One of the most Affecting things about This Day beyond the Tragic Horror...

[electric_blue68]

for me - is the age spread of those of us who directly experienced it.

I was 10.
Of course, I knew it was a bad thing to have done. So I was sad-ish. It felt (like most people) Surreal. But as a new tween it was more surreal to see all the adults around in this Incredible Pall.

My 4th grade teacher who I didn't like when she came back into our classroom after the Principal or other top Admin people went from classroom to classroom spreading the breaking news; her face was just drained! I was shocked. Possibly even shocked for her.

I remembered The Cuban Missle Crisis. Still, I didn't watch his address, and actions towards Civil Rights as I really wasn't watching the nightly news yet (though my Parents saw the infamous news film of Bull Connor's vicious attacks against African-Americans then peacefully protesting in that city). I didn't read about his speech at American University, etc.

It was through the years after as I learned more history in school, and reading on my own that I learned what we had lost.

But a fair amount of you here older than me say by 5-10 years or more you knew from the start the loss.

[Walleye]

1. I was 14. I was very aware of the cold war and the threat from Russia. Scary times

I think many of us assumed it was the Russians

[electric_blue68]

6. Makes sense. I didn't go "the who did it?" route until a few years later.

[Dan]

2. I was 10

In Oklahoma, I remember the hate from some of the people in the South.

[electric_blue68]

7. Did they send you home from school? I heard about the hatred from The South vaguely, more clear ...

Last edited Tue Nov 22, 2022, 07:07 PM - Edit history (1)

later.

It'd not like we don't have our raving racists up here in Yankeeland.

[Dan]

10. After a bit, it was about 1:00 PM

As I recall… long time ago…. We ended up having a discussion on the “why” he was killed.

[RobinA]

3. I Was Five

and in first grade. I didn't reeeeeeally understand the loss. It was obviously a big deal, that much I could see. I identified very much with Caroline and John, because Caroline is only two months older than I am. I didn't know that at the time, but obviously the kids were close to mine and my sister's ages, so I looked at it as how I would feel if my Dad was killed at work. I couldn't imagine.

1968, when I was ten, was much scarier to me, as it just seemed like people kept getting shot, there were constant riots, the Presidential election was chaos. But even that. If you were my age, the shit started early. The Cuban missile crisis was my first remembered current event. From then on it was 20 years of crazy, ending with thousands on the roof of the American embassy in Vietnam when I was graduating from high school. To an extent, it was just the way the world was. I understood none of it until decades later when I made it a point to learn about that time in what is now history.

[electric_blue68]

8. Wow, your's is a perspective I hadn't heard before - from a young child's age.

Identifying with Caroline, and John.

You were 4 for CMC, what an early memory to have!😮

10 in '68 wow! More cogent of everything.
I was 15 and my dad had sort of gotten me into politics so I was pretty cogent then. I knew what we'd lost with MLK & -RFK!

I learned more about JFK as the years we on, as well as the others.

[RobinA]

11. Probably The Reason

I remember the missile crisis was that my mother made the comment at dinner, "eat, drink and be merry, tomorrow we're all going to die." I was quite upset by that. She did talk to me after she realized I was having a silent meltdown. I was an anxious kid. I knew something was going on and than she said THAT!

[electric_blue68]

12. Oooh, dear! Glad she realized, and talked to you. I'm sure my parents were...

upset. Both liberal Democrats. They really didn't show too much. Then again my mom was a severe asthmatic so she might have had to quell her emotions. My dad then may have toned down his to be steady for her. We watched the funeral, along with my only sibling, my younger sister.

A year or so later we visited my youngest aunt & uncle (my mom's youngest brother) and my cousins in Virginia quite close to DC. We visited his original grave with the Eternal Flame and the then famous white picket fence. Had a b&w photo for decades. Gone now.

I've visited the later gravesite as well RFK's near by. Poignant, both nicely designed. Extra poignant, beautiful in the Mid-late Spring, and best of Summer.

[cyclonefence]

4. I was 16, and I'd never seen my father cry.

[electric_blue68]

13. That can make an emotional impact. Most likely a good thing he did.

(good scientific reasons for crying)

[catrose]

5. My teacher (whom I didn't like) cried, but didn't tell us.

My friend Kathleen and I speculated as we walked home that maybe her brother, who was ill with cancer, died.

I have a snapshot memory of walking in the door of my house and my mother saying, "The president's dead." Shot? That I can't remember exactly. Whatever it was gut-punched me.

Later in B-school, I read the theory that the defining and shaping moment of a generation is a common experience that occurred around age 10. Say, if you watch your president die on TV, maybe you'll grow up to oppose war and other senseless killing.

What's your generation's defining moment? My millennial child said Columbine/911.

[electric_blue68]

15. Wow, your teacher didn't tell you! And that's Some Mermory...

walking into your house, and your mom telling you just like that.

After the first announcement (he'd been shot) from our teacher...like a half hour or so later our Principal announced JFK's death over our newish Intercom set-up.

As for Generationally for me it's a longer time period. A set of spaced out notes/nodes.

Well The Cuban Missle Crisis (I was 9) and JFK's assassination would be the first node, The Vietnam War second (eventually protesting against it), and 1968 is the third node for me MLK & RFK's assassinations which most seriously carried the serious tones of striving for Civil Rights to me. Nixon winning the Election, ugh.

[Silver Swan]

14. I was seventeen.

I was in study hall when they put the news on the intercom. I misheard the first report, and thought it had happened in a European city. I worried about the international implications.

Everyone was stunned and very quiet for the rest of the afternoon. When I got home, my three year old niece met me at the door. She said, " Poor Mr. Kennedy was killed." I have never asked her if she has any memory of that day.

[electric_blue68]

16. So you were in HS. Oh, your Little Niece at your home's door...telling you...

Sooo Poignant! : (