| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 4:55:54 PM | Do you remember where you were and what you were doing on the day John Kennedy died? How do you think it changed you? How did it change your view of the world we lived in at that time?
tb | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 5:02:49 PM | Strangely enough I do remember. I was sitting under my mothers ironing board in front of the TV, I remember her crying.
So in a way, I guess it did a tad. Being 3, remembering something like that is kind of strange. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 5:17:21 PM | My father gathered all of us around the dining table and told us what happened...then we all sat and watched he news for two hours.
I was not yet 6, but did comprehend through watching the news and my parents, that something very serious had happened.
^^BG^^ | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 5:56:09 PM | /\ /\ /\
Same thing, basically. I was six, and didn't REALLY understand. But I remember knowing some very bad had happened. Robert, I remember vividly. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 5:56:49 PM | I was in the 5th grade and at school. One of my friends who had walked home for lunch came back to class with the news because she had heard it on television. My teacher somehow rounded up a small transistor radio and tuned it in and we listened to the radio the rest of the afternoon.
Almost everyone cried. Every so often my teacher would leave the room and we could hear her in the hallway talking and crying with the other teachers.
I lived quiet a way out in the country and all the kids who rode the the school bus were good friends. We were like family. Usually, we had fun joking or sing-a-longs to pass the time. The 90 minute ride home on the bus was a somber one that day with everyone working through the day's events in their own mind and a few still crying. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 5:58:53 PM | It's one event I know I'll never forget.
It was a special day, the President was coming to our home town, and there was even a large gathering of citizenry as he drove through the center of down town.
Being in 2nd grade at the time, I along with the whole school was hearded into the school auditorium where there were 3 TVs on those tall roll around carts placed across the front of the auditorium in front of the stage.
We all sat there beaming with pride as we saw him make his way through Dallas with crowds on either side of the street cheering him. There was an air of excitement and pride that filled the auditorium as we all watched as our states Governer Conally and the lovely Jacky Kennedy rode along in the car with JFK, each of them waving at the onlookers as they passed.
Then, just as the procession was heading out of the down town area pandemonium broke loose as we sat and watched in horror after hearing the shots ring out through the TVs tiny speakers and people began ducking and running, while the Presidents limo suddenly accelerated out of sight.
I think most of us knew something horrific had just flashed across the screens of the TVs, but were unsure exactly what until the broadcasters began saying the President had been shot. I remember turning to look at the teachers who were all standing at the rear of the auditorium with blank stares on their faces, jaws wide open and fear so prevalently plastered across their faces and knowing in that instant I'd just witnessed something awful.
I remember turning to see the looks of shock and disbelief on my classmates faces, each unsure what exactly had just occured, yet each still knowing it was a terrible act we'd just been witness to. Each of our pride and wonder that filled the previous moments now turning to bewilderment and dismay as the entire auditorium filled with gloom .
As the screaming and scrambling of the bystanders continued to fill the TV screen, while continuous mentions that the President had been shot, I sat there and watched, intent to grasp somehow what I'd just seen, but not truly knowing just how to do so.
Eventually, one of the teachers finally gathered themselves together enough to walk to the front of he auditorium and turn off the TVs one by one, leaving an eerie silence once the last one clicked off.
Oh yeah .... I remember where I was on that day alright.
It was a day and an event that cast a dark pall upon the city I've always called my home that has lasted ever since. It was many years later before another President would again venture to Dallas. We became known as the city that had been the place of the murder of one of the popular Presidents our country had known in many years.
Though we have a Kennedy Memorial in down town to mark and commemorate the events of that tragic day and I've driven past it many times, even walked past it a few more, I've never visited it. And .... if you visit my city and want to go there and see it, I'll kindly offer directions to you, even tell ya where to park if you want to visit the memorial, just don't ask me to accompany you. My memory serves me all too well, so I need not be reminded by such a visit. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 6:50:49 PM | I was in fourth grade in Catholic school. Over the years, JFK had been portrayed as a heroic figure in our school; as a man who had served bravely in WW2 and gone on to become the first Catholic president. Nuns lectured about what a great man he was; and recounted his exploits about the PT-109; and later the Cuban missile crisis. We watched his inauguration on television in my first grade class. Often, his speeches played live over our sound system. In Catholic homes, JFK's photo was often posted next to the pope's.
On a rainy November afternoon, the PA system announced that the president had been shot. Everyone gasped. But the announcement also reported that he was not dead. After a few prayers, we went back to studies. A few minutes later, it was announced that he was dead. Again, everyone gasped.
The impact of those events: the subsequent murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the controversial Warren Report and, 5 years later, the assassinations of MLK and RFK; instilled in me a sense that things are not always what they appear to be; and nothing should be taken for granted. It was avery tumultuous era. As a child, I saw civil rights marchers being sprayed with fire hoses and attacked by police dogs. Little wars were going on all over the world. But I also saw astronauts exploring space. So another deep impression was that anything can happen.
I assumed that, by the 1980s, we would be in a very advanced alomost utopian civilization fomented by technological and social achievements in all areas. WRONG. But there's still hope. And I still believe anything can happen. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 7:35:53 PM | I was in my 7th grade mechanical drawing class on that terrible, terrible day. The announcement of President Kennedy's assasination came across the school's speaker system. I could hear screams and sobs from the cafeteria down the hall. Studying came to a halt as we sat and discussed this tragic, historical event with our teacher. There were questions regarding going to war if it were Russia who had orchestrated this dreadful act.
The Cold War was at it's coldest at this time.
Each period for the remainder of the school day was filled with question and answer sessions and time for rememberences. Senator Kennedy had come to visit Saginaw, MI during is run for the Presidency. I was fortunate enough to attend his visit at the Saginaw Fair Grounds with my family. Every sentence uttered, every pause given was greeted with thunderous applause from the audience. Because of his age and his genuine smile, he truly seemed to be one of us.
I remember being glued to the TV for days, waiting for any news regarding this tragedy.
The innocence of a nation was lost. Since that time a million "what ifs" have been spawned.
Dave | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 7:50:02 PM | | I was in preschool just look at what it did for me...We were let out early my mommie came to get me she was crying she could hardly drive with that vodka martini in her hand..a few years later a week before RFK Was shot I got to shake his hand...We have lived through some wild history.. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 8:06:05 PM | | I was a kid when I saw it on tv, I downloaded a classified movie about JFK, in it shows someone shot him from the back and another from the front of the head. It was not easy to see this movie. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 8:15:46 PM | I was in the Navy going through Nuclear Power School in Bainbridge, Maryland. I was working a problem in dimensional analysis when the instructor, a young j.g. came in, asked for our attention, told us the President had been assassinated, and then told us to go back to work. We did. We had no time to think of it or reflect upon it until after we finished for the day.
It was a Friday and I had a 48 hour pass so I traveled by train to my parent's home near Philadelphia and back that weekend. The wire services had offices in the main train station --- sort of a cubical with glass walls and I remember trying to read the teletype paper through the glass to get the latest news. The public mood was somber with the crowds being subdued.
To most of us in my situation (the active military) it really made no difference at all other than some pictures being changed and we had a new boss. We were all outward looking at our country's active enemies and not concerned with politics. There was no Camelot for us.
Actually I don't think there was any Camelot for anyone unless your last name was Kennedy. It is a myth. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 8:50:26 PM | | I remember it well, I was at work and we heard it on the radio. I was in shock, as well as everyone at work. I worked at an office downtown, and the sirens went off. It was scary at first, but very sad indeed! | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 9:01:32 PM | | I was in high school and we were having a choir practice when one of the nuns came running in and whispered the news to our music teacher. We knew something was terribly wrong. Then the music teacher told us what had happened. It was announced over the PA system that all students were to report to the gym, where the rest of the students were informed. We were all crying, even the nuns and lay teachers. We all knelt and prayed for President Kennedy and his family. We were all sent home after that, as no one was capable of doing any school work for the rest of the day. | |
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bobby7
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Joined: 3/22/2006
Msg: 16 | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 10:42:04 PM | I remember the ironing board set up in the livingroom, watching TV as I pressed clothes. As everyone did,, I cried and was very afraid. I could not understand a thing like that happening in Dallas, or anywhere else.
I agree the myth of Camalot was lost that day, the innocence of the American people was taken away, the rose colored glasses came off the eyes of our nation. The world was not what it seemed to be at all.
tb | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/22/2006 11:55:52 PM | | Not really since I was only a year old, but I know that my family was moving into our new house that day and my mom said that she stopped unpacking boxes to watch the black & white tv after the mailman told her what happened. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/23/2006 2:49:44 AM | | I was 5 years old, and like others, I did not fully undertsand the impact of our president being killed, but realized from the reaction of my family that it was something very serious. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/23/2006 2:54:26 AM | Last period math class in high school. Everyone was crying. I wrote in my Bible regarding the event. People were glued to their tv's for the next 3 days.....the funeral with the horse with the reversed boots, and "John-john" saluting. I have the Life magazine with all of the pictures.
Years later in an interview with Jacqueline, she said she answered EVERY single letter of condolence. What class.
When Ruby shot Oswald, I had just wallked into the house. That was mentioned as the first live murder which was televised.
Yes, it changed our generation; our innocence...our feeling of safety in the world.
Rossal | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/23/2006 5:57:39 AM | I was the only one up in the house at the time, sittin there in front of the TV when ..... "Here comes Lee Harvey Oswald, they're bringing him out of the Dallas County Courthouse building now. " bang, bang. "Lee Harvey Oswald's been shot!" .
Having seen 2 people shot and killed live on TV in front of me in just a matter of days, even at only seven, I thought, "What a strange world! ". | |
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~Joy~
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Joined: 10/6/2006
Msg: 22 | |
| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/23/2006 8:00:00 AM | I was in the 7th grade in Art class, and the principal came on the PA system and announced that President Kennedy was assassinated. We all cried. I still am so sad for his family and feel bad that they have suffered so many losses in that family. His baby son grew up to die also...what a loss that was. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/23/2006 10:20:44 AM | | Sure I remember, and looking back, it's a tragedy for anyone to be assassinated, and for his wife and children to lose him. It's also a tragedy to lose the person who's the leader of your country. But, also looking back, it makes one wonder where we'd be now if he hadn't been assassinated. I don't think we'd be in much different circumstances, but considering what's come to light about JFK since 1963, who really knows? I don't think he was that good of a president in many ways, but I also don't think he could have done too much damage to the country. And I also don't see his presidency as being 'Camelot'; that was something Jackie stated after he died; it was never called that prior to his death. some in the US revere the Kennedy's as some kind of royalty, which I think is ridiculous - not only for the fact that we broke from England to get away from that, but also because the Kennedy's are human, just like anyone else...and looking back at their history they're not the nicest or most law-abiding people around, IMO. | |
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| November 22 1963,, The Day Camalot Ended
Posted: 11/23/2006 5:51:41 PM | | I was in a Catholic School and the nuns rushed us in to church to pray. That's exactly what I did with my eyes held tightly shut. The whole church was filled with students and my class prayed up on the balcony. I rode around town later with my parents, and thousands of people were coming together and crying on the streets. I wondered when they were going to catch the assailant and remember, for some reason, comparing him to the Boston Strangler. Being the sneak that he was. | |
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