I had been born only in February of that year.

That particular day was a big day for my Mom, for she graduated Brackenridge Nursing School in Austin.

Mom's uncle was a big muckety-muck in that hospital, still is, and he would be the receiving surgeon who received all the shot/maimed victims of the July 1966 Charles Whitman UT Tower slayings. But that's another story.

Mom's graduation ceremony was held at 11:00am. on that bright Autumnal morning. She was all excited and anxious to get the graduation over with.

That morning, the Kennedys had toured San Antonio, then flew on to Dallas.

At 1:00pm, I believe it was, Mom and her fellow nursing graduates heard about the Dallas shootings of JFK and John Connally.

"My God, they're going to kill us all!" was what Jackie shouted in the backseat when the bullets struck.

Dad, 19, was at home with me at the married student dormitories near the UT campus.

Mom just remembers how everyone's Thanksgiving was kind of ruined that week, everyone clusterec around their TV sets to view both the JFK after math... then the shocking, onscreen assassination of Oswald by Jack Ruby.

Mom, now 67, said something to me recently. She said, "Of course, when this whole thing happened, I, and the other students I knew on the UT campus had no doubt that it was LBJ and cronies who'd staged a de facto coup-d'etat.

Mom said, "We'd known about Marilyn, it was no secret, and we figured he was being neutralized lest a sex scandal blow up in his (Kennedy's) face."

Of course, the Warren Commission went on to limn its "crazy bullet" theory and "lone kook" theory. But Mom said, even at the time, students like herself did not believe it.

To this day, Mom's nursing diploma hangs on her bedroom wall, signed and sealed--- with that fateful date printed innocently on the bottom of it.

Hi rasputin1963!

I have posted on this a few times, so I apologize to my fellow Maddicts who have read my posts before.

Just as I have always heard, long term memory becomes clearer as we age.
I was 7 yrs old at the time.
I remember my father making a comment about his concern for JFK in Dallas on the day of his trip, I didn't know why at the time.
I went to school, and the next thing I remember was our principle on the intercom announcing that the President had been killed, and we were being dismissed early. Also, because I was in Catholic school, we were asked to pray for the President.
When I got home, all regular shows on the TV were stopped and the news (CBS in our home) was on with coverage constantly.
The whole weekend I remember my parents being glued to the TV. They were so sad, all of the adults in my family were. I clearly remember the sound of those drums that played during the funeral march. I remember seeing JFK Jr. doing his famous salute. I also remember the TV coverage of the Lee Harvey Oswald/Jack Ruby chaos that followed.

Kids so often take their cues from the adults around them. I knew the world had changed. That Americans could never really feel safe again. That a lot of hope for positive change in America was gone.

My father and the members of his Union sent a sympathy card to Jackie Kennedy. He still has the original hand written thank you card from her. What a treasure.

To this day,I don't know of anyone of my age group other than myself who wasn't in school that day. I was home with a cold, as was my dad. I NEVER missed school and he NEVER missed work. So this was a total anomaly. Given that I was sick, I was allowed the "portable" TV in my room (it was a gigantic B&W thing!). I was watching the Dating Game when they interrupted to announce that JFK had been shot. I ran into my parent's room and woke up my dad and he came in to watch with me. My parents were big Kennedy supporters. We lived in Buffalo at the time and they brought me some great souvenirs from a rally they attended during his campaign; I wish I still had them. We saw Jack Ruby shot. The whole thing was so surreal. And, or course, our whole family, my mother, father, brother and I watched TV for days along with the rest of the country. Our school asked all the kids to submit something for a book that was compiled to be sent to Jackie Kennedy. I was so honored that my poem was selected. While I have my doubts that she ever even saw the book, there was a thankyou from her in the local newspaper. The end of innocence for the US, I think, that day............

HI Racy, I think my memory (as an 8 year old) is the same as every other third grader. Announcement on the intercom, teachers talking in the hallway (they never did this), running home and the TV was on (it was never on before the news). My parents were Irish immigrants. It was like an uncle died. I think the country stayed dark and dull for months.

In 1963 Kentucky, children would line up and get shots at school. Actually I do not know why that practice stopped.

My class had gotten our shots. Mrs. Gordan was giving us a treat for not crying. The principle, Mr. Boundrant, said something on the scratchy PA system about the President and shot. As Mrs. Gordan cried we children were happy for about 30 seconds that President Kennedy got his shot too. The PA came back on and said the President was dead and we would be leaving school immediately. It was hard to digest. When I got home both my grandparents and mother had left work and the TV was on and speaking was not an option. It was the first time I had seen Pappaw cry.

Deep Dish: "I think the country stayed dark and dull for months." True - until February 1964 when the four lads from Liverpool arrived to give the country an adrenaline shot of joy, humor and wonderful music.

nov 22, 1963 i was nine, same age i guessing sally is. it was recess and a number of young boys came running across the ball field as they approached the school's playground, they were yelling "the president's been shot in the head". the were smiling and laughing ( maybe because they were excited to be the ones to tell the news) i thought they were joking. and i thought it was very sick of them to say something like that. moments later we were all sent back to our classrooms. we all sat at our desks very quietly and still, miss freize said little. there was an announcement that pres. kennedy had died. untill that point we had hope he was going to survive. we were then sent home. dinner that night was very somber. i remember it had started to pour outside. the paperboy rang the doorbell and handed us the wet evening paper with a large picture of kennedy on the front page ( not much time had elapsed it must have been printed quickly). the boy was upset because his brother was missing. his news and distress only added to ours.
in those days televisions had tubes that frequently needed replacing. our set was in such need. so my uncle bill was thoughtful enough to bring over his spare (having two sets in the household was almost unheard of). because of him i, like everyone else in the country, was glued to the tv. it's very likely i was watching live as jack ruby shot oswald or at less a very instant replay. being naive i assumed he did it because he so loved the president. anyway i watched all weekend strait though the funeral. i remember being moved many times. i remember feeling so badly for jackie and her little children. and how john john saluted the coffin. i'm getting teary eyed as i'm typing this.

AUBURN ANNIE

only recently i ponded on how short the time between the assassination and that ed sullivan show introducing the beatles. as i understanding, their manager, earlier, wasn't sure we were ready for the fab four. the timing has to be right on these kind of things. then after the tragedy and period of grieving. the usa needed some uplifting and he seised the opportunity. what a decade!!!

My memories of that Friday and the next two days is very similar to those already posted.

I was 12 and the announcement came over the intercom at school and we were all dismissed....I walked to and from school (5 blocks) on nice days and it happened to be a relatively warm Oklahoma day...I walked home and my mom was watching TV, of course...we watched constantly until my Dad got home, leaving early from work and arriving about an hour after I'd gotten home....we all sat there watching the coverage in stunned silence. I do remember the (replay) of Walter Cronkite reporting President Kennedy's death and taking off his glasses and stammering with emotion. I'd never seen a reporter/newsman be anything but straighforward and seeing this human quality displayed openly to the entire nation was very moving to me. I remember a lot of sniffling and nose blowing and head shaking....but not much else...it was like a nightmare and I remember thinking that over and over that we would all soon wake up, especially when the plane arrived carrying the president's casket, Jackie Kennedy was shown being helped down from it, her obviously blood-smeared clothing and legs, I just cried and cried. Of course, like you all, seeing the funeral, the Riderless Horse and she and the remaining brothers walking along behind the caisson that held the flag covered casket....not to mention, JFK Jr. and Caroline, so young and now fatherless, just heartbreaking.

I, too, remember when the Beatles arrived a bit less than 3 months later, it was wonderful to feel excited and happy about something again.

Because I was scheduled for a surgery the following Monday, I took the day off on Friday 22 November 1963. My wife Jean was pregnant with our second child. Since I was actually feeling okay I spent the morning in Pasadena, CA USA taking a pet to our veterinarian. The radio in the station wagon upset her so I turned it off. Therefore I was in total shock once I got home when Jean told me the President had been shot.

Three TV sets were going. I remember Walter Cronkite nearly in tears when he announced JFK had died at Parkland Hospital. Jean and I were both upset. To get away from everything we took our baby boy with us to a drive-in to see John Wayne in McLintock! that evening. Hardly anyone else was there.

Sunday 24 November I had to check into the hospital. My room TV had only been activated a few minutes when Ozwald was shot on camera, live.

That was a horrible weekend.

It was a beautiful fall day without a cloud in the sky. I came to see that nice president who gave me lots of Dr. Peppers when I visited him at his White House. I was standing on the sidewalk, in front of a grassy hill, right by the overpass. For no apparent reason, I opened and closed my umbrella because I thought it might rain. Next thing I know, someone lit some firecrackers just as his car drove by. A man then ran right at me from behind a fence by the train yard and handed me a rifle and said, “hold onto this”. A nice FBI man then tapped me on the shoulder and said that he would take care of it. He said his name was J. Edgar Hoover. Lots of people were running to an office building but I left because I was thirsty, thinking about all those Dr. Peppers.

Stupid is as stupid does,
Forrest Gump

Besides Katie, 60s chick & C. Carroll Adams PhD., I also saw Oswald shot live on TV. Used to shows like Bonanza, I turned & asked my Dad, "Daddy did that really happen?" I also was home sick, when I saw on Live TV, The Challenger explode, and The World Trade Center towers, burn & collapse.

Auburn Annie! I swear, I typed that exact thing about the Beatles after my comment. I just backspaced over and I don't even know why I did. funny. not ha ha funny I mean funny curious.

I'm the same age as jlh and Sally (age 9 in 1963). I remember that my mother had a crush on JFK from before he was elected. Whenever he popped up on TV, my job was to holler, "mom! Your boy's on TV again!"

Nearly everyone at the poor Catholic school I attended were also Kennedy fans. One of the women from the "mother's club" came in, crying, and told us the president had been shot. I could hear lots of crying down the hall. Our teacher, Mrs. Moreno, kept right on teaching. One mother came to pick up her daughter, and Mrs. Moreno said to her, in front of the class, "just because the president was shot is no reason to go home early."

At home, it was like a close relative had died. My mother, now 82, still hasn't gotten over losing "her boy."

Regarding the Beatles - sometime in November 1963, Walter Cronkite played a clip of the weird English group from Liverpool. (Cronkite talked about this in one of his retrospective broadcasts a few years ago).

Just a small, further contribution:

My stepfather discussed the incident with me this morning.

He said that the TV coverage of the event was largely cryptic for many Americans, because in those days, the news reporters didn't have handheld videocameras like they do now. The report had to be done with still camera shots and with actual film, both of which had to be sent back to the studio and hand-developed in order to feature them in a newscast.

So what my stepfather remembers is lots of "talking heads", like Cronkite, delivering the story, and how they kept showing the same still camera images over and over again, and the same little snippets of film.

Rasputin: was that Myra Breckingridge hospital? Hmm, well that explains a lot lol

I was in 2nd grade Catholic school in Fairfax, VA, 20 miles out of DC. The nun told us we had to go home, our parents would be meeting us. Halfway on my walk home, my mom met me, and told me that the President had been shot. I remember thinking, "Why would anyone do that? He is so handsome, and my crush." At home, my brother was home from Jr. High with a cold, the TV on, and a wallpaper contractor was putting on paper in our bathroom. Purple and pick flocked French Poodles. He said, "I am glad he was shot, I hated him!" I remember thinking how outrageous that he voiced his opinion in our house. Everytime I used that bathroom the paper reminded me of that day. Several days later Dad decided on the spur of the moment that we were going to Arlington Cemetary to see President Kennedy's body brought into the gates. We got there in time, the crowd along the road was thick, but quiet. I was on my Dad's shoulders. I could hear a pin drop, and still hear the clip-clop of the horses' hooves as they brought him by. Later, we were on the cover of LIFE magazine in the crowd. I was a dot of red.

I was in my ninth grade type class when the principle announced that President Kennedy had just been assassinated. I went numb. I felt that JFK was the neatest thing since sliced bread. Yong girls were crying in the halls and I never felt like that again until John Wayne went to the happy hunting ground. I watched the shooting on national TV a hundred times. Read Life magazine over and over again. I could never quite figure out why an assassin would assassinate Lee Harvey Oswald either. Something was definitely rotten in the USA. It wasn't until I developed a grasp of HITCHCOCK, LADYBIRD JOHNSON, THE CIA, MARILYN MONROE, and plots inspired by a trillion theories, that we'd never really know. I think we'll find out the real story on area 51 before the verdict is in on KENNEDY.

I was in 8th-grade English class in Monett, MO and we all had just come back from lunch when the principal came on the school intercom and made the announcement that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. As I remember, the whole class went silent. Later, in the girl's restroom, many of my classmates were crying. School was dismissed early. Living in the country, I and my siblings rode the bus everyday to and from school. It was very quiet on the way home. The bus driver had on a news station, not the usual rock music radio station out of Kansas City. The black and white RCA console TV was on when we got off the bus and stayed on the whole weekend for all the funeral. I remember being awed at the numbers of ordinary people who filed past the casket in the Rotunda. My parents were conservative Republicans but even they were shocked and appalled that someone would assassinate the President of the United States. Even to this day, all my family, even my mother, agree that more people were involved than just Lee Harvey Oswald, especially given the noted inaccuracy of that Chinese rifle he supposedly used. Looking back, it was definitely the beginning of the end of innocence and trust in our government and those feelings were only accentuated by Viet Nam and Watergate. I think we as a nation became quite jaded and cynical after those years and things have just never been the same since.

I was 6 years old and had stayed home from school sick that day. I must not have been very sick because I was on the patio playing when my grandmother came out of the house crying to tell me the president was dead. My friends and I often played a game we simply called "The President" where each of us were members of the first family (I was always Caroline and I believe I was about her age at that time). I specifically remember our favorite game was sitting in the frame of a wrought iron table and pretending we were riding in the president's car (John John & I in the back, of course) waving at the crowds. We were all so fascinated with what we now know as the Camelot White House family. This was the first of many memories I have of exactly where I was and what I was doing when momentous events occured...the Moon Landing...the Challenger Explosion...9/11.

I was born in '57.

We were told the President got shot and they sent us home. I can still remember walking accross the schoolyard and going home.

I remember watching the funeral at home (I am pretty sure that school was cancelled for the day, then; never gave it a thought until just now) and somewhere in this house are the photos from the funeral; our local paper ran a big feature about the president being shot.)

@Racy: I was in my 20s, working at a corporate office like Sterling Cooper. When I heard the news, I and everyone else in the office were running around like chickens and bumping into each other, asking questions and crying. I asked one man, "What are we going to do? We love him, we need him." He just coldly replied, "they'll assign someone else as president." I wanted to slap him.
Then I went home and watched the TV non-stop. The president of that company looked like JFK and was very well liked.

I was 9 years old when FDR died. No television then, just radio. That was another very sad day and he was very much loved too. But at least he died a natural death.

I also vaguely remember when Pearl Harbor was bombed. I was 5, but remember everyone rushing to the radio and my father deciding to join the marines and going to Okinawa.

Lastly, I remember VE day and VJ day, when all the stores were giving out free candy and ice cream, and balloons and confetti were everywhere.

I was in 6th grade that day. a kid who had been sent to the principals office came running in to the classroom , telling us the President had been shot. yeah right; that's not funny were the most common replies. while we were still riled up the PA (introduced that year) confirmed the story. President Kennedy had been shot . I think it was around 1:50pm. A little later we heard he was dead. All the young liberal idealistic teachers wound up in the hallways crying.We were let out at 3pm regular time and sent home with no special counseling. I went to the playground and played touch football with my friends and we b.s.ed about it. On saturday I came in from playing in the afternoon, and my Dad told me Oswald had been shot right on TV. boy was I pissed that I missed it. I am not trying to sound callous about it , just relaying how I felt as an eleven year old boy. I was really glad that the NFL did not cancel football the next day. I was also happy to find out that school, however was cancelled for Monday. I was sorry they killed Kennedy, but pretty happy about missing a day of school. It makes me sound like a rotten kid, which I was. Little did I know that the end of my innocence started that weekend, and the America I was coached to love through all those great war movies and other stuff would never be the same.Nov22 1963 was a big dividing line in my life. Part of what I love about Madmen is that it takes me back to such happy times, slightly blurred by childhoods innocence. Many exciting things followed in the world and in my life, but I guess I became jaded that weekend.

@wasthere wow I bet VE and VJ days were wonderful for you. My dad who was born in Poland told me stories of the day WW1 ended. All the Church bells were ringing, and for months, soldiers from all different countries could be seen walking, yes walking back to their countries. He was 4 years old but he remembered it vividly.

I was in the 3rd grade and my teacher was named Miss Farrell - I kid you not. When the announcement came the teacher took me out to the coat room (out of all the students) and she was shaking and crying and telling me I have to be strong for my mother who was pregnant (and single). My sister was born December 1st.

@monty

LOL, no, it's spelled "BrAckenridge". No relation to the lovely transgendered Raquel Welch.

Brackenridge was, in the 60's, Austin's biggest and most important hospital. It's still important, but now there are others.

It's where I was born. my parents were so poor, I was placed in the charity ward of the hospital. My dad, when he came to view me through the glass, had no trouble ID'ing me: I was the only Caucasian baby. A literally true story.

I was a junior in high school when the announcement came over the PA that the President was wounded. Despite the rulings against school prayer, I seem to remember the teacher saying something like we could pray if we wanted to. I was having a hard time believing anyone could shoot the President - it seemed like such an impossible thing. I didn't know anyone who didn't like him, and I was completely unaware, politically, why anyone would want him dead. (Duh!) I don't remember the negative talk that goes on these days about presidents - it seemed to me as if the whole country was behind him. My political interest just wasn't on the level then that it is now and my awareness, obviously, was nil. I remember later thinking that it might have been done because of equal rights talk, but in the moment, I had no clue whatsoever.

When the announcement came that he had died, I was in such shock that, even though I remember being on the bus going home, I have no memory of anything between leaving the classroom and being on the bus. Everyone was so quiet, and I just couldn't seem to stop quietly crying. I personally thought he was the greatest - so young and handsome with such a lovely family, and seemed so earnest and caring. An ex boyfriend of mine took pity on me and came to sit beside me. He held my hand and didn't say much except it would be OK. He'd never been so sensitive to me before.

When I arrived home, workmen had just finished putting in new cabinets and flooring in the kitchen. My mom was standing in the kitchen and when she saw my tear-streaked face, she said "Now what??" I was incredulous and said, "Didn't you hear the news?" She just said, "If I can live through my father being assassinated when I was 14, I can certainly live through this!" I had no idea what she was talking about, as she had never told me that.

I think it was mostly my father and I who were glued to the news for the next couple of days. I was so sad to watch the family as they grieved and I found Caroline and John John to be such tragic little figures, and wondered how awful it would be for them to have to grow up without their dad, and how Jackie would ever go on. I was awestruck at how composed she was, especially in light of the fact that I could hardly keep it together. I remember thinking that if this was the way prominent wives were expected to behave, that it was a good thing I wasn't one, and that I had no desire to become one.

I, too, saw Oswald shot live, and all I could think was, besides the horror of it, that I was glad someone gave him what he deserved. I didn't grasp what it truly meant that he wouldn't be undergoing trial and couldn't understand why all the news media were saying the nation had been cheated. I didn't think at the time there was any mystery as to what happened, only why he had done it.

Oswald resembled another ex boyfriend of mine, and even my mother remarked about it. It gave me the creeps. In December, that ex boyfriend was on vacation from his freshman year at college and decided to pay us a surprise visit. One of the first sentences out of his mouth was, "Hey, did you catch our cool shooting down there in Texas? WooHoo!" I just stared at him, aghast and wondering what had changed him into such an insensitive jerk. The creepy feeling intensified. I was glad he would be going back to school so I wouldn't have to pretend to feel friendly toward him. Later, I wrote him a letter telling him how heartbroken I was to see what he had become. It brought him back into my life still later. I should have hung on to the horror I initially felt, because he really had gone from being an idealistic person to someone who no longer lived in my world.

I also watched the Challenger explosion live, and saw the second plane hit the Twin Towers live. The world at your door is an unsettling thing.

I remember I was listening to the radio and ironing, I heard there had been shots fired. I turned the tv on and watched the rest of the day, Needless to say nothing got done that day. I do remember feeling we were living in some third world country. How could this happen? I did not know who to blame.. I knew there was a lot of conflicted feelings about Kennedy. My family loved him. Not everyone did. They let the children out of school early. I don't remember them really understanding what was going on. However, later on they told me that they were frightened by it.
That and Bobby's death really bothered me,, I cried for days.