Where were you?

Our house had a little nook for the telephone. I remember my mom sitting inside that nook on the phone, crying. I was four years old.
 
As a freshman in high school I was attending a school assembly when Dr Robert Chastney, our principal, stood and made the announcement that the president had been shot and killed in Dallas and school was dismissed for the day. I walked home, entered the house and was asked by my Mom why I was home from school early. I told her what had occurred . That is the only time that I ever saw my mother cry. I remember it like it was yesterday.
 
I’ll have to join Long Rod Silver but that combo wouldn’t arrive for a couple more years. The first real political thing I remember was Nixon as president and the watergate scandal. Didn't understand it but lots of adults mentioning it. Also remember my parents mentioning voting for the lesser of two evils. Never understood exactly what they meant until later in life. There is always lessons to take from your elders on what and what not to do.
 
Sophomore in high school, also in a school assembly.
 
School closed and I walked home to find my mother crying as she was running the vacuum.
The distance I had to walk was further than what the kid walked and got his mom arrested for in Georgia.
 
1st grade or as they say in Canada, grade 1. My teacher could barely speak, she was so upset. She sent us home, where the TV was on, and my mom was watching the news unfold. I knew it was bad, but was not all that up to speed on what it all meant at the time.
 
Dad was stationed in England…Sculthorpe Air Force Base. In was 8yo. Really confusing to be a kid outside the USA and trying to understand what had happened.
The next year we moved to Klamath Falls Oregon….and Churchill died at an old age. Oddly confusing again since he was such a big persona as well.
 
Yes Churchill was. My parents were born in the 20’s. (I was a late accidental addition to the family). Any Hoo. The things they went through as kids and teens was nothing today’s kids could handle. (Well I say that until you have to do it ). I can add many things here but the one thing that era came from was work hard, be fair, and that penny or two can stretch a long long, looonngg ways. Wealth accumulated over nickles and dimes. Oh also eat your raw and steamed vegetables !!! 🤣
 
Third grade. Our class was held in a room rented from a church across the street from the public elementary school to accommodate overflow. As there was no intercom, so we had a phone in the classroom for the teacher to communicate with administration in the main building. Having a phone seemed special back then, and getting a call in the middle of the day was unusual. The teacher got this serious look and announced that the president had been shot and that school was dismissed.
I remember standing waiting for the bus and no one knew if he was alive or not. We were stuck to the TV for the next few days following coverage through the funeral. I somehow missed Oswald’s shooting. It was a big shift.
 
Well, nothing on the local or national news tonight…
we've become prisoners of the moment.

Looking back, the subsequent Warren Commission report conclusion of a single shooter, based on their 'magic bullet' theory, which was in diametric opposition to the FBI's ballistic report which concluded a single bullet could not have both killed Kennedy and wounded Connally, generated a wave of government conspiracy claims that continues unabated to this day.
 
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