Lest we Forget
Where were you, if you were, 49 years ago yesterday?
I was a fourth grader at the Edward Devotion School in Brookline, Massachusetts. I was 9. My family had been in the USA for 24 days, having flown into Logan Airport on October 29, 1963.
I knew that the President of the United States had spent his primary school years at the same school that I was now attending, and I was proud that Dad worked at the same university where the President had graduated.
That gray Friday afternoon, Mum walked to school and picked me up. I was excited to be going home to our small apartment on Babcock Street to watch Boston's own "Bozo the Clown" show on the first television we had ever owned.
As we entered the building, the janitor wove his way over to us. Tears were streaming down his face. "Whatever is the matter?" Mum asked him, with some irritation because he was in the way.
"The President's been shot," he mumbled, breaking into sobs.
"Don't be ridiculous," said Mum.
We climbed the stairs, with Mum muttering under her breath, "Drunken old fool." To be fair, he was extremely inefficient, and generally rather the worse for wear, so her supposition seemed reasonable at the time.
When she opened the door, I rushed over and turned on the television. And there it was.
Mum phoned up Dad at the Center for International Affairs to tell him the shocking news.
And thus did Harvard University learn of the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
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Jul '10
Re: Lest we Forget
Since this was a number of years before My Parents had even met, God only knows where I was.
Dec '10
Re: Lest we Forget
Well, yes. I'm still reconciling myself to the fact that, as Newsweek proclaims, I'm "Old, White, [and] History." Sometimes, I forget.
To rephrase: If you were around 49 years ago today, where were you?
May '10
Re: Lest we Forget
I'd just turned 3, so I have no recollection. We lived in Chicago while the Army sent my father to grad school. My parents bought their first TV so they could watch the funeral. As an aside, my mother voted for Nixon in 1960 and got annoyed when people asked if I was named after Caroline Kennedy.
Nov '12
Re: Lest we Forget
It was, I believe, 6.30 pm in England when this awful event happened. I was then only 3 1/2 years old. Although I don't recall my parents mentioning it, I'm quite sure they were deeply shocked.
I do remember my mother telling me about her thoughts during the Cuban missile crisis, some years after the event. She and my father seriously contemplated with horror the possibility of a global nuclear war.
Jan '11
Re: Lest we Forget
I was in the 3rd grade at St. Josephs. Sister Mary Iforgethername had us pray. Later she turned on a radio.
A couple of days later I was fascinated with the backward saddle. I prayed the TV schedule would return to normal.
Oct '10
Re: Lest we Forget
I was living in Thurso, Scotland at the time. As a civilian, I was helping to build the Naval Radio Station in Thurso. It was around 6 or 7 PM, and I was having dinner in the Princess Hotel, and we had a power failure. Someone brought in a portable radio and we were listening to the BBC Third Service (classical music) by candle light.
The BBC announcer broke in and said they had an emergency announcement from America. Then the station went silent for a few minutes. Then the announcer came back on, apologized for the delay, and said that President Kennedy was dead, and that at the moment they weren't sure if the Vice President had survived.
It was a night of trauma as we all re-tuned to the Armed Forces station and awaited more news.
But what I most remember was the deep sadness that the people of Scotland shared with us in the days following. It was a moment when we realized how much we shared our lives with each other.
Jun '12
Re: Lest we Forget
I was still 3 years from arriving in this world.
However, I do remember where I was when Reagan was shot.
Oct '12
Re: Lest we Forget
I was in the North American Aviation plant in Downy CA working on the reaction control systems for the Apollo spacecraft. His "put a man on the moon before the end of the decade" project. Calls from wives started coming in about the shooting, the news spread fast. Bits and peaces of news came in throughout the day as calls were made to and from those that had TVs. It was a somber atmosphere.
Dec '10
Re: Lest we Forget
I agree. I remember everyone being stunned and sad, all the more because we were living in the middle of Kennedy country.
But it was very different from the 'shared' national experiences we have now, where the 24-hour news cycle, and our Facebook and Twitter 'friends,' make sure we all know exactly the same thing at exactly the same time as everyone else. And where, five minutes later, we've all moved on to 'sharing' something else, and we've totally forgotten about whatever it was that was, oh, so five-minutes-ago.
In 1963, we had to wait for the news. And we had time to reflect on it. My family and I were strangers in what seemed to be a very strange land, yet we and our neighbors grieved together. It wasn't until the aftermath of 9/11 that I felt the same sorts of connections being made in the 'modern world.'
Dec '10
Re: Lest we Forget
Two days after the assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald, who was being transported from one jail facility to another, was shot dead by Jack Ruby on live television. (There were only three networks at the time, and they suspended all coverage that was not related to the assassination, the aftermath, or the funeral, for several days, so that's what we watched). Unlike JFK's assassination, which became news only after the fact, the death of Oswald and the arrest of Jack Ruby was a moment which millions of people shared, live, as it happened. I think that may have been the first time such a 'reality TV' event occurred, although we take that sort of thing for granted nowadays.
Sep '11
Re: Lest we Forget
Okay--this is kinda weird. I was a kindergartner at Edward Devotion Elementary School in Brookline, Massachusetts; my brother was in second grade, my sister was in third. We lived on Kenwood Street, and walked past the JFK birthplace on our way to school every morning.
(Cue Jimminy Cricket) It's a small, small world....
Dec '10
Re: Lest we Forget
Wow. It certainly is.
We lived in an apartment on Babcock St, I think about midway between the Kennedy birthplace and the school.
We were only in Boston for a year, as Dad had a Fellowship to write a book about his Nigerian experiences, and after that we moved to the Pittsburgh area where Dad taught at Duquesne University until his retirement.
My 4th grade teacher at Devotion was a Miss Morrow, or Moroni or something like that. Truth be told, I wasn't much of a fan. My particular friend was a little girl named Eva.
It was a very interesting time to come to America, and a very interesting place to be in November of 1963.
Mar '11
Re: Lest we Forget
That gray Monday afternoon, Mum walked to school and picked me up.
Monday?
Dec '10
Re: Lest we Forget
Jeff Richter
Monday? · 0 minutes ago
Thanks for the fact check. It was a Friday. I've fixed the post.
Edited on November 23, 2012 at 3:51pmRe: Lest we Forget
I was then where I am now - at the Jersey Shore. But I was 2 months old then so my recollection is fuzzy.
Mar '12
Re: Lest we Forget
When I was twelve, I had ridden bicycles with a friend of mine to Wold-Chamberlain (Minneapolis St Paul International Airport) to see Kennedy when Air Force One landed. The Minnesota Highway Patrol made us ride in the ditch to the side of the road, concerned about our safety.
In any case, I got a glimpse of Kennedy at a distance through the fence.
A few years later I was in high school and had taken the day off. I went to place a phone call and the operator came on line and told me that the circuits (phone lines) were busy because the president had been killed.
We had taken possession of a new color television that very day, so I turned it on. The news was full of the shooting death of President Kennedy, in Dallas outside a book bindery, in color.
I do remember the consideration that something bright and important had died that day. Perhaps it was hope, or perhaps a shared vision of this country. Camelot never did reappear.
All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again.
May '10
Re: Lest we Forget
Overshadowed on that horrible day were the deaths of C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley. I was 5 and too young to notice much. I regret terribly that I only came to love Lewis's writing after his death, and when I could no longer write back, or hear his voice giving his amazing talks.
Jun '10
Re: Lest we Forget
I was in a late-morning class (7th grade) when it was announced over the intercom that JFK had been shot. An hour or so later I was standing in the lunch line when they announced that he had died. Pretty empty feeling.
Like Robert, I came to love C. S. Lewis and his writing much later. I remember hearing about him sometime in the seventies.
I am convinced that, when the history of the twentieth-century is finally written in a definitive way, Lewis will be viewed as the most important of the three men. Brave New World is a prophetic novel, and Huxley was a good writer. JFK was a good, though not great, president. C. S. Lewis, without watering down Christianity in any way, allowed millions (no matter their denomination) to see it more clearly and to love it.
Sep '12
Re: Lest we Forget
Second grade. They announced the President had been shot over the intercom. Sister Charles led us in prayer. Later she told us he had died and we had a new President. Then we said some more prayers for the Kennedy family, Lyndon Johnson and the country.My most vivid memory is watching the casket being unloaded that night.
May '10
Re: Lest we Forget
I think we already are forgetting. It was 49 years ago yesterday -- November 22nd. The date sticks with me because my mother's birthday is the 23rd.