Your recollections of 11/22/63

[CatAlum]

I was in the first grade in a Catholic elementary school in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland. Early in the afternoon, the nun took us on our afternoon potty break. As we were walking back to our classroom, we stopped dead in our tracks as the nun/principal got on the PA and we got on our knees in the tiled hallway and prayed the rosary (I think that's what we prayed). We got up, went back to our classroom and, not too long later, we were told President Kennedy was dead.

I recall looking around the room. The girls, who had these things called feelings, were sobbing. The boys looked around dully at one another, not understanding the whole thing.

 

[SLS]

I was in Miss Hamilton's junior English class. I remember how grief-stricken the faculty and students were. Later that evening I sold the "extra" edition of the Cincinnati Post Timed Star, detailing the assassination. My dad was a circulation manager for the paper, and we went into the bars and sold quite a few copies. I saw the live feed of Jack Ruby killing Lee Harvey Oswald.

 

[CatAlum]

I was in Miss Hamilton's junior English class. I remember how grief-stricken the faculty and students were. Later that evening I sold the "extra" edition of the Cincinnati Post Timed Star, detailing the assassination. My dad was a circulation manager for the paper, and we went into the bars and sold quite a few copies. I saw the live feed of Jack Ruby killing Lee Harvey Oswald.

The shooting of Oswald by Ruby changed everything…no bad guy EVER again was transported in that fashion…so casually…people wandering all around…TV…

 

[coldshoulder]

I was in third grade at the time, but have no recollection of what happened in school that Friday. I do recall, however, that my dad had four tickets to the Browns home game that Sunday against, ironically, the Dallas Cowboys; and we (dad, a friend of his, my older brother, and I) made the trip to Cleveland from the Youngstown area. The game went on as if nothing had happened, as did all the others that day in the NFL. Pete Rozelle later said is was his greatest regret as commissioner that he didn't cancel the entire slate of NFL games that Sunday. Driving back, we listened on the radio about Ruby shooting Oswald; and I remember getting back home and going to pick up my mother at her best friend's house as they were both shocked and grief-stricken watching the endless non-stop news reports and replays (I think) of Ruby killing the assassin.

 

[eastisbest]

I probably played with my tonka truck. I do vaguely remember the funeral, his son saluting but you know how those go. Can't tell if it's original memory or just something I've seen in replay. RFK's actually has the more compelling second shooter scenario but no one talks about that.

 

[arizonawildcat]

I was in my first year French class as a junior in high school. Earlier in the day the mother of the students in my homeroom had died. When the principal came on in the intercom as 2:00, we all thought he was going to announce that and say a prayer for the family. We were all shocked into silence when he said the President had been shot and died.