11/22/63

Second grade, Columbia Park Elementary School, Palmer Park, Md. -- 8 miles from the city limits of Washington D.C. Older students were delivering the message from class to class, letting teachers know what happened and that school would be dismissed early. Most of us were walkers and not a kid said a word on the way home. My teacher then was Miss Lavelle, just out of college, and wore her hair just like Jackie Kennedy. She broke down and was inconsolable.

I get home, and my mother was the same way. Sat in front of the TV in fascination at the news and how it was covered. I think I may have decided to go into the media at that point.

Two days later, was watching when Oswald was killed -- on live TV.

One day later, my father took me to downtown Washington, on Constitution Avenue. He was a cab driver in D.C. and knew all the shortcuts to get a good spot along the route where the funeral procession would go from the Capital to St. Mathews Cathedral. We heard the drums a few blocks away. I will never forget the pattern of the drumbeats.

The day was about 40 degrees, sunny, no wind. When the horse-drawn cassion came by, the horses hooves on the street sounded like gunshots. Since there was only 1/4 of a mile between the Capital and St. Mathews, Mrs. Kennedy, Bobby and Teddy decided to walk. The world leaders who came followed suit. I watched, on my father's shoulders, as the casket went past, followed by the widow, the brothers and heads of state such as Charles de Gaulle and Haile Selassie.

The memory is as vivid now as the day it happened. I have read every credible biography on John Kennedy, and most conspiracy theory books on the assasination. I have deduced that this country changed for the worse on that day. Had he lived, Vietnam would have been over before it started. Nixon would have stayed in retirement, so no Watergate. Bobby Kennedy would have been the heir apparent. Teddy's faults would still have prevented him from being president but 16 years of the John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy administrations would have remained a good mix of enlightened social policies (but not the extremes of abortion on demand and the war on Christianity), toughness on crime and fiscal responsbility (because, after all, you didn't get more big business than Joe Kennedy). John and Bobby Kennedy also would have been staunch supporters of Israel and tough on terror.

Those on this board who rip me repeatedly might be stunned. Feel free. This day always haunts me and saddens me. Our greatness as a nation ended on Nov. 22.

 

Fantastic post, Hondo.

As I said earlier, I was a freshman inhigh shcool, 14 years old at the time.
I think the assasination turned JFK into more of a legend than he really was. But, yes, this country and our world changed forever on that day and I often have wondered how much different it all would have been had Kennedy not been killed.

 

I was nearly two decades away from being born at that time, but I'll toss in the following two comments.

1) Verne Lundquist spoke at school a couple of weeks ago, and told us about being in Austin when Kennedy was shot (Austin was his next scheduled stop after Dallas). He apparently spent the day hauling broadcasters to Johnson City interviewing people who knew the newly-sworn LBJ. It was really fascinating to hear him talk about it.

2) I had to go downstairs and ask my father if I had been to the Sixth-Floor Musuem. I told someone the other day that I had never been to the grassy knoll, but reading this thread prompted a long-buried memory of the museum. Evidently, I ought to go back.

 

Fourth grade, about 1:45 p.m. or so EST. We went down the hall for Spanish class and ended up waiting about 15 minutes for Mr. Mendoza to show up. When he did, he walks into the room, obviously emotional and flustered, saying "President and governor dead."

We had no idea what he was talking about. They sent us back to our classroom, at which time the principal came on the PA and told us what had happened. School was dismissed shortly thereafter and I walked home with my neighbor and we talked about it, although I didn't learn the details until I got home and started watching the TV.

That, RFK's assasination and Kent State are the three watershed moments from my youth I will always remember.

 

My mom was in 3rd grade (I think). I was about 11 years from even being a thought in my parents' minds.

 

Help me out here chickie. That math doesn't add up for me unless your mom was like 19 when you were born.
And she's still younger than me and JR!

 

war on christianity? christ...

 

Which do you think was more tramatic for America: 11/22/63 or 9/11/01? And is anyone disappointed that Bush, Jr. didn't fall victim to the alleged "0-Year Curse?" I mean, no one has even tried, yet (not that I'm advocating such a thing).

(For those not in the know, the 0 Year Curse began in I think 1820 and that every president since then who was elected in a year ending with "0" has died in office. That held true until Reagan survived Hinkley.)

 

That's a damn good question.

I think I'd have to say 9/11 was more traumatic for America, because they felt more personally threatened. Both events made America see that the world can be a horrible place. But when you saw the planes crash into the WTC, you knew this was happening to people just like you and I, as opposed to a world figure.

 

That's what she told me! She was 24 when she had me, so she's 55 now. This involves math, dammit.

 

First grade.

As I recall, school was let out early that day. Like we thought the Cubans were going to invade or something.

 

I agree that it's hard to say. As one who was an adult through both, I think each represented an end to a certain kind of innocence, particularly for generations that had never lived through that kind of shock before.

My mother used to compare 11/22 with Pearl Harbor, and for her generation, that was probably an apt comparison. As with 9/11, it's hard to say which had greater impact.

Note: I live on the west coast, but was on the east coast, within 45 miles of Washington, D.C., at the time of 9/11. To this day, my sense is that people on the east coast feel much more personally about 9/11 than do people on the west coast, regardless of political persuasion.