As we approach the 5oth anniversary of President Kennedy’s
assassination, the media are filled with photos, videos, and reflections on the
tragedy that defined our young lives. Commentators
are calling it "the end of innocence.”
From a personal viewpoint, I definitely agree.
The brief Kennedy years, known as Camelot, were the first
years that I was aware of national politics.
The glamor of the Kennedy family intrigued everyone. It had been a long time since a young couple and little children
were in the White House. Ladies wanted
all the styles that Jackie Kennedy wore from the bouffant hairdo and the pillbox
hat to the designer suits and elegant gowns.
AARP Magazine asked its readers to write on its web site
about where we were when we learned that Kennedy was assassinated. I was in a last period class at my high
school in Massachusetts, and I was a freshman.
Waiting for the close-of-school announcements, my mind was on girls’
basketball tryouts that afternoon. In
our science lab classroom, we were shocked to hear that our President had been
shot and died that day in Dallas, Texas.
Seeing the reactions of our teachers who cried and hugged each other, I
think we knew how horrific this was, and they set the stage for our own
behavior. I was terrified. I naively assumed that without a President in
the current Cold War atmosphere, Russia would take over our country and or
send an atomic bomb to kill us.
My next stop was the girls’ locker room where Coach Yanofsky
excused anyone who didn’t want to stay for basketball tryouts that day. Most of us wanted to go home. My husband, who was then a 9th
grader in another Massachusetts high school, remembers walking home and
thinking, “Oh, no. We’ll have to wait
for the 6 o’clock news to find out more about what happened."
Little did we know that this day would change how news was
delivered. The all-day coverage that we
now know began with this tragic event. I
don’t know what it was like elsewhere, but in Massachusetts, schools were
closed for a week, and we were glued to our small TV screens. It is still difficult today to watch the tape
of the shooting in Dallas, and I tear up at the touching pictures of the young
Kennedy children during the funeral procession.
I grew up in John Kennedy’s home
state in a largely Catholic town where he was deeply loved. This is how I remember the sad day the President died. What are your memories of this day?
5 comments:
Each year I am sad when on the assassination anniversary.
I think of it as the day I lost my naive idea that the world was happy and safe.
And I feel pysically ill when I see the Zabruda film of the wounded president, Mrs. Kennedy climbing ontot he hood of the car and the secret service agent Clint Hill who climbed onto the hood pushed her back down into her seat and shielded her. What a brave selfless act.
I was in the same high school as you Elizabeth.
My freshman algebra class was interrupted by a student at he door of the classroom. He held a transistor radio to his ear and yelled, "The president has been shot." We all looked immediately to our teacher Arthur Forgetta who calmly reassured us. I can't remember his exact words, but I felt much better after he said them.
I will always remember the tears in Walter Cronkite's eyes as he removed his glasses and delivered the shocking news of President Kennedy's death.
(This is Bill Parke) I was a 13 year old Boy Scout visiting Washington ,DC with our scout troop on the 22 nd. The town shut down and a very somber mood was very prevalent . Our troop helped lower the flags to half- mast at the Washington Monument.
This is Caryl Finn -
I was heading for class at the same high school as Deb and Elizabeth. The news was flying through the corridor and I remember seeing Mr. Hull, our librarian, standing above the streaming students looking totally confused. I must have been going to the same algebra class as Deb.
At that same moment, my mother was shopping on Essex Street in Lawrence and came upon a crowd in front of the Lawrence Eagle Tribune building where our daily paper had the headlines scrolling down the giant typing machine in the window.
Bill, it is so interesting that you played a role in the nation's capital by helping to lower the flags to half mast at the Washington Monument. Perfect timing for a history buff like you!
Deb and Caryl, I must have been in the same algebra class with you, memory blurs. I'm not surprised that kindly Mr. Forgetta tried to reassure us.
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