Where were you when you heard of President Kennedy's assasination?

[lovecraft68]

In my grandmother, probably. My mother wasn't born until 1969.

Oh, ow, I was born in 68...but I don't know your mom, I swear!

 

[SeraphNocturne]

Oh, ow, I was born in 68...but I don't know your mom, I swear!

No, I don't imagine so! She was born on an air force base in the Philippines, wasn't in the states til four or five years after that, and spent most of her life in the south. We didn't live northbound until I was ten or so. She was a saucy lady though, she'd probably have loved you hahahaha!

I don't doubt she'd have loved that I'm an erotica writer, she always wanted to be a writer herself.

 

[lovecraft68]

I wasn't born yet, my mother told me she was in school and they closed it and sent everyone home and when she walked home with my uncle, she said anyone she saw looked like they'd just seen a ghost.

She'd also tell me the story of the time he came to RI and was set to drive down Elmwood ave and the school let all the kids out to stand and wave as he went by. She said every girl that age thought he was so handsome.

I think about now, and if it were Biden, or Trump, or really any major figure, the internet would be full of people cackling and happy someone was killed, and of course immediately blaming the opposite party.

We have devolved to the point I see no hope in this world not just for my grandchildren, but even the later parts of my daughter's lives. Lucky us, living to see this world burn.

 

[lovecraft68]

No, I don't imagine so! She was born on an air force base in the Philippines, wasn't in the states til four or five years after that, and spent most of her life in the south. We didn't live northbound until I was ten or so. She was a saucy lady though, she'd probably have loved you hahahaha!

I don't doubt she'd have loved that I'm an erotica writer, she always wanted to be a writer herself.

My parents are very religious, they are born again, Bible thumping Pentecost. They already have a long list of why I'm going to hell if I don't repent, the erotica would just be another piece of kindling.

 

[SeraphNocturne]

My parents are very religious, they are born again, Bible thumping Pentecost. They already have a long list of why I'm going to hell if I don't repent, the erotica would just be another piece of kindling.

Make room in the Hell-evator for me, we'll head on down together then.

 

[BBlaketbv]

22 nov 1963.
My parents weren't born yet. My father would have been inside my grandmothers womb at that date... kind of a crazy thought
(Btw, I just read Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett, which is set around that time.)

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I think about now, and if it were Biden, or Trump, or really any major figure, the internet would be full of people cackling and happy someone was killed, and of course immediately blaming the opposite party.

We have devolved to the point I see no hope in this world not just for my grandchildren, but even the later parts of my daughter's lives. Lucky us, living to see this world burn.

Really hasn't changed as much as you might think. Democrats initially tried to blame the assassination on a right wing "climate of hate". Of course that all went away when it turned out Oswald was a communist with ties to the Soviets and Cubans.
There just wasn't the internet megaphone we have today, and much of it went down the memory hole.
Had a Prof in college who was a big time Kennedy assassination buff, we spent a bunch of time reading contemporary sources and comparing that to the modern perception.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I was in the third or fourth grade. I was 10, almost 11. We were in the gym where a big group of kids were practicing Christmas carols. Somebody came in and said something to the teacher. We were all sent back to our classrooms and were told what happened. I lived and went to school on an Air Force base so us kids were attuned to tensions of sorts.

 

[Feltfixer]

So, trying to find out who the old fogies are! (raises hand)
When I came home for lunch from second grade.

I was 16 and on the toilet having a crap, at about 7pm (uk). My mum shouted from outside that Kennedy had been shot. I replied “don’t be silly”. I stayed glued to the TV the whole weekend and saw Oswald get shot.

 

[Duleigh]

I was 16 and on the toilet having a crap, at about 7pm (uk). My mum shouted from outside that Kennedy had been shot. I replied “don’t be silly”. I stayed glued to the TV the whole weekend and saw Oswald get shot.

Didn't Dr. Who premier that day?

 

[Dearelliot]

Working in a factory going to electronics school nights. Went into Aircraft nav/com.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Didn't Dr. Who premier that day?

Yes.
My dad (and millions of other Brits) found out because they delayed the first episode of Doctor Who by eight seconds, with the newsflash.

 

[YDB95]

I think about now, and if it were Biden, or Trump, or really any major figure, the internet would be full of people cackling and happy someone was killed, and of course immediately blaming the opposite party.

That did exist at the time; there just wasn't an Internet back then to amplify it. In grad school I had a part time job at my university's rare book library, and we received a bunch of Thornton Wilder's papers and letters that I had to catalog. He was in Arizona on 11/22/63, and in a letter to his sister he reported a lot of the local nutjobs there were happy about what happened.

My parents were seniors in high school, and I wasn't to be born for almost ten years. My grandfather (Dad's father) was the only person I knew who was old enough to remember that day but didn't remember where he was - most likely because he was drunk at the time.

I'm sure I'm not the only one, but I have a Lit story set on that day...and I made a mistake with the timing! Drives me crazy every time I re-read the story. I keep meaning to edit it, but I have a few other stories ahead of it in line with wrong names, etc.

 

[Krigirl1233]

I wasn’t even a gleam in my fathers eyes.

 

[RIPAphrodite]

I don’t think even my grandmother was born

 

[AchtungNight]

In history class. Like most here, probably.

 

[BlueEyes1969]

It was a snow-day, and I was with a few HS friends in our living room watching TV. Still remember the shock, the horror, the tears. I had met him in person in October of 1959 and again in October of 1963. He was SO inspiring!

 

[Britva415]

This was before busing

21st century kid: "What the fuck is busing?"

Me: *only ever heard "busing" used in reference to desegregation. Regular old school bus service to the school in my district was just "the school bus," not "busing."

I feel like I haven't seen a school with its own buses and drivers since I've been a parent. Must have been one of the first things to go when people stopped letting their towns, counties, states and feds give their schools any money.

 

[Bodington]

Yes, I'm old enough to have been alive when the assassination occurred. I was eighteen years old, in my freshman year at college and I was living in the university's dormitory. It so happened that morning an essay for my history class was due at 10:00 AM and no extension was allowed. As I was a procrastinator, I had to spend the previous entire night and early morning awake, desperately completing my essay and just got it submitted in before the deadline. So, I was asleep for the rest of the morning and afternoon of that day. It wasn't until about 05:00 PM when another fellow resident of the dormitory came to wake me up for supper and advised me that President Kennedy had been shot and killed.

My most vivid incidental retained memory of that weekend was the fact that the local radio station, which I regularly listened to, who's programming consisted of strictly rock and roll, and nothing else, switched to playing classical music solidly throughout that weekend. The music selected were all heavy and somber that was appropriate for such a tragic occasion. In particular. I remember that I was impressed by Scriabin's funeral march sonata. However, the one piece of music I didn't hear which I'm pretty sure they didn't play was Richard Wagner's Siegfrid funeral music.

I think there was possibly a false modesty at play for such omission. The music is from Wagner's opera "Götterdämmerung", the final and fourth opera in a series known collectively as "The Ring of the Nibelung". This music in the opera occurs in conjunction with the death of the main character Siegfried. Since Siegfried was depicted in the opera as a truly magnificent heroic character, Wagner composed the music to reflect such reality plus the anguish of death. In my opinion the music is so bombastic and overly majestic that one is reluctant to use such music as a metaphor summing up one's life. However, I say the hell with that passive humbleness. I've instructed my eldest daughter that this music must be played at my funeral. Of course, I won't know if she'll comply, but I hope she will.

 

[StillStunned]

I've instructed my eldest daughter that this music must be played at my funeral. Of course, I won't know if she'll comply, but I hope she will.

Why stop there? Do the whole Ring cycle, and make everyone sit there quietly until it's done.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Yes.
My dad (and millions of other Brits) found out because they delayed the first episode of Doctor Who by eight seconds, with the newsflash.

I thought the first Doctor Who episode was delayed, then broadcast on the day the Kennedy coverage ended - that is, the return to normal broadcasting.

 

[StillStunned]

As for seeing no hope in this world?

WAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA - you have no idea. NO FREAKING IDEA. This world was on the edge of nuclear warfare when Kennedy died, in the US children practiced hiding under their desks, in the USSR children practiced putting on gas masks. Ever see the movie Fail Safe? That was a real fear that could have happened very easily. The USSR had no problem invading anyone they wanted, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Iran, Romania, Bulgaria, Manchuria, Korea. The only thing that kept this secure was strong men standing tall, flying nuclear alert for days at a time. We didn't have the time to weep and gnash our teeth every time the temperature exceeded a computer model. Devolved? I can travel to any part of Europe I want, in 1977 I was not allowed within 50 miles of the East/West German Border. Educate yourself.

Growing up in Western Europe in the 1980s, the idea of WWIII was everywhere, nuclear or otherwise. I'd cycle home from school with jet fighters practising dogfighting at ground level right above my head. Remember the big military exercises of the mid-1980s, when all of NATO sent troops to Germany in a show of force? Almost every year, me and my friends would watch the armies go through our town for days, and then return a week or so later.

Not only that, it was in the music too. Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, Land Of Confusion, Radio Ga-Ga (at least the music video), Vamos A La Playa, 99 Luftballon, Forever Young, Russians. (In fact, a quick search of this page gives nearly 200 songs from the 1980s.)

Europe was divided in two, with one half casting the shadow of a huge storm cloud, at least in the Western perception. It was always there, looming. We didn't know any different: for us, it had always been there and most likely always would. Until the storm broke.

And this is without even considering everything else that was happening. Terrorist attacks by the IRA, RAF, ETA were regular news. The Iran-Iraq war. Russians in Afghanistan. Israel v PLO, the Tripoli and Benghazi bombings. Football hooliganism. The assassination attempts on Ronald Reagan and Pope JP II.

If the 1980s hadn't had the greatest music ever, it would have been a really depressing time.

 

[Bramblethorn]

That did exist at the time; there just wasn't an Internet back then to amplify it. In grad school I had a part time job at my university's rare book library, and we received a bunch of Thornton Wilder's papers and letters that I had to catalog. He was in Arizona on 11/22/63, and in a letter to his sister he reported a lot of the local nutjobs there were happy about what happened.

Wiki has a roundup of similar incidents at the time. It's ugly reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_assassination_of_John_F._Kennedy#Hostile

 

[Dnthmn_19]

I was in class in grade one, the day after. All the other children knew about it and the teacher held a class discussion of it but I guess my parents had tried to shield me from the news.