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In reply to the discussion: John Fitzgerald Kennedy 11-22-1963 Where Were You? [View all]madamesilverspurs
(15,800 posts)The hallway door burst open and a teacher ran down the aisle to the monitor's desk on the stage, whispered to the teacher monitoring the study hall. After a minute or so, he walked over to a control panel and turned on a microphone, then told us that the president had been shot. We all gasped. Then a girl sitting a few seats away muttered, "It's about time" and the boy sitting in front of her turned around and back-handed her across the face, hard. No one said anything to him about it. We were dismissed to our home rooms, and that's where we got the news that JFK had died. I don't remember anyone who was not crying. Classes were cancelled for the rest of the day.
We didn't say a word as we walked home. I stopped in to the drug store where my mother was a cashier. She was surprised to see me and could tell I was upset, she asked if I was sick. I told her that we'd all been sent home because the president had been killed. They hadn't heard the news before that. Her boss grabbed a radio off the shelf, unpackaged it and plugged it in, and we all stood there listening and crying.
My parents were Republicans, but their shock and sorrow was very real. The day of the funeral my dad put his face in his hands and sobbed like a baby. He stayed on the edge of tears through the holiday season that year, as did we all.