Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Where Were You 45 Years ago Today?

In my first grade class in Lake Jackson, Texas. It was the last day of school before being let out for Thanksgiving holiday. We had made these little cardboard canoes and I had mine ready to take home.

The principal made an announcement over the PA system. Didn't udnerstand it, the teacher had to explain. Still remember that like it was last year.

Glad everybody here isn't some snot-nosed kid. I was 29 years old and working as a diesel mechanic in Alamosa, Co. The shop foreman stepped out and tells us that Kennedy got killed. We all felt surprise and some shock so we listened for a while and then went back to work,

45 years later and it still isn't all sorted out.

I was getting ready to go back to 5th grade after lunch. I went home for lunch as school was a half block away. A classmate came by and said he had been shot. Told a story about the shooter popping up out of a manhole and shooting as he went by. That kid was such a liar.

Everyone was shook up. People felt differently about our presidents back then, whether they voted for them or not.

Killing turkeys that were sold for a FFA fund raising project. I was a junior at Altoona Rural High School in Kansas.

Writing Mk 45 Mod I torpedo manuals and other undersea-warfare manuals at Westinghouse Ordnance.

High school sophomore in Chicago. Someone flung open the door to our classroom and burst in shouting, "Kennedy has been shot - Kennedy has been shot". Being that our school was in a rough neighborhood, as I recall my first thought was, "wonder who this Kennedy person is?", then through all the commotion in the hall outside our classroom door I heard, "President Kennedy has been shot".

I was a freshman in high school and remember the teacher being called to the room's door by someone and coming back ashen faced. We were all shocked of course but also somewhat angry or disappointed that this could happen here in our country. We then watched much of the funeral proceedings on TV; it was a very sobering time.

4th grade, in love with Mrs.Burg, the geography teacher! Probably waiting for Saturday to come, so I could go checking the trapline, and hunting with Grampa. I miss him to this day.

My story is Plinker's story. Setting in class and the Principal, Mr. Mains came in and told us. I remembered just a few short years before, our first grade teacher let us watch his inaugeration on a black and white TV. They combined both first grade classes in one room together to watch it. Mr. mains waited until late in the afternoon to tell us so a short time later we were all on the busses home.

Since it was Friday we got the weekend off and we also got the whole week off for the funeral. We walked to my aunt Gertrudes just down the road to watch it on TV. My dad was on the road working driving truck so we never got so see his reaction. Mom and aunt Gertrude cried a lot. kwg

i was in 8th grade (at a catholic school) when the nun told the class. although i'm not catholic (my dad thought the catholic school offered a better education than the public schools in maryland), the nun and another nun (from admin i guess) came in and numerous prayers were said. i believe school was let out early.

Working in an engine room,.....in a light and reasonably fast "Tramp" freighter.

Carib., West Coast, and South American ports.

PERFECT place to be at the tender age of 16.

My Dad was the "Port Captain" for the outfit.

A 16 year old's now considered a "child"

that's pathetic,.....in the truest sense of the word.

GTC

Crapomento,....missed the anniversary,....

Offshore, from La Guira Venezuela,.....making a landing / docking,....our radio operator got a bit freaky,.....but getting the vessel warped in to the pier took prescedence.

So,....I was in Venezuela,....hearin' about "Shot"

GTC

I was at home with my parents wishing I was old enough to go to school. I distinctly remember Earl Giltvedt from Prior Electric in Roseau, Minnesota where we lived, bringing a small television into our home so we could watch the events for a period of time. It was the only time we had a television in our home growing up.

6th grader at Lone Pine School in Medford, Oregon. One of the few things from my childhood that I distinctly remember.

3rd grade. As I remember it, we had just returned to class from recess. My teacher Mrs. Higgins came into the classroom crying and telling us Kennedy had been shot. I think my parents might still have a copy of the local paper from the day he was killed.

I was preschool at the time. I do not remember him getting shot but I do remember the funeral on TV. I also remember my sister explaining to me what a president was.

I was born on this day 45 years ago

Just ONE???

I was in the 1931 Communications Squadron day room at Elmendorf ABF shooting pool, when the news came. --- Mel

I remember it well. I was eating my lunch in the lunchroom where I was working. My Dad walked in and came over saying he had just heard some awful news. We turned on a radio and found out that the rumor he had heard was true. One thing I remember vividly was that was the only time I ever saw all the card games stop before one o'clock in all the years I worked there.

One other thing sticks in my mind like it was yesterday concerning this. On the day of Kennedy's funeral Dad and I were out deer hunting since the factory where we worked had decided to shut down that day. A very nice whitetail buck came right at my Dad and he missed it five times. To make matters worse I missed it twice in between his shots although it was a fair piece from me and going full tilt. Some folks actually had the nerve to tell us that the reason we missed it was because we weren't supposed to be hunting but rather showing respect by staying home.

You can about imagine what this "brash" nineteen year old who hunted every spare minute he had during the Wisconsin nine day deer season had to say to them. Some even told me they hoped that I would grow up someday but they had doubts that would happen!!

Now that I am a bit more matured as I look back there isn't a doubt in my mind that in the same circumstances I wouldn't have changed a thing!!