Where were you when JFK was assassinated?

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Winter

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Apr 12, 2013
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Oh yeah, forgot about Diana. To be fair though the answer to both 9/11 and Diana are the same - at home watching the news, the Diana story broke in the early hours, just before I was going to bed, and 9/11was around 2pm here and I was in a different sleep pattern then, so I was just getting up and turned my tele on. I actually saw people jumping live on the news - I was thinking WTF??

I'm a full blown real Winter baby - December, apparently one of the worst snowfalls in a long time.
Now thats funny, I am a real Winter baby too. Mid June. I also saw the towers at the same kind of time...however was up with 'morning' sickness...by which they mean 'all the time' sickness and also thought "wtf" when I saw it! Who didnt though right?
 

Sunlight Gardener

Well-Known Member
Jul 22, 2013
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To me 9/11 was devastating and shocking - Diana, not so much - I never idolized her like some of my younger female friends did.

I think my dad was not long out of high school when JFK was assassinated. Yeah, being a guy I really didn't get the Princess Di thing in it's full magnitude. I was in high school at the time and I pretty much knew her from seeing her in my grandma's tabloids every week, that's about it. I was trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. Now I get it more, but I can't really say it affected me in any way or left a lasting impression.

9/11 was a whole other thing though. I was doing my counseling internship at that time. I got to the building and everyone was standing around a lady who had a hand held little tv watching the broadcast. I joined them and we all stood around in silence unable to believe our eyes. Never forget that.

Other than that the first memory I have of anything like that is Ronald Reagan being shot. I was probably 6 or 7 and we were at my great Aunt's house watching it on TV. I think that was my first realization that something like that could actually happen.
 
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Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
I think my dad was not long out of high school when JFK was assassinated. Yeah, being a guy I really didn't get the Princess Di thing in it's full magnitude. I was in high school at the time and I pretty much knew her from seeing her in my grandma's tabloids every week, that's about it. I was trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. Now I get it more, but I can't really say it affected me in any way or left a lasting impression.

9/11 was a whole other thing though. I was doing my counseling internship at that time. I got to the building and everyone was standing around a lady who had a hand held little tv watching the broadcast. I joined them and we all stood around in silence unable to believe our eyes. Never forget that.

Other than that the first memory I have of anything like that is Ronald Reagan being shot. I was probably 6 or 7 and we were at my great Aunt's house watching it on TV. I think that was my first realization that something like that could actually happen.

I'm a female not a guy, but I never thought Diana was that wonderful - she had a kind heart, nice personality, was very beautiful etc.

When John Lennon got shot in 1980 I was more shocked by that - but you were probably not born yet?

Each generation has their idols and heroes I guess :dbl: - how did you feel about the death of Michael Jackson - did that shock or disturb you at all?
 

Sunlight Gardener

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Jul 22, 2013
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I'm a female not a guy, but I never thought Diana was that wonderful - she had a kind heart, nice personality, was very beautiful etc.

When John Lennon got shot in 1980 I was more shocked by that - but you were probably not born yet?

Each generation has their idols and heroes I guess :dbl: - how did you feel about the death of Michael Jackson - did that shock or disturb you at all?

Well i knew you were female. ;;D I was just using it as an example because you mentioned that your female friends were all crushed over it. Thinking back the only people I remember making a big deal of it were female. I don't think most guys knew a lick about her lol. I think it's the royalty/princess aspect. Most girls I went to Elementary school as well as my 6 year old daughter all wanted/want to grow up to be Princesses.

I was only 4 when Lennon got shot. But yes, as a huge Beatles fan like I am, I would have been shocked to my core no doubt. It shocks me now to think about what that must have been like.

I really wasn't all that shocked when MJ died only because he seemed like he was on such a huge downward spiral of drugs and weirdness by that time. But yes when I was in Elementary school and Thriller came out and for that next 10 year span, he was on top of the world and I played that record until it practically fell apart. If he would have died then, I would have been crushed. By the time he died I almost saw it coming.
 
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Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
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Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Well i knew that. ;;D I was just using it as an example because you mentioned that your friends were all crushed over it. Thinking back the only people I remember making a big deal of it were women. I don't think most guys knew a lick about her lol. I think it's the royalty/princess aspect. Most girls I went to Elementary school as well as my 6 year old daughter all wanted/want to grow up to be Princesses.

I was only 4 when Lennon got shot. But yes, as a huge Beatles fan like I am, I would have been shocked to my core no doubt. It shocks me now to think about what that must have been like.
It was only one female friend but the world pretty much went into mourning (or so it seemed). My husband was in London at the time of her death and saw all the flowers left outside Buckingham Palace.

My favourite memory of her is when she danced with John Travolta at the White House!



Look how John Travolta looks - so young!

Have you read 11/22/63 by the way? I just loved it and still need to go buy it as my copy was just from the library.
 

Sunlight Gardener

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Jul 22, 2013
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Yes I do own 11/22/63 and have read it once. I remember that I enjoyed it, but for some reason I don't remember a lot of particulars about the story other than the main events for some reason. Probably should give it a 2nd read sometime in the near future. Working on The Stand right now, I think for the 3rd time, but not since at least 10 years ago.
 

EMTP513

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Oct 31, 2012
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I wasn't born but our family friend was, and he said where HE was; he was in Junior High school, 8th grade.
He says that the demise of JFK "very well could have decided my own fate 7 years later when I was picked by Lottery (#12) to go to Vietnam. Lots of people think Kennedy might not have escalated the war. I have no idea which way I think and it's a moot point now anyway. It WAS escalated and I ended up going."
The one thing he fails to understand about Vietnam is "how Sylvester Stallone failed the physical exam to become 1A but I passed with flying colors, so to speak, even though 3 years earlier I'd been in a horrible accident that banned me from certain other activities but not from Vietnam."
 

jchanic

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Jul 11, 2006
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I wasn't born but our family friend was, and he said where HE was; he was in Junior High school, 8th grade.
He says that the demise of JFK "very well could have decided my own fate 7 years later when I was picked by Lottery (#12) to go to Vietnam. Lots of people think Kennedy might not have escalated the war. I have no idea which way I think and it's a moot point now anyway. It WAS escalated and I ended up going."
The one thing he fails to understand about Vietnam is "how Sylvester Stallone failed the physical exam to become 1A but I passed with flying colors, so to speak, even though 3 years earlier I'd been in a horrible accident that banned me from certain other activities but not from Vietnam."

As one Vietnam vet to another, thanks for your service.

John
 

Blake

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Feb 18, 2013
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One and a half years before I was born. But I remember my mother taking me (vaguely) to see LBJ ride through Taylor Square in Darlinghurst in 1967.
 
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booklover72

very strange person
Jan 12, 2014
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It was only one female friend but the world pretty much went into mourning (or so it seemed). My husband was in London at the time of her death and saw all the flowers left outside Buckingham Palace.

My favourite memory of her is when she danced with John Travolta at the White House!



Look how John Travolta looks - so young!

Have you read 11/22/63 by the way? I just loved it and still need to go buy it as my copy was just from the library.
When Diana was killed in the car crash my grandmother came in and told me the news my inital reaction begins with f and end in of. This was Diana. It was unbeliveable. If you read Ash by james herbert there is a thinly disguised veil written by herbert regarding if i remember correctly, she was thinking of her two boys then the world went black
 

EMTP513

Well-Known Member
Oct 31, 2012
503
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What age would you be in Grade 5. Is that called Junior High.

10. It wasn't Junior High where I lived. It was Elementary school until Grade 7.
He was almost 14 when JFK was shot. His birthday's in January, which he claims is why his number was low. He said people who were born in December kept getting all these high lottery numbers. He had a friend whose number was 360. He called the guy "a jerk," but he was mostly joking.
He got a 12.
I have no idea what he's talking about, but he said you watched on national television for your lottery number to be called. "Something that would change your life in a major way, whether you came back horizontal (dead) or vertical, and they go on national television to do it.
He thought that was stupid.
 

Jimpy

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2014
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I thought I had posted about this, but it must have been on the old board.

I had just walked my girl friend (now my wife) to a class at Kent State University and went over to a book store just across the street from the campus. They had a radio playing. I was browsing when I realized just what was being broadcast. After my girl friend got done with her class (she had to take a test and heard about the shooting just before she went into the room--she didn't do too well on the test, naturally) we walked over to her dorm and watched TV.

I remember that a lot of the exchange students barricaded themselves into their rooms, sure that rioting would follow. (That's what would have happened in their countries.)

It was a very weird feeling all over campus.

John

This topic popped up on the Joyland boards recently, that's where we both mentioned where we were. I was in kindergarten at W B Patterson Elementary School in Washington DC. Out teacher somehow got the message, I don't remember how, and we got sent home early. My father was in the Marines and worked at the Navy yard in DC (neat, to me at least, side note- he worked right by the former home of NCIS which on TV is still the home, on TV they haven't moved to Langley). I didn't see my father for a week or so after the assassination. And they shut down the city.

Jimpy

If you can't take the heat don't swim with the big dogs.
 

oldordie

Member
Jun 8, 2014
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I just finished reading 11/22/63. Loved the book--took me back in time. I got a chill reading this--I still remember where I was when the news came. I had to do the math and realized I was only 4-1/2 years old at the time. We lived on a small town in the prairies in Canada. It must have been lunch-time; as I was in the kitchen with my mother. I remember the news of the President being shot in Dallas, and the shock on my Mom's face. We were glued to the radio for the rest of the afternoon and, by the time my Dad came home for supper; the grim news had come through that he had was dead. Everyone--even Canadians--were devastated by the news. We thought the world of President Kennedy, his wife Jackie; and their family. I find the part about the roses eerie; this was what my mother always referred to when talking about that day--everywhere they had gone--Mrs. Kennedy had been given a bouquet of yellow roses; but in Dallas, they were red. Excellent account--I was rooting for George all the way!
I was in the 3rd grade, my teacher was also the principal. She brought a television to the classroom. We watched while she cried. I remember being off school for several days after and being upset that the only thing on the television at home was the news about Kennedy. Awfully young to understand
 

Lily Sawyer

B-ReadAndWed
Jun 27, 2009
6,625
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South Carolina
Wasn't born.
My parents were students at the University of Texas in Austin, and they had plans to meet for lunch at the student union on 11/22/63. My mother had heard the news that there'd been a shooting in Dallas on the way to the cafeteria and told my dad when she met up with him. By the time they finished lunch, Kennedy was dead....and they said they skipped afternoon class and wept all the way to my grandparents' house.
 

Drummerboy

Active Member
Apr 10, 2009
36
16
I was born 11/22/71. I asked my mom if she remembers the assassination, and she can. She said it was all over the news. I think everyone around here was definitely in shock but obviously pretty far removed from the events being up North in Canada. I think I'll ask her again and get a little more in-depth in the conversation.
 
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