This is what I posted a few days ago. Today, since so many others are posting their memory 50 years ago, Im posting it again... In just three days, America -- and the world -- will commemorate a tragedy that certainly changed my life, even though I was only in the fourth grade. November 22, 1963... Our class was in an upstairs room -- a very big deal, because we were considered big kids -- at John Muir Elementary School in Long Beach (CA), just three blocks from my house. That morning, we were working on double digit multiplication problems. Boy, those were a challenge! I was sitting toward the back of the room trying to concentrate when we became aware that there was a radio nearby, maybe in a hallway, blaring VERY loud. These were the days before overhead televisions in classrooms, but occasionally, one of these big radios were wheeled in so we could listen to some sort of educational programming our school district piped in. The teacher became more and more annoyed and finally said, Ill be back in a few minutes. She wanted to find out who had turned the radio on so loudly and why no one seemed to be monitoring the noise! It seemed that she was gone more than a few minutes. When she came back, she no longer seemed upset that the radio was on. Instead, she called our class to attention and, being a teacher, dealt with the news the only way a teacher could. Class, she said, does anyone know what the word assassination means? My best friend Bonnie Oare began waving her hand wildly in the air. The teacher acknowledged her, and Bonnie than said, It means to KILL somebody! (She was very excited, given that she was the only one in our class who knew the word) The teacher then told us that President Kennedy had been assassinated. We all sat there, like, Okay, what do we do? Not very long afterwards, the entire school was dismissed to go home. My mom, like most moms I knew, lived in aprons, dusted a lot, and stayed at home. My mom was in her usual spot, the kitchen, probably cleaning, with her little yellow portable radio on with the news as it happened. For the rest of the day, and the entire weekend, the only thing on television was the news and the aftermath. Our black and white cabinet TV was on a lot. In fact, I was actually WATCHING television when I saw Jack Ruby shoot Lee Harvey Oswald in the chest, LIVE. That was just... surreal. I was just a little kiddo, but my innocence was taken away from me on November 22, 1963. I still had the two responses to letters I had written President Kennedy in my bureau drawer! (They are framed in my hallway today.) For those of us of a certain age, where were you, and what are your memories of that day?
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 04:33:47 +0000