November 22, 1963 Do you remember????

In November, 1963, I was a teenager in a small, totally Democratic town in Massachusetts. My granddad worked on Kennedy's congressional/senatorial campaigns. Attended Catholic high school, and had a "Boston" accent. Every Thanksgiving time brings a sense of hurt.
 

I was an 18-year old college freshman. I was having lunch in the cafeteria with my roommate, and some of the other students were listening to a portable radio. One came over to us with the devastating news.
 
I was playing poker in the barracks, in Germany, when one of the guys rushed in with the news being broadcasted on Armed Forces radio. We all jumped up and headed for the shop, We were on full alert for about 2 days, until the facts came out.
 

I was 26 and in a room at the VA hospital where my 84 year old father was in dying in a coma. A nurse came in crying and told me. My beloved Pop passed on 3 days later. A veteran’s funeral with tears and folded flags. My 4 year old son was staying with his paternal grandma, and she was trying to shield him from both the tv stuff about Kennedy and our own funeral plans.
I believed in JFK. The first vote of my life was cast for him.
 
I was a senior in high school. I had a boyfriend named Tony, and as we walked out of the main school building, heading across to the library, a teacher came running out in tears and told us the news.

I remember that it felt like a very personal loss to me. It was a frightening and confusing time.
 
I wonder what we would have learned from Oswald had he not been killed? Like who approached him. Not sure how true this is, but it had been speculated that Oswald did not act alone, or was, as he claimed a Patsy. I remember hearing that in the military he was classified a FAIR marksman, and likely would have not made the shot on his own
 
Marie5656 said:
I wonder what we would have learned from Oswald had he not been killed? Like who approached him. Not sure how true this is, but it had been speculated that Oswald did not act alone, or was, as he claimed a Patsy. I remember hearing that in the military he was classified a FAIR marksman, and likely would have not made the shot on his own
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Let us remember that Oswald defected to Russia, married a woman whose Father was a KGB Colonel, then came back to the USA with her. That sure does not sound like an innocent guy to me. JimB.
 
I was 2 years old. After I started school, maybe in 5th or 6th grade, we learned about the assassination. I had heard about it prior to that from my parents and grandparents, but didn’t understand why.
 
I was at home in Toronto, on a day off from work. Listening to CFRB 1010 AM. News flash. Shooting In Dallas. Turned on the TV and sat and watched for the next 8 hours. I started writing notes on a legal size note pad, eventually filling 16 pages with point form info. I was born in 1946 so in 1963 I was 17. My Parents came home and sat with me, in silence. I still have my hand written notes from that day. My other memory is of the drum cadence during the funeral on TV. My Dad said that the silence was awful to see and hear. This from a man who survived 3 years in France during WW1, as a member of the Canadian Army. JimB.
 
I wanted to add to my first post that when the young Kennedy, JFK, Jr died when he crashed his Piper Saratoga into the Atlantic, I had to explore this event a bit more.

Being in aviation myself, it concerned me that why would he attempt to fly at night out over the water with no visible landmarks or lights below him? I found out that he didn’t initially plan on a nighttime flight, but his wife was late getting to the airport.

He also did not hold an IFR certificate, which really causes me to believe that he used poor judgment to attempt a nighttime flight. When he found he was in trouble and lost communications and before he became spatially disoriented, my question was “Why didn’t he use the plane’s autopilot?”

That would have given him a chance to get his radio on the correct frequency and also to get vectors to where he was going. The plane also had a GPS, so having vectors should have made it possible for him to figure it out. He was very intelligent.
 
jimintoronto said:
I was at home in Toronto, on a day off from work. Listening to CFRB 1010 AM. News flash. Shooting In Dallas. Turned on the TV and sat and watched for the next 8 hours. I started writing notes on a legal size note pad, eventually filling 16 pages with point form info. I was born in 1946 so in 1963 I was 17. My Parents came home and sat with me, in silence. I still have my hand written notes from that day. My other memory is of the drum cadence during the funeral on TV. My Dad said that the silence was awful to see and hear. This from a man who survived 3 years in France during WW1, as a member of the Canadian Army. JimB.
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Your dad served in WWI? Or was it your granddad?
 
jimintoronto said:
Let us remember that Oswald defected to Russia, married a woman whose Father was a KGB Colonel, then came back to the USA with her. That sure does not sound like an innocent guy to me. JimB.
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He might have been spying for the U.S. In those days, the CIA recruited ex-servicemen to go to Russia for that purpose, and Oswald may have been one of them. That's one theory, anyway. The government is hiding information about him and that may be why. And he did have connections with CIA operatives, which would be strange for just a run-of-the-mill ex-serviceman.
 
Been There said:
Your dad served in WWI? Or was it your granddad?
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My Father. John Carl Bunting serial 201018, served in the 3rd Battalion of the CEF, enlisting in October of 1915, here in Toronto. He served in France until the armistice on November 11th of 1918, then he volunteered to stay behind for an additional 6 months, as a POW camp guard in Belgium. The bonus was that he would get a full year's pay, for 6 months of VERY easy duty.

The Germans were simply waiting to be sent home. Dad finally arrived back in Toronto on July the 9th of 1919, and he was released the next day. Dad was born in rural Garafraxia township about 100 miles west of Toronto in December of 1899. I was born in 1946, from his second marriage, when he was 48. He lived to be 83 dying here in Toronto in 1981. I am now 76.

He said he had a "good war " despite being wounded three times, and on one attack he was the only man out of his 12 man machine gun team who was not killed. He came home and used his "bonus money " to buy a used car in 1921, and he started the Toronto Veteran's Taxi Company, which eventually grew to 30 cars. He sold the business for cash in 1928, and bought a 25 room hotel in downtown Toronto.

The hotel was his future retirement fund. He lived long enough to see jet aircraft travel, and men on the moon. He was a crusty old bugger, at times. But he was also proud to be able to say " I was at Vimy Ridge, and all of the rest right up to the end ". JimB.
 
I remember it like it was only yesterday. My older sister was staying at our house and she had just given birth to her son. I didn't go to school that day to be with her. Her friend Mary came to see the baby. As I was walking Mary to the door it was announced on TV. We both froze and cried while we were watching it on TV.
 
I Had just sat down to watch my favorite soap opera and fold diapers, Walter Cronkite cut in and announced the president had been shot in Dallas, as I sat there then he announced that the president was dead. Then from that it was shock after shock that weekend. People stopped turning off their TV's!
 
mrstime said:
I Had just sat down to watch my favorite soap opera and fold diapers, Walter Cronkite cut in and announced the president had been shot in Dallas, as I sat there then he announced that the president was dead. Then from that it was shock after shock that weekend. People stopped turning off their TV's!
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Wow, that must have been something!
 
I was 4 years old. I remember being annoyed that the TV was always about the assassination.
In my life time I've visited JFK grave site in Arlington and Dealy Plaza in Dallas. I thought it would be exciting to see Dealy Plaza but instead I was overcome with sadness to realize what it now represents. I didn't bother to visit the 6th Floor Depository Museum because i found it appalling that someone found a way to capitalize on the tragedy.
 
Marie5656 said:
I wonder what we would have learned from Oswald had he not been killed? Like who approached him. Not sure how true this is, but it had been speculated that Oswald did not act alone, or was, as he claimed a Patsy. I remember hearing that in the military he was classified a FAIR marksman, and likely would have not made the shot on his own
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Especially not with the rickety rifle found in the book store, with the barrel rattling from a loose fit to the stock.
FBI agents test fired it & it wouldn't keep all its shots on a 12-inch paper plate at 50 yards. - a stationary target. That means it wasn't capable of a 12-inch group at 50 yards. Kennedy was hit twice - in the neck & head with the two shots 3-4 inches apart. Not a chance.
Much less a moving car from a longer distance - difficult shots with an expert.
They might sell that fairy tale to someone with little long-range target experience........
 
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In the spring of 1963, I was a senior at an all boys, Catholic high school in the Cleveland Ohio area. JFK gave some speech or something in the downtown area and, as had been arranged for with the Secret Service, his motorcade, on the way to the airport, briefly stopped in front of our school. JFK shook hands with our principal and the president of our senior class handed him a football! I caught a brief glance of the man as his car passed my location. What struck me was how tanned he look.
 
I remember that day very well. I was a freshman in HS and they let us out an hour early after announcing the Kennedy assassination over the loudspeaker. I remember watching it alone on TV and got sadder and sadder as I watched things unfold...until one day, much later, when I learned about his multiple infidelities and being a womanizer. That cooled my heels with "Jack" (aka John F). I'm just not a fan of men who cheat and use women.
 

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