NFR 1963

[RCF]

I was in Mrs. Laasko's 6th grade class in Huntsville Alabama. One of the office aids came into the room and whispered to Mrs. Laasko of the news. She immediately started crying and told us.

I was a member of the school Flag Patrol. We would raise the flag every morning and lowered/removed it every evening when school was over. Also lowered/removed it at the first rain drop. It was a race to get their first when it rained. Not this day. We walked out and saw our principal and vice principal standing by the pole. We waited until all six members of the Flag Patrol assembled there. Under the guidance of the principal, we lowered to flag to half mast while he said a prayer. At the end of the school day we went out to lower/remove the flag. It was not there. It was the last time that flag ever flew in front of the school. We had a new one after that.

That was my introduction to flags, what half mast was, and how important the flag is and what it represents.

 

[Roper]

I wonder what another four years could have done…

 

[kmudgn]

I was in 8th grade in Mr. Myers History class. The announcement came over the PA about 2pm EST. They called off school for the rest of the day

 

[Ernie]

I was in the 6th grade and when a teacher announced it, the TV was turned on and we watched the news. A few girls cried and I wondered why since they didn’t personally know Kennedy. A few days later, after it all sank in, I felt sad. Watched the news everyday until the burial.

 

[clarkman]

dang! around ten years BCE (Before Clarkman Era). I almost said something along the lines of, "damn, you're a bunch of old fuckers!"

but wait, I'm basically one of those old fuckers....

Having spent many formative years growing up in TX, visiting the site a few times....it was never lost on me. Oh what could have been.

 

[Brian Miller]

I was in the 6th grade and when a teacher announced it, the TV was turned on and we watched the news. A few girls cried and I wondered why since they didn’t personally know Kennedy. A few days later, after it all sank in, I felt sad. Watched the news everyday until the burial.

^^^
5th grade, very similar story. We found out on the way out to morning recess.

 

[Old406Kid]

I'll always remember the day as it was also my Dad's birthday.
I was a freshman in high school at the time.

 

[Richard Olmstead]

I was in seventh grade. During history class our teacher was called out if the room and when he returned he told us what had happened. He said we would all remember where we were when we heard the news. The same day our dog was killed by a car. I admit I didn’t quite know what to make of the assassination of our president, but the death of the dog my family had adopted the year I was born was my first real experience of grief.

 

[Hem]

I was born in April of that year.

 

[VAGABOND]

Freshman in high school. It was announced over the PA system just before end of 6th period by the assistant principle, who attended grade and high school with my mother many miles north of where I grew up. What I remember most was the abject silence before and after his announcement. To this day when a public announcement is made during a period of silence my instincts are hightend. In the spring of 1964 we visited my fathers brother in Alexandria Va and visited Arlington National Cemetery. Members of the Presidents family, we were told were paying their respects at the site, but within view, so rather than wait we came back the next day.
In my mind today it still seems like yesterday. I think the world changed that day… and not for the better.

 

[Buzzy]

I was in ninth grade. I remember the whole tragic event in black and white, which somehow seems appropriate. I think Life magazines reporting of President Kennedy's assissination were the first color images I saw. (I think) Americans as a whole, regardless of party affiliation, were deeply saddened by the murder of JFK.

 

[Greg Armstrong]

I was nine, and I remember my mother’s grief when I walked home from school.

But I remember the funeral procession way more… those black horses and the sound of hooves clomping on bare pavement, the black everything, that somber music, the faces of Jacqueline, Caroline and John John. All of that is etched in my mind. What a sad and lasting memory.

 

[SurfnFish]

freshman in high school, alerted to the JFK killing by the screams and hysteric sobbing of girls in the hall.
Some years earlier, we were drilling duck and cover under our school desks for nuke blasts.
The pure fukkery of man for power and evil is bottomless...

 

[Lue Taylor]

The little fight in Vietnam was getting more news my friends and I was talking about enlisting to beat the draft

 

[Canuck from Kansas]

Grade 1 in Montreal, I actually don't remember what happened in school that day, but I do remember the funeral. Very sad, always makes one wonder what might have been, everything changed in that moment.

 

[FishyJere]

College soph. I heard about it on the way to a chemistry class. And later, I joined the Air Force to beat the draft. There was no lottery at that time.

 

[Wolverine]

Was a college freshman sleeping off my first, and worst, hangover. My roommate woke me up and we went down to the commons and watched the proceedings on a black & white TV with 50 others. Terrible day that I'll always remember.

 

[LakeGuy]

I was twelve years old remember it like it was yesterday.Could not comprehend why,guess I never will.

 

[Ron McNeal]

Bumm'n 'round Europe on a Euro-Rail pass. Really Good Times.........

 

[Dustin Chromers]

Men with big ideas are often the targets of men with small ideas desperately trying to maintain the status quo.

I'd sure like to know the whole story. I think lots of people would.