50th Anniversary of JFK Assassination

[KarenInWA]

This major US historical event happened 10 years before I was born. Right now I am glued to my TV watching all of the specials commemorating this event. I am fascinated with the whole Kennedy legacy and that time period in history. How many of you were alive when this happpened? What are your memories? How did things change after this tragedy took place?

KarenInWA

[thegrammalady]

I was 12 years old and in 7th grade. We were told about it during lunch.  Next class was choir.  School was dismissed. I walked home and found my Mother sitting on the couch with the news on crying.  What else I remember was Elisha Green. Who refused to go to class.  He sat behind the choir portable and played taps on his trumpet over and over again.

[CebuShan]

I was three. I was in the bathtub and my grandmother was giving me a bath. We had the radio on as usual when the announcement came and my grandmother started crying.
I wasn't sure if I was having a true memory until I asked my grandmother if she remembered a that happening. She did remember it exactly as I did!
My more vivid memory was when Robert Kennedy was shot.

[kristina]

It sent shock-waves around Europe
because many Europeans feared another war as a result ...

[Rerun]

I was 2.5 years old. So I have no memory of it.  But, like you Karen, I'm mesmerised by the Kennedy's' .  I'm reading The Patriarch right now which starts when they came over from Ireland. 

I've been watching all the shows this week.  I just don't think Lee Harvey Oswald did it.  But, he was killed and had no trial. 
I also did not know Caroline had children.  Her 20 year old son looks a lot like Grandpa.  His name is also John and they call him Jack.  We may see another Kennedy in the White House.  AND I'm a Republican.....

The first book my Mom ever let me buy when you had book orders and I was in the 3rd grade was Meet John F. Kennedy.  I still have it and let my great Nephew borrow it and take it to school this week.  I asked him, "Do you know who John F. Kennedy was?"  He said 'No'.  I told him a little of what happened plus the book starts out with the Assassination so Jacob was hooked.

An interesting family with a lot of tragedy.

Rerun, Moderator    

[obsidianom]

I remember it vividly and it still breaks my heart. I was born and raised right near JFK and my grandmother lived on the next street from his birthplace. My wifes suurogate mother had a house right behind the Kennedy compound  in Hyannisport and I walked the same beaches he played touch football with his family. His brother Ted hung around and sailed with my wifes suurogate sister. So he was like family to us.  It changed world history at the time . I dont believe Vietnam would have ever escalated if he had lived.
To remain anonymous I will say only my wifes uncle was a member of the Kennedy cabinet. I wont say who but her fathers brother was in the immediate cabinet which is another interesting intersection in my wifes and my life. I grew up with the kennedys and Fitzgeralds(they lived on my street) and my wifes uncle was in his cabinet. Yesterday was hard for both my wife and I. WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN.
I did see a fascinating documentary that looked with modern pathology and ballistics into the assassination. The verdict was Oswald (or whomever was in the book depository ) only fired 2 shots . The third kill shot was fired ACCIDENTALLY by a secret service agent who pulled out an assault rifle at the first shot and then at the moment he pulled it up the car jerked forward and he accidently fired from behind  Kennedy  and into his head. It actually made sense as no one could have fired 3 shots from the book depository in 5.6 seconds with that old bolt action rifle and hit anything. The kill shot was a different bullet type then the first 2 which were full metal jacket . The last was an assault type that exploded in Kennedys head into fragments.  They didnt look at whether there was a conspiracy with Oswald , just who fired the third shot and its trajectory based on todays science. The secret service then covered up the mistake by withholding all kinds of eveidence they were in charge of. The Zapruder film actually shows the guy(Hickey) with the assault rifle in his hands up in the air behind Kennedy. It was amazing to look at it that way. There could have been a conspiracy but the real kill shot WAS AN ACCIDENT. AMAZING.

[kristina]

Hello obsidianom,

Thanks for sharing ...

Many Europeans suspect that JFK was assassinated
because he opposed America’s involvement with Vietnam...

[noahvale]

*

[kristina]

 Thank you noahvale for your detailed explanation.

... it is interesting what you write, I never knew this before...

                    Thanks again from Kristina