Remembering Nov. 22, 1963

[Stan]

where were you?

[Outta Here]

I did not exist. My parents hadn't yet met one another.

[phkrause]

So was I dgrimm, I had just come home from school and saw a few of my neighbors crying and asked them what was up, and they told me. Very sad day indeed.

pk

[Amelia]

I was playing in the basement while my mom did laundry. She didn't know until a neighbor called.

[Tom Wetmore]

I remember it quite distinctly. I would have been in first grade. My father came into our little church school in one room of the basement of the church and gave us the news. He said, "The president has been shot." I just remember that we all sat for a moment in stunned and perhaps disbelieving silence.

[Jeannieb43]

I was a stay-at-home mom, with two little ones at home. [My #1 Son was exactly the same age as John-John Kennedy.] I recall being glued to the TV set that whole weekend, for the funeral and the terribly sad scenes of Jackie and her two little children going through the ceremonies of the funeral and the burial.

[Nan]

It was early Sabbath morning in OZ, my uncle came from

his home across the road to tell us.

I can remember wondering why he was coming over, as I

watched through the window.

The event brought more than the US to a standstill.

[phkrause]

Yes Nan, he was one of the most influential Presidents in history. Not only in foreign policy but in the US as well.

pk

[Stan]

I was a paperboy in Whitecourt, Alberta, for the Edmonton Journal, and I loved reading the paper every day.

I was not in my teens yet. My first thoughts were, "this is going to be interesting, just a few days ago, he ranked lowest in popularity of all presidents in the 20th century, I wonder if people will remember that next week or in years to come".

[phkrause]

I'd never heard that Stan. Had always heard how popular he was. I know all my relatives in Germany loved him.

pk

[Stan]

I have never forgotten that, and have seen only a few mention it over the years.

[Stan]

I do not remember who even took the poll, or any of those other details. That was back when I was innocent enough to think Newspaper, TV and Radio were not bias. :)

[Jeannieb43]

My first thoughts were, "this is going to be interesting, just a few days ago, he ranked lowest in popularity of all presidents in the 20th century, I wonder if people will remember that next week or in years to come".

VERY timely, Stan, that you point this out.

Yes. A president cannot rule by polls. He must continue to make the very best decision available to him at any given moment.

Neither should our allegiance to a president be swayed by public-opinion polls.

[shadow]

I was in my grade 7 class in Ontario when the principal announced the news over the intercom. I thought it was the end of time when I heard that he had been wounded in the head.....ran home and was reassured by my mother that he was not the "beast". She was right!

[olger]

I just completed toilet training. I remember it well.

og

[GreatLakesGramma]

I was young enough that my memory isn't clear. I do remember that my parents were very upset by it. They voted for him, and thought very highly of him.

[Liz]

Way before my time, but I have walked around Dealey Plaza many times.

[LifeHiscost]

Just twenty years earlier we were in the middle of a war that would have totally changed the landscape of the world had it been lost to the invading nations. A war that took the lives of 80 million people, 12000 weekly in the United States alone. Now we're ready to stop the war if it runs higher than 12 lives per week. And our national psyche was changed more by Kennedy's death than by the 8 million Jews lost earlier.

Certainly reveals how insulated we in America have been from the horrors that go on constantly around the World.

"And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"Revelation 6:10 KJV

BTW, I was at work eating lunch at the time I first heard the news. It affected me about the same as the WTC bombings. As I recall, though the day was finished in production, I can recall no conversation or laughter for the rest of the day.

Blessings!

[olger]

Good point.

[Dr. Rich]

I was just entering the gym at Walla Walla when I heard the news. But the date of Nov. 22 is bad for me for other reasons. I lost my Dad on that date in 1978 and 15 years later to the day, my mom died from a car accident.

Dr. Rich

[Guest]

Sorry to hear about your mom.

[LifeHiscost]

LIFEHISCOST

WHAT is that old saying

"nothing really hits home until it effects you personally"

dgrimm60

Isn't that the truth. It's somewhat like the 10.2% unemployment rate. It's 100% to those who have no job and no other sustaining income.

Blessings!

[John317]

where were you?

I was in 8th grade at Loma Linda Elementary. My father, the principal, came in and told the class the president had been shot. There was a terrible silence. He went out and came back about 10 minutes later and told us our president was dead. At lunchtime, I went out to my dad's car and listened to the radio and heard the announcement that a man named Lee Harvey Oswald was caught in the theater after murdering a Dallas policeman named Tippet. That week-end was the saddest of my life.

[John317]

I was a paperboy in Whitecourt, Alberta, for the Edmonton Journal, and I loved reading the paper every day.

I was not in my teens yet. My first thoughts were, "this is going to be interesting, just a few days ago, he ranked lowest in popularity of all presidents in the 20th century, I wonder if people will remember that next week or in years to come".

He was very unpopular in Texas during that time because they viewed him as soft on communism. That is one reason he'd gone to Dallas. He was hoping to rally the people and solidify his Democratic base.

Kennedy was afraid he could lose to Berry Goldwater in 1964. I was a Goldwater supporter but I liked Kennedy very much, too. I remember watching him in b& w in his last news conference before leaving for Dallas. He was so alive and full of good humor &great wit. It seems so clear in my memory, it's hard to believe so many years have passed by.

Kennedy's popularity in the polls never fell below 50% but it was beginning to dip about the time of his death. Throughout his 3 years, he had a 70% average. But after his death it rose dramatically. Even people who said they opposed his administration were crying after his death. Everyone thought of him as their president.

"John Kennedy never had a sub-50% approval rating in his less-than-three-year term, though his ratings were on a downward trend at the time of his untimely death."

Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/122513/presidential-approval-usually-falls-below-timing-varies.aspx

A side note:

November 2 – 1963 South Vietnamese coup: South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem is assassinated following a military coup.

We know now that President Kennedy gave the order for this assassination. Sad but true. I also realize he probably wouldn't have been elected without the corruption in Chicago. Yet none of this changes my feelings for Kennedy and his brother Robert.

[CyberGuy]

I was six. It did not mean anything to me. I was just upset that my cartoons was preempted by the the constant news about the assasination and death of the president.

On a side note. That was the day C.S. Lewis died. The author of the Chronicles of Narnia. Not many news agencies reported that fact that day.