Where Were You When JFK Was Killed?

[gnome]

Maybe the best thing this forum does is discuss history.

We are nearing the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy; where were you, how did hear the news, how did it affect you?

[jiminnm]

I was sitting in English class in a 5th or 6th floor classroom in the old Cass Tech. If I remember correctly, the teacher was Mr. Yunck. Someone from the 'office' came in and announced that the President had been shot and that classes were cancelled for the rest of the day. I think it was about 2 p.m.

Those were the days when no one had any communication devices, even transistor radios were scarce. I didn't find out JFK had died until after the long Gratiot bus ride home.

I had seen JFK up close one time. He came to Detroit to make a speech during the 1960 campaign and flew into City Airport. My parents were rdiving up Gratiot and my mom and I both looked over to the limo next to us and JFK was in the back [[with Walter Reuther, I think). No dark windowed armored SUVs in those days.

[Ed Golick]

http://detroitkidshow.com/jfk.htm

[gazhekwe]

I was in Miss Falls' English class at Soo High when the announcement came over the school PA that the President had been shot. Before the end of class, they announced he had died and dismissed school for the day. It was raining a little bit, and a boat on the St. Mary's River kept blowing its whistle slow and long, like a tolling bell. We didn't have a TV at home and the radio picked up only three stations, two of them Canadian. Getting the news was nothing like it is today.

[Ray1936]

I was scheduled for the afternoon shift in the DPD [[4 pm - Midnight) that day, so I was home watching a re-run of the old Danny Thomas show, when they broke in with the first bulletin. Hated to leave the TV about 3 pm, but off to work I went. At roll call, we were reminded to notify the main DB desk if any actions pertaining to the death were noted. The yearly Goodfellows Game, between the DPS high school champs and the parochial champs was scheduled, and it went off as planned. Lot of folks thought it should have been postponed. Anyway, near as I remember, it was a quiet night in the old second precinct.

[jcole]

I was in my 2nd grade classroom at St Jude with Sr. Angus when an announcement came over the PA that "the President and the Governor of Texas had been shot. Kneel down and pray". I remember thinking that I didn't know there was a President of Texas. It wasn't until I got home and saw the TV that I realized that it was President Kennedy.

[Lily]

I was in Social Studies class at Pierce Jr. High in Redford. It is one of my first real memories of any political current event. Perhaps first thing i really cared about is a better way to say it. I remember being glued to our black and white tv and the shock later of watching Ruby kill Oswald. I remember crying and asking my dad why someone would kill our President, a question he couldn't answer.

It was then that my interest in politics began.

Lily

[douglasm]

10th grade, in the library at Ferndale High School, leaning up against a window. It was just before the class change bell rang when the principal came over the PA with the announcement that Kennedy had been shot. The bell rang and everybody very silently went to their next class, which for me was Spanish. The instructor did not show. We waited. And waited. Finally he came into class, and said that he was watching TV in the teachers lounge and they said the President was dead. I remember a couple of girls crying. I don't know if there ever was an official announcement that school was dismissed, but the instructor said it would probably be a good idea if everybody just went home.

My mother was in Federals. I don't know if you remember the Ferndale store, but it had two sales levels, the main floor and a basement. The radio/TV department was in the basement by the stairs. Mom was shopping on the first floor, and she said in retrospect that you could "see" the news spread up the stairwell and radiate through the store. People quietly made their purchases and left the store. She said the pall over the store was thick and the silence in which people finished their business was eerie.....

[softailrider]

I was in Kindergarten at Vernor School in Detroit standing in a line in a coatroom / hallway. I don't remember much else about that day.

[Packman41]

As with jiminnm [[classmate) I was in my junior year at Cass Tech at and busy at my station in Mrs. Shellington’s chemistry lab.

It was second to the last period of the day and one of my buddies, John B., ran into the lab and said the President was shot. There shouts from the other students, such as “what, are you joking? John blurted out what he had overheard, which was not much. Then, there seemed to be a big commotion in the hall and a lot of noise.

Quickly thereafter the school was shut down and things were quite somber on the way out. The ride home on the Vernor bus was quiet. As this happened on a Friday we had the whole weekend and I seemed glued to the TV to learn what unfolded.

[ptero]

5th grade at Burns Elementary on Detroit's west side. They called everyone into the gym to tell us of the shooting and send us home. The murmuring among kids going up the stairwell leaving the gym was about the president not surviving. Hearing that news in that particular stairwell is burned into my memory - I can still see and feel it. The tight narrow steep stairwell lined with polished brick packed w/kids quietly moving up. Other strong memories are seeing Oswald killed and watching JFK's funeral procession with the unending drumbeat going on.

[401don]

I was only in grade 1 but still vaguely remember it. The principal came over the PA system [[hardly ever hear that term anymore) and announced the president was shot and school was cancelled. Keep in mind this is in Canada. Would that happen today? I don't know.

[Blueidone]

I was in choir practice/music class at Norup Jr. High in Oak Park [[Berkley School System). I remember we only heard part of the initial announcement because we were singing "Maria" from West Side Story. Then we stopped and they repeated the announcement. Several of the girls fainted and fell of the risers. I was in the 9th grade.

[Gannon]

I was busy gestating, and am sure I was disturbed by all the commotion. Popped into the world six days later, early in the morning of the Thanksgiving-that-wasn't. And some folks actually give me a hard time about being a conspiracy trend spotter. I didn't have much choice, haven't willingly believed a word from the government all my life.

[Jimaz]

Fourth grade, late for lunch, descending the stairs alone to the basement cafeteria, one girl was escorting another upstairs. She was crying. I don't remember the moment I learned why she was crying. I only remember her crying.

[ct_alum]

I was in Mrs. Champines' 5th grade class at Ives Elementary in Detroit. She announced that the President had been shot and then she put her head down on her desk and started crying.

[sumas]

I went to Marquette on the east side. I was 9. My most vivid memory was teachers running around screaming and crying. We were sent home. Not a great memory.

[Pam]

I was busy gestating, and am sure I was disturbed by all the commotion. Popped into the world six days later, early in the morning of the Thanksgiving-that-wasn't. And some folks actually give me a hard time about being a conspiracy trend spotter. I didn't have much choice, haven't willingly believed a word from the government all my life.

Happy 50th G.

I was only 1 so I don't remember anything.

[MizMotown]

Just a twinkle in my parent's eye...

[56packman]

I was four years old, at home with my mom and 6 month old baby brother. I remember that the TV was on, I think my Mom was watching "the Secret Storm" and that the show was interrupted. I remember the shock on my mom's face. I watched all of the programming on the day of the funeral. The thing I remember most, being so young is the feeling I picked up from my parents of fear-fear of the unknown. Later, when I was older we talked about that time and my folks related that the other adults they knew at the time were very worried that the assassination was the first volley in some sort of Soviet-led coup or takeover, that was the talk that was going around at the moment.

[jackie5275]

I wasn't born yet, but after reading most of the recollections, a common thing sticks out for me. It seems that just about everyone who was in school remembers school being dismissed early. Why was that done? I remember being in school when Reagan got shot. It was nothing more than a news story, not a reason to shut down the school for the rest of the day.

[rb336]

Munster, Indiana.

[dtowncitylover]

I was also long from being born, but my uncle was a Poli Sci student at Wayne State then and was at the department when the first bulletins came in. He remembers the commotion and the radical profs and students screaming it was a right-wing doing.

[56packman]

jackie5275--Reagan wasn't killed, and the cold war was down to a dull roar by then. The cold war was very real, and very "warm" at the moment.

[p69rrh51]

Being looked after by my grandmother and had a cold. I was almost 2 at the time my mother reminds me every so often since I was way to young to remember.