General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: John Fitzgerald Kennedy 11-22-1963 Where Were You? [View all]Jarqui
(10,123 posts)I had got caught up in President Kennedy in the years preceding. I'd been reading about heroes but they were all dead. I asked my father about a hero that was still alive and he suggested I learn about JFK (PT 109). I'd got inspired by JFK ("ask not what your country can do for you .." to work on my first political campaign delivering campaign literature door to door.
Our teacher stopped the class when he heard the news of the assignation attempt, got a radio and we listened until they confirmed his death and beyond that. Then he tried to talk to us about it. I was kind of in shock. I felt like I'd lost a good friend or family member. I remember making my way home from school, kind of lost or stunned and being struck by the harsh headline in the local paper "KENNEDY DEAD!" - I wished they'd been more discrete.
It went on for days. Oswald got shot right in front of us on TV. The funeral, etc. Eight days later, my grandmother passed suddenly and unexpectedly. Dark time I'll never forget and a kind of a blur.