I was a sophmore in high school but home sick for the day. I was watching TV when they broke in with the news, first he had been shot, then that he was dead. We were living in Hawaii but we were Irish Catholics from Boston, it was like a family member had died.
I had just gotten discharged from Walter Reed Army Medical Center that morning and was at the airport in Washington DC waiting for my flight to Augusta Georgia, when a young Marine Corporal came up to me and told me about it. On the flight the airplane pilot made an announcement also. It was pretty somber at Fort Gordon for a while. The cold war had us on edge all the time, and now this. There was talk that it might be found that the Soviets were behind it. I remember watching the funeral on TV. Camelot ended that day.
I was sitting in my 9th grade Civics class when the announcement came over the P.A. Our teacher calmly removed his glasses, placed them in his shirt pocket, laid his head in his hands on his desk, and cried like a baby. Very emotional then, and for the next four days.
Was being held and fed by mother, I was just three years old .
Mom told me this story a number of times as she was listening to the radio and feeding me. Dropped the spoon, and almost myself when they interrupted with the report of the shooting.
<< <i>I was in kindergarten at the time. I remember the principal coming in, telling the teachers and they cried. They tried to explain to the kids what happened, but none of us really understood. >>
That's pretty much my story too.
Me at the Springfield coin show: 60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
About 20 miles from the Czechoslovak boarder with the 2d BN of the 11th Armored Cav in Landshut Germany at the Pinder Kaserne. Unit was on a lock down for about 3 or 4 days. No one was allowed in or out of our Kaserne (Barracks). Unit was placed on a high alert in case of an attack by the Eastern Satellites. Oh yes, the good old days.....NOT.
"Bongo drive 1984 Lincoln that looks like old coin dug from ground."
Thank you ALL for the very respectful and moving memories! A few tears along the way......
I was quite young. I remember attending one of the earlier parades he was in and told by my parents that I could not take any of my play Cowboy pistols to the parade.
I thought, "That's ridiculous, I would never take them to the parade as I wouldn't want to scare President Kennedy!"
When I heard of the fateful day, I, my friends, teachers, parents, all of were in tears at the news. I felt such grief and longing for the moment I saw him in the parade to return, over and over.....
I thought it to be surreal that he could be gone. I did not believe he could perish. He seemed so close during the parade and later, so far away......
I still have the Kennedy Halves my mother collected in a small tin; the start of my collection.
I was at home with my mother watching it on TV. I was a couple of months shy of my fourth birthday, and all I wanted was to go to school with my older brother and sisters. I will never understand this love affair over JFK; the man was a miscreant! Had he lived his older brother Joe Jr. would have been the one senior bought the white house for. IMHO, The only decent members of the family were the girls; all four brothers and their father were reprobates.
Playground at school; 3rd grade. The principal drove his VW bug onto the campus, put the top down, and turned up the radio. The entire school (very small enrollment) gathered around to listen to the news reports.
I was at the Stock Exchange in Atlanta, Georgia with my father(I was 15 at the time and laying out of school for the trip) and that will forever be the most explosive event I have ever witnessed. Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
I believe unfortunately that there is a generational gap in feelings about JFK, I sensed that strongly with my mother who was in high school when he was killed. She never cared for any of the negative press he got years later when I was growing up - and all the stories about the mob business, the romps with more women than Clinton accomplished etc came out. I think those of us that were born and grew up well afterwards will have different and not quite as positive thoughts about him. We have heard an awful lot more of the dirt, so much so that he even paled Bill Clinton for escapades.
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
<< <i>I believe unfortunately that there is a generational gap in feelings about JFK, I sensed that strongly with my mother who was in high school when he was killed. She never cared for any of the negative press he got years later when I was growing up - and all the stories about the mob business, the romps with more women than Clinton accomplished etc came out. I think those of us that were born and grew up well afterwards will have different and not quite as positive thoughts about him. We have heard an awful lot more of the dirt, so much so that he even paled Bill Clinton for escapades. >>
So how do you think he hurt his back anyways?
"If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".
I had just turned 11 and was in Mr. Clark's 6th grade class at Harding School in Santa Barbara, CA. I remember someone came in and told us about it. We then turned on the tv in the classroom and watched Walter Cronkite deliver the news that President Kennedy was dead.
I used to be somebody, now I'm just a coin collector. Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
2nd grade, just about ready to go outside for recess. We were sent home about a half hour or so later and was watching it on the B/W tv that my folks had. I did not cry then because I was to young to think about politics and such, it was not until the funeral that I began to understand the overwhelming love and respect that people had for him.
It makes you wonder why we live in such a hate filled environment, maybe someday things will get better.
First grade at Old Mission School in San Juan Capistrano. I remember a couple of tourists walked by the open windows of the class and relayed the news from their transistor radio to our teacher. I forget just HOW many Rosaries we recited. Remembering no cartoons on Saturday due to the funeral procession. That was the biggest bummer at the time, no Johnny Quest!
I remember the shooting being announced by the school and going home early.
I was at home watching the funeral service on TV with my parents. My sister was outside playing, since she did not have any interest in watching.
I also vividly remember other similar events, including the MLK and RFK assasinations of 1968, the 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed three astronauts, the Kent State Massacre, the George Wallace shooting that left him paralyzed, the Squeaky Frome attempted shooting of President Gerald Ford, Nixon's resignation speech, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the US Troops leaving Saigon in 1975, the killing of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone in 1978 in S.F. by Dan White, the Jim Jones mass suicide, the 1979 toppling of the Shah Of Iran by Ayatollah Komenhi and the taking of US Hostages, the unsuccessful helicopter rescue mission attempted by Jimmy Carter to rescue the hostages, the swearing in of Ronald Reagan and the release of the Iranian hostages within hours of Reagan taking the oath of office, the Reagan assasination attempt, the killing of John Lennon, the 1983 bombing of Marines in Beruit, Lebanon, the hijacking of a US aircraft in the middle east and the killing and dumping out of the plane onto the tarmack of a 70+ year old American, the Challenger disaster, the Pan Am 101 bombing over Scotland, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Ilian Gonzales, the USS Cole, 9-11, Blackhawk down in Mogadishu Somalia, the Columbia disaster and on and on and on.
These events and others stand out in my memory and in the memory of others as tragedies in which the worst and best of human beings is on display.
Sitting in Study Hall in High School when the Principle came over the loud speaker and announced that President Kennedy had been shot. By the end of the class periods, we found out that Kennedy had died. It was a weird day to sit there and watch the National News cut into the three TV channels available at the time. I also watched Jack Ruby shoot Oswald live that Sunday morning.
I was 10-months old and I was getting my vaccine shots at the pediatrists' office
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I was 21 years old working at the Bunte Candy Co. in Oklahoma City. I'm not sure now, but I think the owner closed the plant down for the day. The thing that sticks with me the most was how wide spread and how deep the grief was - everyone was crying. I watched Johnson get sworn in with Jackie standing beside him. She still had blood on her clothes and I couldn't help but wonder what was going on in her mind and how she was going to cope. I watched Ruby shoot Oswald on TV. It was a terrible terrible time.
Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
I was in a study hall in 9th grade. It was the first period after lunch, and the school started carrying the broadcast over the PA system. About a half hour later, the word came that JFK was dead. One of the kids in the study hall clapped, and the monitor (one of the football coaches) picked him up and threw him against a wall and hollered "That's the President of the United States!" Most of the kids just sat stunned. Classes continued that day; I had a Civics class, and we discussed the assassination then. When I got home from school, my mom was crying. My grandparents had been at our house that day, and my grandfather, who had had a stroke 2 years earlier, was inconsolable. Just before dinner, the plane carrying JFK's body, Jackie, LBJ, and Lady Bird arrived back in Washington, and we saw Jackie exit the plane in her bloodstained clothes, and listened to LBJ's speech. We were glued to the TV set for the next 3 days. It was clear to anyone alive at the time that we were witnessing a very historic event. The only thing I know of that has come close to having that kind of impact is 9-11.
In Dallas, Tx. during a typcial day in 6th grade. School was let out early and we all cheered. My dad....who never picked me up from school.....was waiting for me in his car. He told me but I didn't believe it.
Back then, we all practiced 'nuclear bomb' drills in class each month. I thought Dallas was going to be bombed since they killed the president there. I was scared. The missle crisis was still in everybody's minds.
Sidebar: My mom worked downtown and was waving at JFK as he went by 5 minutes before hand. My dad, a reporter for the Dallas Morining News got some of his 'on the street news' from his 'friend' Jack Ruby....the owner of the bar right next to the downtown Dallas Police Station, and the guy who shot Oswald....the alledged shooter. (ya right)
For all of JFK's misdeeds etc, one thing cannot be denied - Jackie Kennedy was by far and away the best First Lady the USA ever had, beauty, elegance and most importantly - intelligence. It is so regrettable that she really did not have a happy life. There have been many good First Ladies, but she was a star.
Tir nam beann, nan gleann, s'nan gaisgeach ~ Saorstat Albanaich a nis!
I was in Mr. Merlo's seventh grade math class when the principal came in the room with the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot. It was about 15 - 20 minutes later when he came in with tears in his and said "It's official, He's dead." The clock read 1:21 p.m.---- Yes somethings never leave your memory. I also remember the 1960 world series. The Yankees won the statistics 2-1, but the Pirates won the series on an unforgettable home run by Bill Mazeroski. World series games were played in the daytime back then. I think the time on the scoreboard clock was 3:37 pm. We listened to the games(in school) on a very scratchy and almost inaudible station out of Pittsburgh.
I was 8 years old in the third grade classroom on the second floor of School #9 in Belleville, NJ. Early that afternoon after lunch someone came to our third grade class and handed Mrs. Melchione a note. She next explained what would happen if something ever happened to the President. She told us that the Vice President would then become the President. She mentioned someone named Johnson I had never heard of before.
Before that day I scarcely knew who the President was and what he did. In 1960 my parents told me that "Kennedy was running against Nixon" - I thought it was some sort of foot race.
After school my younger brother and I walked home. Crossing guards guided us at each street intersection. My brother remembers that walk home because the crossing guards were crying.
Television coverage was non stop on on Friday evening through Sunday. The only programming not about the assassination was late Saturday night. It was an old black and white program about the solar system. It was just an unseen narrator taking you on an imaginary trip to the planets.
It is odd what sticks in your mind as a child on a day like November 22, 1963.
I was in Mrs. Kusche's first grade class at San Marino Elementary in Buena Park, CA. We were all sent home. I remember watching the replays on the old Sylvania black and white TV with my mom. I didn't fully understand it, but my mom was crying, and she was (and still is) a diehard Republican.
I was almost 4 and I remember my mother crying hysterically. It was my first memory. My brother was born in May of 1964 and was promptly named John. I'm sure a ton of boys were named John that year. MJ
Walker Proof Digital Album Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
<< <i>I was almost 4 and I remember my mother crying hysterically. It was my first memory. My brother was born in May of 1964 and was promptly named John. I'm sure a ton of boys were named John that year. MJ >>
Comments
On the flight the airplane pilot made an announcement also.
It was pretty somber at Fort Gordon for a while.
The cold war had us on edge all the time, and now this. There was talk that it might be found that the Soviets were behind it.
I remember watching the funeral on TV.
Camelot ended that day.
Ray
My OmniCoin Collection
My BankNoteBank Collection
Tom, formerly in Albuquerque, NM.
my car art & My Ebay stuff
Mom told me this story a number of times as she was listening to the radio and feeding me. Dropped the spoon, and almost myself when they interrupted with the report of the shooting.
Junior Year High School English class.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coin collecting is not a hobby, it's an obsession !
New Barber Purchases
COMPLETE KENNEDY VARIETY SET, CIRCULATION STRIKES AND PROOFS
1964 MINT SET
<< <i>I was in kindergarten at the time. I remember the principal coming in, telling the teachers and they cried. They tried to explain to the kids what happened, but none of us really understood. >>
That's pretty much my story too.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
I was quite young. I remember attending one of the earlier parades he was in and told by my parents that I could not take any of my play Cowboy pistols to the parade.
I thought, "That's ridiculous, I would never take them to the parade as I wouldn't want to scare President Kennedy!"
When I heard of the fateful day, I, my friends, teachers, parents, all of were in tears at the news. I felt such grief and longing for the moment I saw him in the parade to return, over and over.....
I thought it to be surreal that he could be gone. I did not believe he could perish. He seemed so close during the parade and later, so far away......
I still have the Kennedy Halves my mother collected in a small tin; the start of my collection.
Miles
peacockcoins
Why do assasinations happen to those with a "k" sound?
Lincoln
McKinley
Flame suit on!
Jim
When a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest....Abraham Lincoln
Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.....Mark Twain
<< <i>I believe unfortunately that there is a generational gap in feelings about JFK, I sensed that strongly with my mother who was in high school when he was killed. She never cared for any of the negative press he got years later when I was growing up - and all the stories about the mob business, the romps with more women than Clinton accomplished etc came out. I think those of us that were born and grew up well afterwards will have different and not quite as positive thoughts about him. We have heard an awful lot more of the dirt, so much so that he even paled Bill Clinton for escapades. >>
So how do you think he hurt his back anyways?
Recipient of the coveted "You Suck" award, April 2009 for cherrypicking a 1833 CBHD LM-5, and April 2022 for a 1835 LM-12, and again in Aug 2012 for picking off a 1952 FS-902.
It makes you wonder why we live in such a hate filled environment, maybe someday things will get better.
I remember the shooting being announced by the school and going home early.
I was at home watching the funeral service on TV with my parents. My sister was outside playing, since she did not have any interest in watching.
I also vividly remember other similar events, including the MLK and RFK assasinations of 1968, the 1967 Apollo 1 launch pad fire that killed three astronauts, the Kent State Massacre, the George Wallace shooting that left him paralyzed, the Squeaky Frome attempted shooting of President Gerald Ford, Nixon's resignation speech, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the US Troops leaving Saigon in 1975, the killing of Harvey Milk and Mayor Moscone in 1978 in S.F. by Dan White, the Jim Jones mass suicide, the 1979 toppling of the Shah Of Iran by Ayatollah Komenhi and the taking of US Hostages, the unsuccessful helicopter rescue mission attempted by Jimmy Carter to rescue the hostages, the swearing in of Ronald Reagan and the release of the Iranian hostages within hours of Reagan taking the oath of office, the Reagan assasination attempt, the killing of John Lennon, the 1983 bombing of Marines in Beruit, Lebanon, the hijacking of a US aircraft in the middle east and the killing and dumping out of the plane onto the tarmack of a 70+ year old American, the Challenger disaster, the Pan Am 101 bombing over Scotland, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 1993 World Trade Center truck bombing, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Ilian Gonzales, the USS Cole, 9-11, Blackhawk down in Mogadishu Somalia, the Columbia disaster and on and on and on.
These events and others stand out in my memory and in the memory of others as tragedies in which the worst and best of human beings is on display.
No doubt there will always be more such events.
I was in school, just a few days shy of my 13th birthday.
The Principal came on the PA and said something to the
effect that he knew that we had heard the rumor, but
he didn't know if it was true or not.
Thing is, I hadn't heard any rumor, and since he didn't
elaborate, I didn't find out about it until I got home.
~
"America suffers today from too much pluribus and not enough unum.".....Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
about it back then but I don't remember.
It was a grievous time in American history.
"Keep your malarkey filter in good operating order" -Walter Breen
<< <i>So how do you think he hurt his back anyways? >>
Ummm.... ever heard of PT-109?
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BONGO HURTLES ALONG THE RAIN SODDEN HIGHWAY OF LIFE ON UNDERINFLATED BALD RETREAD TIRES
at Fort Hood Texas. We were sitting in the office, when the
LT Col. in charge turned on the intercom and asked us all to
listen to a special news report. When we heard the news we
were shattered and tears started rolling down the cheeks of
civilian and military persons alike. Men and woman, with tears
rolling down our faces. A few days later, the hospital detachment
as well as the two armored divisions, massed by battalions, in formation
along the main street of the Fort. The formal notice of the death of our
Commander in Chief was read out to the tens of thousands of troops standing
at attention. For that one day, every shirker and sad sack, in every unit, looked
and acted as sharp as any commander could hope for. I have lived thru the
death in office of both Franklyn D Roosevelt and now John Kennedy. I pray, that
I will never have to live thru such a tragedy again in my lifetime.
Camelot
rainbowroosie April 1, 2003
Jim
-Paul
I was sleeping at the time as I worked the graveyard shift at a bookbindery.
He told me but I didn't believe it.
Back then, we all practiced 'nuclear bomb' drills in class each month. I thought Dallas was going to be bombed since they killed the president there. I was scared. The missle crisis was still in everybody's minds.
Sidebar: My mom worked downtown and was waving at JFK as he went by 5 minutes before hand. My dad, a reporter for the Dallas Morining News got some of his 'on the street news' from his 'friend' Jack Ruby....the owner of the bar right next to the downtown Dallas Police Station, and the guy who shot Oswald....the alledged shooter. (ya right)
Free Trial
I also remember the 1960 world series. The Yankees won the statistics 2-1, but the Pirates won the series on an unforgettable home run by Bill Mazeroski. World series games were played in the daytime back then. I think the time on the scoreboard clock was 3:37 pm. We listened to the games(in school) on a very scratchy and almost inaudible station out of Pittsburgh.
Before that day I scarcely knew who the President was and what he did. In 1960 my parents told me that "Kennedy was running against Nixon" - I thought it was some sort of foot race.
After school my younger brother and I walked home. Crossing guards guided us at each street intersection. My brother remembers that walk home because the crossing guards were crying.
Television coverage was non stop on on Friday evening through Sunday. The only programming not about the assassination was late Saturday night. It was an old black and white program about the solar system. It was just an unseen narrator taking you on an imaginary trip to the planets.
It is odd what sticks in your mind as a child on a day like November 22, 1963.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163
I was probably at work.
JT
I collect all 20th century series except gold including those series that ended there.
mbogoman
https://pcgs.com/setregistry/collectors-showcase/classic-issues-colonials-through-1964/zambezi-collection-trade-dollars/7345Asesabi Lutho
I didn't come along until 12/28/65, so you might say I was about (-2) years old at the time.
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
<< <i>I was almost 4 and I remember my mother crying hysterically. It was my first memory. My brother was born in May of 1964 and was promptly named John. I'm sure a ton of boys were named John that year. MJ >>
I was already John. It's why I go by Jack now.
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