A bad, bad Friday

November 22, 1963: Death of the President
[www.jfklibrary.org]
Shortly after noon on November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated as he rode in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, Texas.


On To Dallas
The presidential party left the hotel and went by motorcade to Carswell Air Force Base for the thirteen-minute flight to Dallas. Arriving at Love Field, President and Mrs. Kennedy disembarked and immediately walked toward a fence where a crowd of well-wishers had gathered, and they spent several minutes shaking hands.

The first lady received a bouquet of red roses, which she brought with her to the waiting limousine. Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, were already seated in the open convertible as the Kennedys entered and sat behind them. Since it was no longer raining, the plastic bubble top had been left off. Vice President and Mrs. Johnson occupied another car in the motorcade.

The procession left the airport and traveled along a ten-mile route that wound through downtown Dallas on the way to the Trade Mart where the President was scheduled to speak at a luncheon.

The Assassination
Crowds of excited people lined the streets and waved to the Kennedys. The car turned off Main Street at Dealey Plaza around 12:30 p.m. As it was passing the Texas School Book Depository, gunfire suddenly reverberated in the plaza.

Bullets struck the president's neck and head and he slumped over toward Mrs. Kennedy. The governor was shot in his back. 

The car sped off to Parkland Memorial Hospital just a few minutes away. But little could be done for the President. A Catholic priest was summoned to administer the last rites, and at 1:00 p.m. John F. Kennedy was pronounced dead. Though seriously wounded, Governor Connally would recover.

The president's body was brought to Love Field and placed on Air Force One. Before the plane took off, a grim-faced Lyndon B. Johnson stood in the tight, crowded compartment and took the oath of office, administered by US District Court Judge Sarah Hughes. The brief ceremony took place at 2:38 p.m.

I remember that day in Millington, Tennessee. I was in 5th grade, and was called to the principal's office where he instructed me to go outside and lower the flag to half-mast. I have no idea why I was chosen. I remember it as a cloudy, chilly fall day.

60 years next year.

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The arts are not luxuries but assets that give way more than they cost.
--Ronald Tucker on YouTube

A mind is like a parachute. It doesn't work if it is not open.
--Frank Zappa

My cousin got married 60 years ago on this day. Sadly, he passed away a couple of months ago.
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third grade.

home with a cold.

sitting on my parents bed watching re-runs of "the gale storm show" on metromedia channel 5 in NYC (the precursor to today's FoxTv)

and then the world changed.

so sad.

then and still now.

rob

Preschool and all the teachers were crying. Mom later told me she had had a bit of a crush on JFK after meeting him at the Beach Club... He was a bit older than she was. Fortunately for me she met my Dad some time later.

Today also would have been my dad's 95th birthday. Miss you Dad!

Parking car on way to haircut when the first radio report came on, disregarded it as media speculation and hype (even back then I was a cynic). Sat thru haircut watching TV reports then reality began to sink in.

Barber who was also a local bookie was so distraught he asked us all to leave, took his (bookie income) phone off the hook and closed up shop.

Next 4-5 days were spent in a dazed fog.

Not everyone in Dallas felt kindly about JFK

My High School math class was about to start when our teacher told us. School was let out and I remember everything being surreal for the next three days.

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Northern California Coast

My 8th grade art teacher asked the office to turn off the PA system tapped into the local CBS radio station in our room because we were taking a ‘very important’ test.

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Saint Cloud, Minnesota, where the weather is wonderful even when it isn't.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/2022 01:31PM by Speedy.

I was in the 9th grade at home recovering from leg surgery. My mother cried when Walter Cronkite announced that JFK had died. Memories of that time are still vivid.

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I was in 8th grade, parochial school. The parish priest came to the school and went to each classroom to tell us what had happened.

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My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals

3rd grade in a parochial school in MA. The nun who was principal of the school made the announcement to all 4 grades, ____ Kennedy in my class started crying. Supposedly her family were distant cousins to The Kennedys.

Eleventh grade and late morning on the west coast. I had a "team teaching" class up on the third floor classroom and some guy comes running in with the news, such as he was able to provide it. They didn't send us home early for various reasons, but it was a hard day. I remember looking down Wilshire Blvd on my walk home and noticing for the first time that there were flags atop the buildings, and I noticed that every one was at half mast.

I always felt that Kennedy wouldn't have continued the buildup in Viet Nam the way LBJ did, but it is unlikely Kennedy would have been as successful in getting the Civil Rights Act passed.

True.

JFK wouldn't have gotten the Civil Rights Act and a number of other measures passed the then existing Dixicrats but he was able to and did stand up to the military/industrial complex, something Johnson - coming from a Senatorial (read compromising) background - was neither able nor inclined to do.

I wasn't around for this one. I was technically around for RFK, but much too young to have a memory. I do have a very early memory of the news of someone significant being shot, and reverse engineering makes me think it was likely Wallace.

Sounds cliche, but as as an elementary school kid, that was the day my innocence died. I hadn’t imagined that something like that could happen in America.

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Where is there dignity unless there is also honesty? - Cicero

It's just and still so crazy that Priscilla Johnson McMillan knew both Kennedy and Oswald.

And let's not forget the Staten Island Ferry Disaster that occurred on that same day.

[www.sioctopusdisaster.com]

Quote
GGD
And let's not forget the Staten Island Ferry Disaster that occurred on that same day.

[www.sioctopusdisaster.com]

Oh, is that hoax site still around trying to capitalize on the date?