Historic Moments

John F. Kennedy was the 35th president of the United States.

I was in elementary school. I vividly remember an announcement over the school speaker system announcing that our President had been shot. I sat in the second row, third seat back. No one spoke a word. That is quite a feat for a classroom full of elementary boys and girls. Our teacher had started crying, and was trying to quickly wipe away the tears. We were stunned but we had no idea how serious this was.

School was dismissed and I walked/ran home since I live a few blocks away.

I was glued to the TV. (Yes, you younger folks, we DID have TV then) When it was announced by Walter Cronkrite, "From Dallas Texas, the flash apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1 PM central standard time"

He was visibly choked up and I had never seen emotion on a newscaster before - I my parents weren't home at that time and I just sat there, frozen.

(Link - If you are interested, it's toward the end)

I will never forget that moment. Kennedy's election coverage was the first I had ever watched and I viewed him as a very great man. He seemed young, even to me as a child. All of the other presidents I had learned about looked old.

I continued watching the news coverage every spare moment and I was again left speechless when Jack Ruby shot Oswald on live TV! (Note: This was the era before violence became commonplace on TV)

Link - If you are interested

Whether you are a young person, or older like me, you will have certain events burned in your memory. From that point on, I read every single newspaper article that I could find relating to President Kennedy.

Another related memorable event was when two year John Jr. stood like grown man and saluted his father during a memorial. A & E's biography of John Kennedy Jr. is in 5 parts, but the first view seconds of this video shows John Jr.'s salute.

Link

This video clip is not the one I saw live. The coverage I watched was a close-up of the family and John John stood their for probably 5-10 seconds in a motionless salute to the father he had just begun to know.

FYI: President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963 at 12:30 Central time.