I was in school and my best friend told me about the President. She said the teachers were talking about it in the hall.

I don't remember it.

I was in 2nd grade. The nuns told us about it before we left for the day. Went home and watched it all on the news. Mom crying. What was very shocking was watching Jack Ruby shoot and kill Lee Harvey Oswald on TV live as it happened. Horrifying back in the day. There wasn't the violence back then that we're inured to now. It was all anyone talked about for the next few days up to the funeral. All the while, though, life went on as normal. The world did not stop.

@Laurie: The world might not have stopped but it slowed almost to a halt.

I was born in 1954, so I was 9 years old in the 4th grade. I remember it vividly.

I was in a Catholic school; nearly everyone supported, and had affection for, JFK. He was "our" President (Catholic).

There were several mothers in the school holding a meeting. In the early afternoon one of the mothers came to our room and announced the President was shot. Her eyes were red and she was holding back the tears. I don't remember her name, but she was a tall redhead.

A little later we could hear loud crying down the hall, from where the mothers were meeting. Then redhead mom again comes to our room and tells us the president is dead.

Our teacher then told us to get back to work. The mother of one girl in the class came to pick her up early. The teacher made a sarcastic remark to the girl as she was leaving, "just because the president is dead is no reason to miss school." I think she was one of the few people at the school was not a fan of JFK.

The odd thing for me personally is that I have no exact memory of when I first heard about the assassination. I have very distinct memories of being glued to the TV for days. I can remember watching Oswald getting shot or at least seeing the clip of it on TV. I can remember how horrified and upset we all were. My mother was devastated and got into a very acrimonious argument with my grandparents because she felt they were not properly devastated as well. They had voted for Nixon and had tried to convince my mother to vote for him as well and not for the "ladies man", as my grandparents referred to JFK. They did not have a TV, so they were at our house to watch ours whenever there was something they wanted to see. I do remember my uncle telling them to go home if they could not respect my mother's feelings. I know that part of my mother's distress stemmed from the fact that she, too, was left a young widow little children, and she felt very badly for Jacqueline Kennedy.

I was 18 in 1963 and working at ABC-TV in NYC at 64th Street and Broadway (Lincoln Center Area). That Friday we took one of our co-workers to lunch because it was her last day. It was extremely warm that November day and I was very hot in my winter coat. (It was one of those swing coats with scarf attached!). We went to a really nice restaurant called Fleur De Lis. Toward the end of our meal (there were about 8 of us) I noticed a woman at the next table put her head down on the table. Then as we were getting up to leave I noticed a few people at other tables acting strangely. As we left the restaurant and started back to the office we saw all the ABC camera trucks pulling out of the garage at 66th Street heading south. At that point we all realized something was very wrong.

When we arrived back at the office we were told the President had been shot and a little while later that he had died. At this point one of my co-workers became hysterical and we had to call the nurse. She was my age and her father had died a few months before this.

I don't remember if I left work any earlier than usual that day but I do remember my subway ride home and the eerie feeling I got noticing everyone on my very crowded subway car staring into space like zombies.

By the way, every ABC employee received a 2 record memorandum album of all 4 days from ABC Radio beginning with: "We interrupt this program..."

I was in junior high school (middle school I guess it's called now) in 7th grade. The principal announced that the president had been shot in Dallas and school was dismissed. I walked home, as usual, (5 blocks straight one way, no street crossings) and my mom was driving to get me (she had called the school to say she was coming after me but they said they'd already let classes out until Monday) so she met me about halfway home and I noticed her eyes were red as we drove home.

I was witness to history, along with the rest of my family all that afternoon (not long after we got home, the announcement (by Walter Cronkite) that the president had died, and to all the rest of that weekend's events.

I remember tearing up often during the televised coverage, especially when the plane that flew President Kennedy back to Washington was shown unloading the casket containing his body and Mrs. Kennedy was helped down from the plane still wearing her blood-stained skirt, with her stockings stained with her husband's blood, as well. During the weekend's events the thought kept recurring to me "This can't be happening, we'll wake up soon." as is the mind's coping mechanism in the face of extreme tragedy, I suppose.

I remember it made a big impression on me when she walked behind the caisson carrying her husband's casket, and the sight of the riderless horse, with the riding boots in the stirrups facing backward. It was all so strangely majestic and tragic all at once.

Big memories of a sad sad time....

Here's an interesting, very comprehensive link that was published in TV Guide:

http://jeff560.tripod.com/tvgjfk.html

what i remember about those days is from what my mother told me while i was growing up. at that time i was only 1 and 7 months old. my mother has always told me about how she was watching As The World Turns that afternoon when it was interrupted by a news flash and Walter Cronkite came on the air to make the announcement that the President had been shot. Seeing it recreated on the show was truly a memorable moment for me.

7th grade, St. Aloysius, Springfield Illinois. We all went next door to the parish church to say a Rosary, en masse. With 48-50 in each classroom and 2 sections of each class that meant 800 children and nuns saying the rosary together. Everything stopped for that long weekend. All we did was watch TV. If anything the grief slowly ebbed out of us throughout the weekend so that by the end of the funeral we were drained and ready to move on. I cannot see “Breaking News” or “we interrupt this program to bring you…” without assuming another prominent person has been shot. RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, Reagan, Ford, Ford, have conditioned me to assume the worst. I pray I never see the announcement on Obama. Most folks I work with are too young to remember.