Were you alive when Kennedy was shot?

Question

If you where, were where you? How did you feel? What was the mood at the time?

If you where not, what was your 'Kennedy moment'?

NED S, Thanks for pointing out I got where and were mixed up.

Sorry about that.

Answer 1

no

Answer 2

Yes I remember... it was the year I left the air force, and in the previous year the Cuban Missile crisis had brought the USSR and NATO to confront each other in a very serious way.

Fortunately for the world, JFK was US President and by not listening to a group of hotheaded military and civilian advisers, he averted what would have been a disaster for the world
.
I am sure that is why a lot of people, even those who knew of his private life weaknesses, were devastated by his untimely death.

When a nation holds such a dominant role in the world it needs a statesman at the helm who can think both long term and short term. JFK was one such man, and had the present incumbent of that high office been in charge in 1962, most of the people who are answering your question would never had existed and people like me probably would have died 43 years ago.

Not to lead a country or coalition of countries into unnecessary wars is the mark of a true statesman. Time and political strategies brought down the USSR, and now Russia is no longer a threat.

RIP JFK - the last American politician whom all the world could admire.

Answer 3

I remember it well. I was 13. When the news broke, it was as if a hush came over the entire world. Time stood still for three days as the entire country stayed glued to their TV sets. Businesses closed. Schools closed. And for those three days no crimes were committed other than the first live televised murder: Ruby killing Oswald.
When the funeral was over and they lower Kennedy's casket into the ground, we all wondered what we would do next. A great sense of loss, a feeling that the world had changed forever fell upon everybody.
9/11 didn't compare at all. The closest comparison since was the death of Elvis.

Answer 4

I was 10 when Kennedy was shot. If I remember right, the news came in the late evening. My family and I were visiting friends who were of Irish extraction at the time and as Kennedy was of Irish descent there was a great deal of weeping and wailing. There was a terrible sense of foreboding of nuclear war. You must remember that at this time the Cold War was at its peak and Russia and the US were at loggerheads and the threat of nuclear war was never far away. In fact Kennedy had faced down the Rusians the year before over missiles in Cuba, and forced them to back off. With the death of Kennedy everyone feared the worst and thought that the human race was going to be extinct in the near future. Large scale Civil Aid practices were held. My father, a policeman, disappeared for weeks on some of these civil aid operations, called mobile columns. The mobile columns were a mix of civil police and military convoys that were supposed to go into areas of nuclear blast and restore order and assist in restoring power and water supplies.

Answer 5

I was on leave from the BritArmy in London at the time drinking with some friends in a bar when news of the assassination became public. London's Theatre-land closed down, most pubs and bars closed. People went home quietly. The President is dead, long live the Republic. A quiet respect for the USA and the American people in their darkest hour of grief. Camelot - the once and future king, etc.

Answer 6

Nope, I don't remember, was born Christmas Day 1962 so I was only 11 months old. There are two of those kinds of moments for me: 1. When President Ronald Reagan was shot. 2. Was the attacks of 9/11/01, I will never forget that day, it was so scary not knowing what was going to get hit next!

Answer 7

I was 4 1/2 years old, and the Kennedy funeral is one of the first moments of life I remember. I remember my mom was sick that day, and no doctor was available to make a house call. Yes, doctors used to make hour calls.

Answer 8

You are getting were and where mixed up. As I recall it was the same feeling as the world trade disaster except everyone seemed to take it more personally as if kennedy was a member of everyones family

Answer 9

I was watching British TV at the time, which was showing live coverage of Kennedys Motorcade as it travelled along. I forget what the event was all about. I was twenty one at the time, and I remember him slumping over in the car.

Answer 10

I was alive. but only 6 at the time. I remember it because my mum and grandma were watching about it on the television.

What I think made it more impactful in the UK was that we were only just in the early days of seeing news from other countries in near enough real time, and to see something as major as that.... I think it probably affected the audiences of that era as much as the pictures of 9/11 did for most of us.

Answer 11

Yes, I was a freshman in high school. I was in gym class when the teacher told us he had been shot. We were all sitting on the floor exercising. We all were stunned, no one cried yet. Teacher closed down and told us to go shower. While in locker room they announced he died. We were screaming and wailing. As I walked down the hallway to leave school (as they let us out early) every student i passed were crying. I walked with my girlfriend to her house and we stood watching the news and saw President Johnson taking the oath of office. I shall never forget that day!

EDIT: Is that "LitPooo" a human??