I went to Safeway earlier today, and while standing in the checkout line, I noticed a special edition of Life magazine on the rack with a picture of JFK and the words “The day JFK died,” which got me thinking about Nov. 22, 1963. I was a freshman in high school in Bonners Ferry, Idaho on that day. We were in class when our teacher was called out by the principal. After 15 or 20 minutes the teacher came back in, visibly shaken, and told us to head to the auditorium for a special assembly. We could see outside as we were streaming down the halls, and could see all the buses lined up outside like they did at the end of the school day. This caused a lot of speculation, and rumors started almost immediately as we were walking along. This was 1963, so the only person who owned a cell phone was Dick Tracy in the Sunday comics section of the Spokesman Review so nobody knew anything. One thing for certain in 1963 was the very real possibility of “nuclear combat toe to toe with the Roosskies,” to borrow a phrase from Maj. Kong (Slim Pickens) in Dr. Strangelove, and by the time we got to our seats in the auditorium, that’s the conclusion that my buddies and I had come to. The principal broke the news that the President had been shot and killed, and then sent us all home. It was really unclear at the time who was responsible, and I think a lot of people were convinced that the Russians really did have something to do with it, so sending us home was a precaution in case things escalated. John F. Kennedy was a special guy to a lot of people, including me. He was a good looking guy with an extremely attractive wife and an accent that was completely different from anything we were used to in North Idaho. What happened in Dallas that day troubled me greatly, and does to this day. If you were alive Nov. 22, 1963 and were old enough to remember this event, what was your experience?
Posted on: Mon, 04 Nov 2013 03:32:06 +0000
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