November 22, 1963...

Another anniversary.

If you've not yet read it, treat yourself to reading The Kennedy Detail

Fascinating account of the events that changed history written by the Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect the President and Mrs. Kennedy.

Do any of you remember that day? I recall the sadness in our house that week. And the haunting images on the black and white TV of the funeral cortege. I wasn't yet 5, but the memories are very clear. It's hard to imagine that it could happen...





The Kennedy Detail

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Updated On: 11/22/10 at 04:44 PM

I was 7 years old--Caroline's age. I felt as if I were losing my father too.

The principal came in and told us we could go home if our parents or older siblings could come get us. It felt as if we had done something terrible and were being sent home as punishment. My sister walked me home. Neither of us spoke, which was rare for my sister. We lived in a largely Irish-Catholic neighborhood, and it was deathly quiet.

We watched the black-and-white console television with my mother until my father came home. When Walter Cronkite announced that the president had died, the were cries from apartments all over the neighborhood. Keening. As if they had lost one of their own. They had. We all had.

We stayed glued to that television all weekend, and things got more and more surreal: an assassin assassinating the assassin, the president's body being flown back to Washington and the vice president becoming the president, the funeral procession with the horse with no rider and one backward boot, John-John saluting the coffin, Jackie and Bobby and Teddy lighting an eternal flame.

And a few days later we went up to Aunt Edie's for a Thanksgiving that was just not the same.

They never were, after that.

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Updated On: 11/22/10 at 06:05 PM

I have the book on hold at the library.

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We had a TV while many of our neighbors didn't, so I remember people crowded around. And then the sobs and cries when the news came that the President had died.

Dad arrived home shortly after that, and looked stricken. It was as if a member of the family had died. In a way, that's what happened...

I remember so clearly the shock of Jack Ruby gunning down Lee Harvey Oswald. The week became surreal, and it was as if the world had gone mad.

The assassinations of the 1960's were a horrifying trend.

Even at my young age, those memories are crystal clear. I remember feeling frightened for the first time...

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Here is the trailer for the book The Kennedy Detail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYhS4skJmVc

And here is the preview for the Kennedy Detail documentary on Discovery, which airs Thursday, December 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-VlK7Uvp3U

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I was seven. Our class was lined up in the hall when my teacher came out of the classroom crying.
They sent us home. I remember two girls skipping up Snyder Avenue singing "President Kennedy's dead."

A couple of days later I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald live on television.

The one I really remember is the drumbeat of the funeral procession.

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I was a toddler, so too young to recall anything. However, I think it's appropriate to share one of the greatest TV performances ever broadcast, Judy Garland's performance of The Battle Hymn Of The Republic, sung in honor of JFK.
Garland

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Funny old world innit? I was in grade 2 in CANADA and I remember being in school, they made the announcement over the loudspeaker that President John F. Kennedy had been shot and classes were suspended for the rest of the day. I didn't really know what a president was ( hey I was pledging "alligance to the flag" a few yrs b4 on Romper Room!) but i knew all the adults that made up my little world were very upset and uneasy and on some primal level I was afraid how that would effect me. I remember whispering alot so not to upset anyone any more than they were and telling my younger brother just be careful. We were all scared and didn't understand why what was happening was happening.
And there;s those who understand too well.

Joey, its amazing how I still remember that...drum

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I was 5 months older than John-John, so I wasn't in school yet. I remember laying in my living room coloring in my coloring book and watching the T.V with my mom sitting on the couch behind me crying. I couldn't figure out why Mom was crying, but I knew it had to do what was on the Television that was causing her to. I remember at oen point getting up and giving her a hug...it seemed the right thing to do.

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