50 th anniversary coming up. Everyone over 60 probably knows where they were.

I was in Harold Boe's 11:00 English class at CCHS. Harold had left the room and the speaker started playing music from the radio. Classmates started giggling at being able to listen to the music. Emotions made a 180 degree turn when a news bulletin came on telling of President Kennedy's death. Harold came back in the room and asked "Why all the sad faces"? And we asked him, "Haven't you heard?, President Kennedy had been killed"

I remember it well. I was home from Sacred Heart high school for lunch and nothing had happened yet. By the time I got to school (10 minutes)and entered the locker room, someone says the president was shot. Someone laughed, not knowing what happened and said yeh and the Pope was pregnant.We headed to our lst class in the PM (religion). No teacher came into the room right away. After a few minutes a nun came in and she was weeping and said that the president and the govenor of Texas had been assassinated. Then Father Reynolds came over the intercome and directed everyone to go to the auditorium. Once there, he addressed us and told us what he had heard and then we said the rosary. School was dismissed as the teachers were grief stricken. After that we hung around not knowing what to do. I remember going out onto the lawn and playing some touch football for awhile as that was a Kennedy family game. Then I went home and my mother was watching TV and crying.
When Oswald was shot on Sunday morning, Mass had just started when one of the priest interrupted that Oswald had been shot. I remember a hush came over the church. It was a strange feeling that I never felt until the morning of 911 when the Towers were hit in New York. It was like the country was coming apart.

Working in the library at the Forestry College at Colorado State University.

First year of teaching, lunch hour and then back to my second graders. Hard..

I was five. We were in Bounteville, Utah, an utterly horrible place in an utterly horrible house, while my father did his psychiatric residency. Bill was at school but I was at home. My mother was crying and I gave her my blanket to comfort her.
The Catholic president was dead and there was some rejoicing in Utah. Sorry, Wendy, but I still hold that against the Mormons. There were happy Baptists, too.
Sad thing is, we seem to have gone backwards since then when it comes to religious tolerance.

Preparing to watch JFK's motorcade in Austin, TX - my father was one of the USAF provided drivers for the motorcade.

Getting a haircut from my mom. This is my first memory of anything. I was three.

I worked in the Yellowstone Co. Treasurer's office and Mr. Juhl from Custer, MT came to the window to pay his taxes and said, "President Kennedy has just been shot"..and, from then on it was sadness. Offices closed and we sat in front of the black and white TV mourning all of it. A sad, sad time. I still have Newspapers and Magazines that came out at the time.

Next door to the Texas Theater, when Oswald was arrested. We heard the commotion and saw the arrested assassin taken to the patrol car.

I was skipping school and was racing slot cars in Bernies Hobby Shop when we saw the patrol cars pull up. Oswald had, just moments before, shot officer J.D. Tippets before trying to hide in the theater.

Tippets was a friend of my fathers. We attended his service. Wow! there certainly has been a lot of water under the bridge since then.

My gosh, Tucker, that was interesting. You need to write it up with more detail and share with us.

I was in grade school at the local one room school when one of the parents called with the news. The day of the funeral all the students came to our house to watch it on our TV as we were the only family in the school to have one.

I was a sophomore at Kecoughtan HS in Hampton, Va., and was returning from PE class and entering my American History class when the annoucement came over the intercom. We were dumbstruck. Two months later we (my three siblings and parents) moved to Miles City in a blizzard where my father worked for the VA Hospital. We all started school right after Christmas at the various schools. After graduation from MSU Bozeman, my husband Jerry and I moved to Dallas, and all our friends were so upset we would do so. Texas has been a wonderful experience, and not like it has been characterized then and now.

Playing soft ball in our yard, my grand mother watched us because our parents worked days, I remember her calling us to get in the house. All of us ran inside,about six of us, we sat in front of a black and white tv with only three stations. As we listened to the broadcast, the devastating news of JFK being shot. I still hear my grannies sobs and see her tears. Our hearts were broke.

Grocery shopping at Buttrey's in Miles City. Came home to put groceries away when I heard the announcement that he had died.

I'd just like to say that these stories are very interesting. Thank you for sharing your memories!

I was in a café in Bowman North Dakota where I was selling insurance. As everyone was unsure of the circumstances surrounding the shooting, left for home and the family in South Dakota where we were glued to the TV thru the funeral. Conspiracy theory's still exist today.

In Niagara Falls, New York. He had just been to the Niagara- Buffalo area. We had watched the motorcade in front of a Bar. One guy booed him and all of the cars sped up and the secret service surrounded the president's car. Too bad someone didn't boo him in Dallas before Oswald could take a shot.

I was in Mr. Hartse's band class at Custer High when the announcement came over the intercom right before lunch. Went home at noon and could not eat I was so upset. But, had to go back to school in the afternoon. I don't remember the whole afternoon - I was no numb.

I was riding in a grocery cart in a Beaverton Safeway store. Nowhere near Dallas, I didn't do it. Honest.

I was probably in a high chair eating Cheerios.

I was not very old. There was a well known Hotel.My Grandmother pretty much ran the place,she worked there 34 years. I do not remember my Grandmother saying anything. No one said anything , no one even talked. In the lounge where the businessmen smoked high dollar cigars and sat in the leather chairs and I used to sit and smell the sweet odor of the cigars,they did not even smoke that day. No one talked. There was great sadness. Someone had killed our president.

Doing the 50 years ago of late has been sort of . . . disturbing. Everyone is chugging along, reporting on what the President is doing, getting ready for the holidays. No one knows what is coming. At least in 1913 and 1938, even though we stuck our heads in the sand, we could still hear the rumble of war. In 1963, we were about to lose our innocence and had no idea how our society was going to suffer.

Yes, but the Beatles and the Stones were getting ready to kick some a$$ and take names.

I heard the news over the speaker 4th period Mr Hartse's band class.
Best bands ever during the Hartse era!

I was only 3 mo. old,so I don't remember it,but my Grandparents and family were die hard JFK fans. I have always been interested in the whole thing. I belive the whole truth will never be known.

I was in Saigon at the Caravelle hotel which at that time was our quarters we were flying out of Tan Son Nhut air Base. I remember we were all pretty much in shock over the news. I can still remember exactly where I was sitting in the hotel bar.

Cool story, Lorin. Were you also munching on a Bánh mì sandwich at the time?

I was in Mr. Dismukes geometry class at Dinuba, Ca. He was in the middle of a lecture, got a message from the office on his intercom. He went over and closed the windows of our second story classroom, locked the door and turned to the class with tears in his eyes and told us that President Kennedy had been shot.
We stayed in classes until we found out that Kennedy had died at which time school was dismissed for the day and we boarded the buses to go home.
School did not resume until the day after Kennedy`s burial.

November 22, 1963, Where were you?

My friend Charlie and I sat in the parking lot of Justin F. Kimball High School. We both lived in Oak Cliff and for whatever reason (we didn't need much) going through the double doors when the 8:00 bell rang wasn't in the cards. I was a bored, Junior and to say I was less than average, in the grade department, would be an insult to underachievers. As we agonized over what to do, our buddy Gary pulled his Triumph TR3 into the empty spot next to Charlie's white 58 T-Bird. "Lets go to Bernies" Gary suggested. Bam!, that's all we needed. We followed the little blue Triumph out of the parking lot, left it a couple of blocks from school and Gary climbed into the T-Bird. Adventure was in the air.

Bernies was a hobby shop, on Jefferson Boulevard, next door to the Texas Theater. Bernies didn't open till 10:00 so we headed to "Kips Big Boy" for cokes and french fries, favored breakfast of the American teen. The big draw at Bernies was a huge 1/24th slot car track. We were at the hobby shop door when when it was unlocked. We navigated our way past the model planes hanging from the ceiling and lining the walls, to the back room. We raced our miniature cars until we were interrupted by a commotion outside.

Sirens and a crowd of uniformed officers blocked Jefferson and we all watched as several uniformed men escorted an unassuming man from the theater into a squad car and it ended as quickly as it had begun. Of course the man, taken into custody was Lee Harvey Oswald.

My mom was upset, when I got home. My dad was still at work. The President was dead. My father had gone to work for Armoured Motors shortly after we had moved from Denver to Dallas. He needed a pistol for work and purchased a Colt 45 automatic from a friend he met at church.
The friend was a Dallas Policeman Named J.D. Tippit.

Oswald had shot Tippit on his way to the Texas Theater. I didn't attend the funeral with my parents. The Texas Theater was one of our favorite Friday night out places.

I quit High School six days before graduation. I guess I didn't need it. I went to college on the GI Bill. If Oswald hadn't shot Kennedy, would I have gone to Vietnam, anyway? I don't know. He was trying to get us out.
Will we ever have all of the answers? I doubt it.

That is my story, my brush with history and I'm sticking to it.

In my momma's womb. One month to go. She swears the death of President Kennedy almost put her into labor.