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1963


Subdeacon Joe

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Fifth grade. We were on the playground for recess.  Suddenly, all the teachers began herding us back inside.  It was a pretty day and we’d only been out for a few minutes.

 

One of my schoolmates was loudly complaining and my teacher bounced a small football off his head and shouted that the president had been shot and to shut the hell up!!

 

 The kid never said another word about it and that teacher was never disciplined.

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10th grade, Printing class, announcement came over the loudspeaker and school was cancelled, everyone went home and I was glued to the TV with my Mom.

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Seventh grade, temporarily living in Xenia, Ohio.  Home in bed with the flu.  Ma walked in and gave me the news.  A bad day instantly became much worse.

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I was 8 years old in elementary shool in Fort Worth.  Remember seeing the president had been in Fort Worth the day before.  Watched alot of news on the TV after the annoucement of the President being shot in Dallas including the shooting later of the prisoner while being transferred.

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That day is burned into my memory.  I was 9 and we were off school for a teacher inservice.  My father came home early from work, unexpectedly, about 1:30 p.m. crying and told us to turn on the TV.  I also remember  watching Oswald's shooting on live TV two days later.

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I was at work in the Ottawa City Hall when a retired military man came in and told us. 

I called my Dad at RCAF HQ then the DWO at my reserve unit, just to check our status.

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3rd grade, Minatare, Nebraska on the playground after lunch playing football. Everyone was called back into the cafeteria for the news and then sent home.

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I was working on the Apollo Program at North American Aviation. Just out of college. Public address system made the announcement. Got drafted a few weeks later.

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I had finished my basic training and was waiting to go on the Air Force Police course.  Laying on my bed listening to my roommate's radio when it was announced.

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Sitting at my desk, phone rings, my wife says, "The President has been shot". I announced it to my fellow workers. 

A few moments the Big Boss came around and announced that we were shutting down. 

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That was before my time, but I do remember when Reagan was shot, and later when Challenger blew up. Definitely moments that are seared in your brain forever as soon as you hear the news.

 

For those of you old enough, how do you recall hearing the news about Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King Jr.? Was it just as shocking as JFK's murder, or were you pretty much numb to it by then?

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Freshman year of college, I lived at home and commuted by train to school. That day I had half a day of classes, so I took an early train home, that required me to transfer to a bus. Walking from the train station to the bus stop, a woman came out of a bar and ran down the street waving her arms in the air shouting “They shot the President, they shot the President.” I thought she’s drunk. Unfortunately drunk or not, she wasn’t wrong.

 

CJ

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the nuns were crying and had us all praying , i remember the entire week being solemn with the TV on watching the goings on , thanksgiving was not all that thankful that year , even the methodist side of my family were pro kennedy by that point in time , 

was more than the end of Camelot - end of the DFL as we knew it , he was a democrat i could have voted for had i been able to vote in that election , never any since . 

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I'd just walked into Miss Kate Hardin's 2nd-year Latin class.  Classmate shared the news.  I thought he was making a bad political joke.

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In the 6th grade in line at the cafeteria Principal Kraxberger announced the assasination.  I ate my lunch but had no appetite for seconds.  After lunch no one played on the schoolyard.  Everyone stood around stunned.  

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I was a year and 10 months old...

 

Believe it or not I do remember the funeral precession on TV. Why I would remember that I do not know. I remember sitting on my Dad's lap and watching.it.

 

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At college. Was outside of the house I was rooming in, when one of the other guys came down and said, "The President has been shot!"  I replied, "Don't even joke about such things!"  He answered, "No, it's true. Come upstairs to the TV room."  We went and watched coverage. I was scheduled to take our AFROTC cadet smallbore rifle team  to the nearby National Guard armory for a practice session.  I contacted the members and made the decision to carry on with the mission, which I thought the C-in-C would want.  Took a portable radio and heard the announcement that President Kennedy was dead! :(  Won't ever forget it!  End of "Camalot"!  Ah, Johnny, we hardly knew ye! RIP

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I was 5, but remember the news coverage very well.  And, the front headline of the newspaper 2 days later showing Oswald getting shot in the stomach.

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I also remember seeing Oswald getting shot by Jack Ruby. I was watching with my mother and we both couldn’t believe what we just saw!:o

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yup - watched ruby get shots off and all i could think was "how convenient" he will never tell his story , then there was all of the other crap that revolved around this , so much one could never believe but we were told to , my take is we will never know it all , killing a president should not be that easy by everything i know , killing the killer of a president should never be that easy by what i know , but then i dont know about what actually happened and was allowed to happen back then - i just watched it on TV back in the days when we believed in our national media , 

 

that was before they showed their true intent and discredited themselves - we actually believed them and trusted them to actually research and report the truth 

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I forgot about this.......................

 

Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; April 25, 1911 – January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner. He fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, while Oswald was in police custody after being charged with assassination of John F. Kennedy, the incumbent United States President, and for murdering Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit about an hour later. A Dallas jury found him guilty of murdering Oswald, and he was sentenced to death.

Ruby's conviction was later appealed, and he was granted a new trial. However, as the date for his new trial was being set, Ruby became ill in prison and died of a pulmonary embolism from lung cancer on January 3, 1967.

In September 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald. Various groups believed Ruby was involved with major figures in organized crime and that he killed Oswald as part of an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy.

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A co-worker's late husband was a reporter present when Ruby shot Oswald.  When the shot went off, he froze, dropped his mike and didn't move his hands.  Seems like he did exactly the right thing.

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I was in the 3rd grade in Berkeley, CA.  I recall someone came in and made the announcement about the President being shot. 

The school dismissed us to go home, so we all left and I walked home.  My mom was in tears.

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On 11/23/2020 at 11:28 AM, South-Eye Ned said:

2 days later showing Oswald getting shot in the stomach.

This was almost more shocking as I watched it in real time.

And I have to say it:  Mom expressed concern that Kennedy would be re-elected.  Dad responded: you don't have to worry.  If he tries to run again, somebody will shoot him.

I can still hear his voice saying the words.  It haunts me to this day.

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