Where were you today in 11/22/1963?

[Trek420]

I was in first grade. Our teacher took us for a walk in the schoolyard until someone noticed that the flag was at half staff. She explained the flags were that way all across the country and why. Then we went back inside to talk about it. Good teacher!

[OakLeaf]

I'm just a little bit younger. We'd only just got our first TV. My very earliest memory is not that day, but a few days later, seeing the funeral on TV. I cried - about the only thing I understood at age four was that it was sad.

[maillotpois]

I wasn't. ;)

Interesting question though. My first "where were you when" moment was the resignation of Richard Nixon, which I watched on a TV in Shakey's Pizza with my mom saying "Watch this - it is a big moment."

[VeganBikeChick]

I was...in my mother's ovaries... ;)

[zoom-zoom]

I was...in my mother's ovaries... ;)

Me too...for just over another 9 years. My earliest sudden tragic memory was the Challenger disaster. I was in jr high.

[ny biker]

Fetal...

[jessmarimba]

Unborn. Not nearly so catastrophic, but the first news story I remember is baby Jessica stuck in the well.

[grey]

It's 13 years before I was born. Zoom, I was in 2nd grade -and lived in Florida- when the Challenger happened. I think it was a 2nd grade teacher who had been on board? Definitely a shock.

[Koronin]

Not born yet for the original question.

I was in 6th Grade when the Challenger disaster happened. Actually was in science class and watching it live on TV. Our science teacher had gotten the TV in the classroom to watch the launch. He had spent the week before teaching mostly about space, NASA and the space program.

[VeganBikeChick]

Another hijack...I was in third grade when Challenger happened. It's the first major disaster I remember.

[NbyNW]

Carter is the first POTUS that I remember. I remember people talking about John Lennon getting shot but I didn't know who he was at the time.

[shootingstar]

I was only 4 yrs. old.

The Kenneday assassination was not important to us....as Canadians. More of a social cultural event, that defined part of a "dream goneif that makes sense.

[Crankin]

I was in fifth grade, just turned ten. I remember the principal coming to the door of my classroom, with a very pale face. She must have told my teacher. The teacher told us and everyone gasped. Then we were dismissed about 2 hours early. They were afraid the middle school kids would tell us, when we were walking home, since they got out earlier. I remember sleeping over my friend's house that night, as always, on Fridays and being glued to the TV.
The earliest "event" I remember is the first manned space flight, with Alan Shepard. I was in first grade, maybe second? We had a big clunky TV in the room and got to watch the whole 30 second thing.

[skhill]

Well, my mom was in taking a math test (undergrad) and my dad was in the army, serving in Germany. I've heard their stories, though.

The first big really tragic news story I remember was the Challenger explosion (9th grade). Smaller bad news, Reagan getting shot. But I also have vivid memories of some of the bicentennial celebrations, and for some odd reason, Carter's inauguration!

My brother pointed to the night the Berlin Wall came down as the biggest event that us Gen-Xers should be sure to remember where they were. A lot don't, alas. Of course, not everyone heard stories of it going up that we did-- our Dad was in a military intelligence unit in Berlin then, so he had some tales to tell that aren't in the history books...

[Giulianna23]

7 years before I was born.

[goldfinch]

I was home sick from school and I wasn't even all that sick, I had one of my frequent grade school tummy aches.

What stuck with me far more than the Kennedy assassination was when Ruby shot Oswald. Somehow that was a shocker to me, seeing it on tv. Nothing abstract about that.

[bmccasland]

1963 - was in the US equivalent of pre-school in La Celle-Saint-Cloud near Paris, France. We were living on the economy (no US Government housing) when Dad was active duty military. Mom said our neighbors brought over sympathy cards, and were concerned for our safety.

[Bike Writer]

I was in 4th grade and our principal came into our classroom, the teacher cried and were were sent home. His happened just a couple of months after my dad passed away and I thought about the how President's kids didn't have a father now either. It made me sad and I cried too.

I recalled all the relatives being glued to the TV and how our major department store downtown had a huge picture of the President in one of their big windows displays and it was draped in black.

People wept openly over this event. Whether a person thought he was a hero or a scoundrel, he was our President and was gunned down in open sight. President or not he was a young man with two little kids and a wife. This frightened people.

When I look back now I see this in the perspective that this was the death of our innocence as a people. Post World War II people were jubliant and full of hope and felt pride at defeating a threat to freedom worldwide. Men were happy to come home and carry on with their lives and building their families.

People became more jaded as time passed and the ensuing assassinations of others that followed soon afterward foreshadowed a very violent period in our history of civil unrest. Life in the USA changed after Kennedy was killed, I'm not saying that is is necessairly because of it, but it was an event of demarcation. There was the world before and then there was the world afterward and the two were very different.

[GLC1968]

I was not born yet in 1963. Hell, my parents hadn't even started dating yet!

I do remember distinctly the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. A bunch of 'liberal' kids in my class actually applauded when we got word that it had happened. My teacher at the time really read them the riot act and recounted his experience when Kennedy was shot. He told us how everyone was crying and upset and how they canceled classes that day. It was surreal. I'm pretty sure that was 8th grade, if I am remembering correctly.

[azfiddle]

I was in 2nd grade I think. We were allowed to walk home from school for lunch, and my friend and I walked home together. She came running out of her house to tell me the president had been shot. I didn't believe her and ran the last half block home to find out. I remember watching the funeral procession on tv.

[Pax]

I was three, it is one of my first clear memories. We had met the president earlier that Fall. I remember my parents sitting in the living room crying.

[Crankin]

Bike Writer, I agree with you. I fear that now, we are so divided that (some) would clap or cheer if our president was shot. I felt embarrassed when I heard that people at the NASCAR race booed the first lady and the v.p.'s wife when they were there supporting military families. This hit home, since I'm a military mom; those booers don't represent me. I would never boo any president, no matter how much I disagreed with his or her politics. You have to respect the office.

[new2ride]

My dad came to pick me up from school, we were holding hands and walking home. The school guard asked my dad if he had heard the news, she told him the president had been shot and killed. I remember my dad wiping his eyes and the school guard crying. I went home and watched it all on TV -- I was only five years old, but I remember being very upset over the president being killed. I remember watching the funeral and just feeling an overwhelming sense of sadness and loss.

[maillotpois]

I do remember distinctly the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan. A bunch of 'liberal' kids in my class actually applauded when we got word that it had happened. My teacher at the time really read them the riot act and recounted his experience when Kennedy was shot. He told us how everyone was crying and upset and how they canceled classes that day. It was surreal. I'm pretty sure that was 8th grade, if I am remembering correctly.

I remember that - and I was in eighth grade as well. :)

[margo49]

I was 7 years old and in New Zealand we woke up to the news.
There was no tv then so it was on the radio.
We had this line-up every morning in class and anyone who had knowledge of a world current event could get up in front of the class and tell about it. So most of the class got up that day except the Very Religious who did not have radio and had not seen (been able to read?!) the morning paper.

I remember their little baby dying just before that.

[ny biker]

When I was very young, I remember my grandmother watching a big funeral on TV. My guess is that it was either RFK or MLK Jr; I was 4 years old that year.

I was in high school when the principal made an announcement on the PA system that the hostages in Iran had been freed.

I don't remember the day Reagan was shot.

I was in college when the Challenger exploded. I first heard about it in an American Civilization class I was taking. The class was on American Popular Culture. We spent the whole time talking about it -- how people learned about it, why it was having such an impact on people, stuff like that.

[bmccasland]

I would add that when I was in Jr. High - can't remember the year exactly, I visited my Aunt who lived in Dallas, and she drove us to the site, pointed out the state book repository. She was a University student in '63 so had vivid memories of the nation's response. "End of Camelot" pretty much sums it up. It made an impact to me seeing the site (approximately 10 years afterwards). Dallas was still embarrassed that it happened on their soil.

[Kathi]

I was a sophmore in high school. I was in Phys, Ed class and it was almost time for the bell to ring signal the end of the period. We were changing clothes when our principal announced it over the PA system. I don't remember much after that, just a numb feeling. A few girls cheered but most of us were very somber. I remember going to my locker and I remember talk about the "communists" taking over America. I also remember the funeral, sitting in the living room with my family crying and trying to understand. My world changed that day.

I also remember the election, we studied it in Jr High. I remember how fearful people were of electing a Catholic President, they thought the pope would run this country. I was Catholic so I wanted Kennedy to win. I don't remember sleeping much the night of the election.

On the 40th anniversay I was went on a bicycle ride with the local cycle club. We parked in my high school parking lot. It was such an eerie feeling to be in the same location I had been 40 yrs before and to remember what had taken place that day.

[owlice]

I was six. I don't remember the assassination itself, but do remember watching the funeral on television at my grandparents. I don't know where my mother was that day; I had the impression that she had gone to the funeral, but that seems unlikely (since I don't remember my brothers being at my grandparents that day; I was the only kid there).


A bunch of 'liberal' kids in my class actually applauded when we got word that it had happened.
That's appalling. I did not like Reagan at all, but was horrified by the attempt, and shocked that some people were... ahhh... not horrified, let's say. I was in college in NYC at the time; I had a biochem exam the following day, and did no studying for it. I remember the newspaper headlines that afternoon -- the headline that Reagan had been shot took up the entire front page on some papers. I watched television pretty much all evening and into the night.


I felt embarrassed when I heard that people at the NASCAR race booed the first lady and the v.p.'s wife
Me too.

I remember where I was when I heard that RFK was shot (upstairs in the attic, where I'd cleared out a large space; I was sleeping there that night, or rather, I was supposed to be sleeping, but was instead listening to a transistor radio for a good part of the night), and when MLK was shot, too (at a friend's).

I was at work when the Challenger disaster happened; a friend called to tell me. I sought out a television -- went to the advertising department of the company -- and watched the footage and news there. (I was on my sofa when I heard about the Columbia disaster; got the news in an email, and immediately turned on the television. Later that day, I bought roses and while my son and I were on our way to Goddard (NASA) to lay the flowers there, I saw a bald eagle in an area I'd never seen one before -- nor since -- wheel around and fly north. I got goosebumps; have them now, too, remembering that.)

I was driving south on Route 29 in Maryland, from Columbia, when I heard that the Berlin Wall was being torn down. I had seen the wall -- had been in Berlin just the year before for the first of a series of concerts for peace -- and was thrilled to hear this news. I managed to stay on the road, but barely!

[ny biker]

I was driving south on Route 29 in Maryland, from Columbia, when I heard that the Berlin Wall was being torn down. I had seen the wall -- had been in Berlin just the year before for the first of a series of concerts for peace -- and was thrilled to hear this news. I managed to stay on the road, but barely!

I totally missed that wholething. We were going through a busy time at work -- I was in Chicago at the time, new at a job where I was hired to help them start an office in NYC. I worked lots of overtime for a couple of weeks and saw very little news. Next thing I knew, we'd defeated communism.

A couple of years later, I came into work one morning and found out someone had killed a bunch of people on a Long Island Railroad train the night before. After that I got new radio so I could listen to the news while getting ready for work every morning.

[Crankin]

I clearly remember watching TV, maybe the World Series?, and getting dinner ready in my house in Tempe, when the news about the Berlin Wall came on. It was just about 6 weeks before we moved out of our house, and into an apartment, in preparation for our move here. Kind of a bittersweet time in my life. We had planned the move for like 4 years, but it was very sad to move out the house where we lived when my kids were born.

[Catrin]

I had just turned 4 when it happened, and I don't have any real memories of that time and we may not have even had a tv at that point. I do have memories of watching a funeral on a classroom television but that had to have been much later. I suspect it was probably Robert Kennedy since I was old enough to be in school at that point.