions depicted in Black Hawk Down, but the US Marines mission that was before that. For a long time I kept a newspaper clipping of a Marine who had been killed by a sniper in Mogadishu.

    I always find it amazing how much history we live through, not always recognizing it as such at the time.
  • skald said on Apr 01, 2007....
    That is an interesting point of view Tin. How much history we live through l have also lived though history that concerns my own nation and can not be explained  here . Thank you for pointing this out to me. 
  • lioneljay said on Apr 04, 2007....
    Just saw this today. So...

    I was in the eighth grade and the announcement came near the end of the final class for the day. My reading teacher called us to silence as the principal made the announcement over the public address system. We all walked home from school in silence and I stayed in front of the television set for the entire weekend.

    On a side note: one of the creepiest places I've ever visited is the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. There you can stand one window away from the one where Oswald thrust his rifle's barrel into history. Next to you, behind a plexiglass wall, is a re-creation of the stacks of boxes that he used as cover.
  • LadyGamer said on Apr 04, 2007....

    Really?

    You know...some things really shouldn't be glorified like that. Ew.

  • lioneljay said on Apr 04, 2007....
    LG, on one hand I agree but on the other it's an important part of history. I wouldn't say that the museum glorifies the assassination (it even includes copies of newspaper articles that were rabidly anti-Kennedy) at all but rather serves as a very balanced educational resource.

    What was particularly creepy, though, was the guy who had a replica of the limousine that Kennedy rode in that day and would give people rides in it along the route that the Kennedy car followed.

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