Where we you 60 years ago today...
Where we you 60 years ago today, November 22, 1963?
I was 16-years old and a Junior in high school. I was in physics class when they announced that President Kennedy had been shot. Keep in mind that we were in Northern Michigan and it was in the middle of deer season, so the first comments that we made between ourselves was that we didn't know Kennedy was a hunter, since for us, the only time we ever heard of someone getting shot was because of a hunting accident (there's no question that we were living sheltered lives). It was maybe 30-minutes later, when I was in study hall, that it was announced that Kennedy was dead and that it had taken place in Dallas.
About 15-minutes after that, they announced that classes had been cancelled and that the buses would soon be taking us home. We were also informed that since it was Friday, and that Thanksgiving was the following Thursday, that school would be closed for the entire week, instead of the just the originally planned two-days, Thursday and Friday.
I was working in a local grocery store/meat market at the time and being in an area where a lot of hunters came for deer season, we were pretty busy, so my boss asked me to come in and work most of the days that I had off (I was already scheduled to work the weekends and after school so in the end, it was only a few extra hours). We had a TV at the store and we watched most of the news programs covering the activities of the week. Of course, everyone who came into the store had to stop, look at what was going on and express their opinions and views, to say nothing about speculating what actually happened and who was ultimately responsible. While the term 'conspiracy theory' was not yet part of our lexicon, you could see how stuff like that got started and what perpetuated it.
Science class in Jr. High.
Someone came in and told our teacher.
He told us.
In the Navy on the USS Boxer.
Sophomore in high school study hall. Monitor brought us to attention, and gave us the news.
Shellback
Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas
Jr High - in class - Sister Peters came into the room and told us - it was quite a shock. He was in our home town on his campaign trail and I saw him but didn’t get close enough to shake hands but my older sister did - she still has good memories of that.
In Oklawaha (sp) Florida living with my grandparents for some reason I was not in school that day.
47greyfox
Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range
Sitting in a math class, as a Junior in HS. We heard the sound of high heals running toward us in the hall outside our classroom. The school secretary, her breathing heavy, poked her head in the door and made the announcement. In the next class, about an hour later, the news of JFK’s death was confirmed.
I was 19 at the time sitting in Spanish Class just after we came back from lunch. An announcement came over the PA that Kennedy had been shot. The teacher freaked out and ran out of the room heading for the office claiming that someone was making a bad joke. She came back with tears in her eyes. Shortly after they announced school was being closed. I drove home to find out that my parents had not heard the news.
I was at work with Moore's Audio Visual. Working in the service department, repairing B&H 16mm projectors, Dukane record film strip projectors, Ampro 16mm projectors, RCA 16mm projectors, Da Lite projection screens, Overhead projectors, Opaque projectors, Film strip projectors, and etc.
I remember Mr. Moore calling all of us up stairs to to hear the live radio report.
Mrs. Markwell's 4th grade class don't recall what we were studying though.
I must have been teaching one of you. I was teaching high school. It seemed to have little impact on the kids. A lot on the teachers.
Burtzy
Loc: Bronx N.Y. & Simi Valley, CA
I was a junior in my 3rd period class in high school. The P.A. came on and the rather dry announcement: "Officially announced President Kennedy has been assassinated." A few minutes later, as we were processing what we had just heard, everyone was dismissed to an assembly where we were told more and urged to share our feelings with each other. My school, Los Angeles High had some 1800 students. A lot of tears were shed that morning.
We were out messing around at the wildlife sanctuary, our 8th grade class was on the morning side of the split day schedule so we didn’t hear about it until we returned home at 4pm.
10th grade algebra class. Student had a tiny radio and told everyone before school announced it.
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