To the best of my recollection…I was only seven at the time…I was in school when I learned that President Kennedy had been shot and killed.
The main thing I recall is that I’d never seen adults cry until that point. My teachers were crying and when I got home, my folks were crying. I was more upset by that than by Kennedy’s death, because the presidency, death…these were ephemera to me. But adults crying…that scared me. I didn’t know they did such things.
When Johnson was elected, I remember watching the inauguration and asking when they would shoot him. My parents were appalled by the question. They didn’t understand that I knew Lincoln had been shot and that Kennedy had been shot. So I just figured that was SOP. You’re a president until someone kills you, at which point a new one is brought in. Oh yeah. I was a real Quiz Kid.
When I grew up, I did an internship at the Gannett newspaper chain. When the anniversary of the assassination came around, out of curiosity I checked the newspapers’ editorials before JFK’s death and the day after. I found exactly what I thought I would. The day before, the editorials were scathing. Critical of JFK, his policies, his every decision. The day after he was shot…180 degree turn. He was a president with vision, he was going to carry the country to greatness, etc. I just found that…interesting.
PAD
• 
I seem to recall something similar when Princess Di was killed. The week before, the news was highly critical, but afterwards, a 180 degree difference.
Funny, is it not, that so many are affraid to speak ill of the dead. If it were possible to care less I ‘still’ would not care less what anyone had to say about me after I die. I would prefer the honesty. I would think (hope) that the likes of JFK and Princess Dianna have at least, if not decidedly more, integrity than I.
Personally, I can’t stand listening to all the stuff about JFK. Of course, that could have something to do with the fact that I was born exactly one year afterwards. So, every time I have a birthday, the entire nation goes into spasms of mourning. Fortunately, I have a large enough ego that it doesn’t get to me. *twitch* Much.
And I’m sure they wish they had someone to kill W. Bush just like they did to JFK. It eats the Dems up in side that they no longer have the power in the White House thats why they whine and bìŧçh so much. Funny have you don’t have any Prez kills anymore wonder why is that? I hope Bush gets re-elected just to pìšš øff the Dems. 40 years later no one gives a dam about JFK except when the media covers it.
I would love to see that happen.
DD wrote: “And I’m sure they wish they had someone to kill W. Bush just like they did to JFK. It eats the Dems up in side that they no longer have the power in the White House thats why they whine and bìŧçh so much. Funny have you don’t have any Prez kills anymore wonder why is that? I hope Bush gets re-elected just to pìšš øff the Dems. 40 years later no one gives a dam about JFK except when the media covers it.”
I apologize. I must be getting slow, but I interpreted PAD’s Blog entry as an interesting social commentary/paradox. I didn’t realize that I was supposed to go all partisan. Again, I apologize.
Salutations,
Mitch
I agree with the 2nd post. Princess Di admitted to cheating on her husband and yet to this day she is thought of and blessed as an angel that could do no wrong. I wonder what the world would think of George the curious president if he was snuffed out.
Today is also the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who (yes, it premiered the day of the Kennedy assassination). Many people I know who were too young to remember Kennedy have been sharing where they were when they first saw Doctor Who, if you’re interested.
Today is also the 40th anniversary of Doctor Who (yes, it premiered the day of the Kennedy assassination). Many people I know who were too young to remember Kennedy have been sharing where they were when they first saw Doctor Who, if you’re interested.
I never thought I’d be talking about Doctor Who on a JFK thread. But here goes. As far as I know (I wasn’t alive at the time so I can’t say for 100%), Doctor Who was pre-empted and the actual 40th anniversary is the 23rd. With all the news from the events in Dallas streaming in the BBC decided they should go with hard news and not a show about a mysterious doctor, his niece and two school teachers. No surprise really.
Way too personal and emotionaly draining a subject to bring up for this poster.
40 years? Pfeh. Seems like yestrerday.
I remember being at home watching old Warner Brothers cartoons at lunchtime on what was then CJAY in our area, when they were interrupted with the announcement. We had an ABC outlet in those days and the TV was very quickly switched over. There went the rest of the school day. It was a Friday, my brother’s birthday, and every minute, every second of that day and the week that followed are indelibly burned into my memory.
I often think of that day and that event as one of those pivotal “cosmic junctures”, only in this case our planet got caught on the wrong side of it and nothing has ever been what it was supposed to be since…..
But where were you when you heard JFK, Jr. died?
I honestly find the Kennedys boring. I know exactly two things about JFK: one, that he was assassinated and that his assassination is a topic of discussion on which nearly everybody has a theory, and two, that he was probably nailing Marilyn Monroe. Nobody seems to remember anything else about him or his presidency. I was born in ’77, so I only know him as a revered figure otherwise enshrouded in mystery. It’s nice that an entire three or four generations had some common ground on this, but try asking someone why it’s important to them. My mom said Kennedy patted her on the head as he walked by her once, but when he died, she knew as much about the man as I do now. She was a pre-teen at the time, and I’m 26. It’d be really nice if someone would try to teach something about his life, rather than his death.
I’m a little puzzled by nekouken’s comments. If you’re that puzzled by JFK, then why don’t you pick up a few books and read up on the man and his presidency? Love ’em, hate ’em or fall somewhere in between, no problem. But why announce to everyone that you don’t know much and then blame that on the failure of some set of teachers who were supposed to tell you all about him? Enh?
Take care, Jon
PETER’S LAST THOUGHT FOR THE NIGHT
Can you be betwixt without being between? If not, why not? If so, what’s the purpose of being both? Should you be required to make a choice, or is there a philosophical conflict?
Think about it.
As Homer Simpson would say, “Mmmmmmm……Twix.”
-Dave O’Connell
And I’m sure they wish they had someone to kill W. Bush just like they did to JFK. It eats the Dems up in side that they no longer have the power in the White House thats why they whine and bìŧçh so much. Funny have you don’t have any Prez kills anymore wonder why is that? I hope Bush gets re-elected just to pìšš øff the Dems. 40 years later no one gives a dam about JFK except when the media covers it. I would love to see that happen.
I’d appreciate it if no other idiots endeavored to hijack this straightforward thread into partisan belligerence. Otherwise, in this case, I *will* shut it down.
PAD
Where was I on November 22nd, 1963? About 17 years away from being born.
But where were you when you heard JFK, Jr. died?
If I remember correctly, it was early morning to mid-afternoon on a Saturday when the plane was reported missing. So, I was doing what I ALWAYS did. I was getting homework done so I could go to the comic store. I was mowing the lawn when I found out about Princess Diana.
The celebrity death that had the biggest impact on me was Jim Henson. I went up to my room and just sat their for hours being fairly quiet.
The day before, the editorials were scathing. Critical of JFK, his policies, his every decision. The day after he was shot…180 degree turn.
Typical. In comic books, you can wear pajamas in broad daylight and become a hero. In real life, you have to get shot first.
Re Doctor Who, the first episode WAS shown on that same day. It went out at 5:15 pm our time (Greenwich Mean Time), which was just after midday in Dallas. The shooting didn’t happen till later, about 6:30 GMT.
Also on that day Aldous Huxley died aged 69… a man who’d foreseen a good deal of what was to come.
Also died 11/22/63: C.S. Lewis.
I remember when Eisenhower died (March 1969) I remarked to my parents that he was the first President or comparable politician I knew of who’d died without being shot.
“But where were you when you heard JFK, Jr. died?”
Interestingly enough, I was doing an internship at a Gannett newspaper at the time. It was a Saturday morning and I was literally the only one in the newsroom, holding down the fort on a day news rarely breaks. I had also been there one week. Once the news hit the televisions, I grabbed the cell phone and my camera, hoped like hëll nothing important would actually happen in the newsroom, and hit the streets getting community reaction.
I wasn’t very interested in JFK Jr. one way or another, but it was enlightening seeing the older people who remembered JFK getting quite emotional.
Paul F. P. Pogue
I’m way too young to remember JFK’s death, but my Mom’s told the story of where she was (class) plenty of times. The only celebrity death I’ve experienced that really shook me was when I found out Phil Hartman had died. He’d been a Simpsons staple for so long, and I’d just started getting into Newsradio that past season, that it was a major punch to the gut.
On the lighter side, one of my favorite Far Side cartoons was always the one where all the animals are sitting around talking about where they were when they heard Bambi’s mom was shot.
I was thirteen, and it was in eighth grade civics class. Our teacher, Mrs. Philhower, was called out of the room and when she returned, with her face ashen, she told us that something terrible had happened, that the President had been shot.
They let us out of school early that day, and riding my bicycle home I was struck by how eerily QUIET everything was. There was hardly a soul on the streets, hardly a car on the roads. It was like an episode of “Twilight Zone”.
I was in the doctor’s office when JFK died. I had an ear infection. I was 3 1/2 months old.
Jess-
I can remember where I was when Jim Henson died too. I was on my 3rd year at the Yale School of Drama and working tech on a production of “Pygmallion” after another student had pulled his back out. The sound guy, who I always thought was a jerk, came in and asked me (very cheerfully) if I had heard that Jim Henson died. I thought it was one of his sick jokes since he knew how much Henson’s work meant to me. Then one of the actors came in and asked me if I was all right since he had heard that Henson had died. Then I knew it was true. I told the stage manager I was going to my station and went to my part of the stage and cried until I had to pull myself together for the show. That was a very sucky day.
Kathleen
I’d have to say Jim Henson’s death was probably the famous person/non-relation death I remember best, as well.
I do have a sense of loss about John Kennedy, and I do have some awareness of what he accomplished -encouraging the flight to the moon, the Cuban missle crisis, his eloquence; but I’m another of the posters born after he died. And Phil Hartman’s death was also quite sad. But Jim Henson’s is the one about which I remember the day.
I was in gym class, at high school. And people were just kind of standing around talking about it for a while. It seemed like such a sad waste, and his Muppets were such great creations …. A few years later, one of my favorite professors, my drama-writing teacher, came down with the same kind of sudden severe pnemonia which had killed Henson. Luckily, he was hospitalized in time, and eventually pulled through fine, but still, scary.
I was six years old, and there’re only a couple of other instances from that period in my life that I can remember exactly where I was at the time (one other was the first time I saw a girl naked, but I’ll wait til Peter has a thread on that to elaborate on it.)
It was about an hour or so after getting out of school, and I was playing in the yard of one of my neighborhood friends. A schoolmate of mine came running by and asked us if we heard that the president had been shot. I remember thinking something to the effect, “Gee, that’s a shame.” At that age, I knew the name of the president and could recognize his picture easily if shown it, but I had no earthly clue of the enormity of the event and its subsequent impact on the world. When I went home later it was all over the news on TV, but for the most part I found it boring and didn’t pay too much attention, although some details like Dallas and Lee Harvey Oswald did filter through. The next morning, (Saturday) after I woke up I was immediately pìššëd that none of my favorite cartoons were on because all the networks were still presenting extensive coverage of the assassination, so the rest of my day was ruined.
Cut to Monday: school was cancelled, and the funeral was on TV. This I did pay attention to, mainly because I was riveted my the spookiness of Chopin’s Funeral March that played as Kennedy’s coffin was being escorted to Arlington Cemetary. The music somehow reminded me of the theme to the Alfred Hitchcock show, which also spooked me a lot (even though I always watched that program.)
It wasn’t too much longer afterward that I did come to appreciate the seriousness of what had happened, and though I more quickly recognized the tragedy of the subsequent assassinations of the 1960s when they happened, I can’t remember where I was when each happened as easily as I do JFK’s. A lot of people have come to say that he is more defined by his death than his accomplishments in life, but I think it’s a shame if people choose to frame him in that way. Yes, I know that he had personal failings that make Clinton look like a choirboy, but I believe that that in essence he was a decent man who was truly on his way to making a profound difference for Americans who needed such, and I can’t think of any president since who has displayed that kind of virtue to the degree he did. Now it seems like it’s all about getting reelected by whatever means necessary, rather than doing what’s truly right. Would the world be a lot better now if Kennedy had lived? Yes, I really think so.
Jon Stover – While it’s true that I could, indeed pick up some books, I always learned best in class. I pay attention to lectures, and that’s where most of my information comes from on most of the things I’m knowledgeable about (namely because I can never remember what book I read something in, whereas with lectures I have the ability to remember the face of the person that told me). Why, in school, did someone percieved as so important recieve such a peripheral treatment?
The crux of this thread, of course, is the old truism that everyone can remember what they were doing when they heard JFK died. My question is, “why?” Sure, the event itself is shocking, and experts galore refuse to let us forget, but why do people who never experienced what made him important (his presidency) in any worthwhile capacity (such as those who were young children at the time) remember it with such clarity? Why is it so important to them?
This is the part nobody really talks about (and honestly, there fewer and fewer people who can talk about such things from first-hand experience). I think the importance of Kennedy to the person should be a companion anecdote to where they were, because as PAD said, there were people who hated his policies, and I’m sure people who hated him personally. Someone mentioned above the fear people have of speaking ill of the dead (I don’t harbor that, of course. I thought Chris Farley, for example, wasn’t funny before he died, I’m not going to give him props simply for having died. Like they say, “dying is easy, comedy is hard”), and as someone unknowledgeable with regards to Kennedy, I can’t help but suspect that this is the reason people don’t talk about JFK as a person or a president when they discuss his death, which, to me, isn’t the part that’s important.
As for Jim Henson, I saw it on the news after coming home from school that day. It was on CNN, and they just rattled it off as a mildly significant obituary. It took a while to sink in, and I’m still not over it. He was, in my opinion, the most important and admirable creative forces in American history. I only wish the movies dedicated to his memory (such as TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze) had been better movies. Jim deserved better than Vanilla Ice.
I was three 1/2 when Kennedy was shot. I remember sitting with my parents, watching the black-and-white TV as Cronkite and other reporters discussed the assassination that night. I have a strong memory of a diagram of JFK’s head and where the bullet had passed through.
I also recall watching the procession to Arlington. The reception was really crappy that day, but it was so somber and moving that it’s stayed with me to this day.
JSM
I wasn’t born yet when Kennedy was shot. I *do* remember the first time I heard John Lennon was shot. I had just turned 11, and I thought it was Jack Lemmon who’d been killed.
Why I knew Jack Lemmon’s name and not John Lennon’s is a mystery to me to this day.
Rob
Paul F. P. Pogue posted:
Interestingly enough, I was doing an internship at a Gannett newspaper at the time. It was a Saturday morning and I was literally the only one in the newsroom, holding down the fort on a day news rarely breaks. I had also been there one week. Once the news hit the televisions, I grabbed the cell phone and my camera, hoped like hëll nothing important would actually happen in the newsroom, and hit the streets getting community reaction.
Gotcha beat, Paul. I currently work for a Gannett newspaper. I started my employment there on Spetember 10, 2001.
That’s right, my second day was 9/11. Which, since I don’t watch morning news programs or listen to the radio on the drive in (I’m a Web designer, not a reporter — I write, but not for the paper [usually — there’s been at least one exception so far]), I found out about when I walked in to mass chaos. The second plane had just hit, and nobody was sure what was going on.
Anyone remember the Red Dwarf episode where the gunman on the grassy knoll was JKF himself?
It was actually a logical inference. In the alternate timelime, JFKs (now well established) Mafia ties ruined his presidency and got him impeached and arrested and disgraced. So, The Dwarf crew brought him back in time to shot himself so he would be a revered martyr.
It was a bit more complicated than that, but it was quite funny.
I was born in ’71, and live in Northern Ireland, and didn’t think I had a connection to JFK death. But a year after my dad died in ’97, a local primary school head teacher told me one of his memories of my dad was being with him when he heard JFK had died. My dad was teaching him how to play the trumpet. It was nice to hear someone elses memory of my dad.
Tying together a few comments, have to admit that my second thought on hearing that Lennon had been shot and killed was to be glad it hadn’t happened the day before. Namely, on my birthday. December 7th has enough problems with Pearl Harbor to also get Lennon’s death on it as well.
As for JFK, it’s struck me as a bit odd that I have no memory of his death. I was just shy of 3 at the time, and do have other memories of news events from that time (Mercury launches; I started out *early* as a space nut) and would think that all the adults crying and acting weird would’ve made an impression. But nope.
And, to be honest, I’ve never understood the whole Kennedy cult thing. While I certainly appreciate the initiation of the space program’s moon mission (although ultimately, that may have done man in space more harm than good), everything I know about Kennedy’s presidency indicates he was mediocre as a President at best, and possibly a walking disaster waiting to happen, between the pills needed to control his various ailments and being more indiscriminate than Clinton in his choice of bed partners.
As for Princess Diana’s death, I was at Worldcon in San Antonio when Connie Willis came up and asked the group I was chatting with if they’d heard about her being in a major car crash. Oddly enough, when I conveyed this info to others, the reaction almost across the board was “…so what’s the punchline?” “No, really, I’m serious.”
We have a family joke that the only reason Teddy is alive is my grandmother only had two daughters. My parents’ wedding was two days after JFK was shot, and my aunt (my mom’s sister) was married right after RFK. Just curious Peter, which Gannett paper did you work for? I’m currently at what used to be Gannett Suburban Newspapers.
I’ve never blamed people for their infidelity, i figure there are worse things they can do, but when they work to do what they feel is right on the grand-scheme, some things should be overlooked.
I was born after JFK died, but everything i ever read about his politics made me admire him.
I remember when Princess Di died though, they cut into Saturday Night Live and at first i thought it was a really sick joke…shame, i always thought she was a really nice person.
Another person who died on the 22nd was Blackbeard, while he wasn’t the greatest of characters, I just thought i would mention another who has brought us intrigue after their death…
Ra!
I am too young to remember JFK’s death, but I love one of the stories that my teacher has of the day. He was in high school, and the day before the assassination his teacher had been teaching the class about “the big lie,” a lie that was true only because everyone believed it. The next day, the teacher walked into the classroom and said that President Kennedy and the governor of Texas had been shot. My teacher stated, “I hope the governor is all right.” Jaws around the room dropped. “Don’t you get it?” my teacher exclaimed,”it’s the big lie.” His teacher took him aside and said, “I wish it was.”
I still miss Phill Hartman and Jim Henson. They were gone far too soon. INcidentally, if memory serves, Jim Henson and Sammy Davis Jr died on the same day, a Wednesday.
Obituaries are always ringing because no one wants to tell unpopular truths. Lincoln was not a particularly popular president before his death, either, but he is now canonized in American history. Only JOhn Cleese can get away with an honest eulogy.
Ben Hunt
PAD:
When I grew up, I did an internship at the Gannett newspaper chain. When the anniversary of the assassination came around, out of curiosity I checked the newspapers’ editorials before JFK’s death and the day after. I found exactly what I thought I would. The day before, the editorials were scathing. Critical of JFK, his policies, his every decision. The day after he was shot…180 degree turn. He was a president with vision, he was going to carry the country to greatness, etc. I just found that…interesting.
I think it’s something about the tragedy of JFK’s death. It was one of the first “events”, bringing the country together instantaneously via television. Love or hate Kennedy when he was president, his death brought a unification that hasn’t been seen since 9-11 (in my opinion).
As for JFK as president, yes, he made his speech about going to the moon, and getting NASA going on the project. He also increased the troops and helped escalate the war in Vietnam, and almost brought the US into direct conflict with the USSR. I know there are other things about his presidency, but those are the things that stand out the most to me. I think, had he lived, he wouldn’t be held in such high regard as he currently is.
BTW, I was almost 13 months old, so I was probably walking into things, or napping when the assassination took place.
The crux of this thread, of course, is the old truism that everyone can remember what they were doing when they heard JFK died. My question is, “why?” Sure, the event itself is shocking, and experts galore refuse to let us forget, but why do people who never experienced what made him important (his presidency) in any worthwhile capacity (such as those who were young children at the time) remember it with such clarity? Why is it so important to them?
I was a precocious child. From the time I was 3 (1956) and saw Elvis Presley on Ed Sullivan I made a point of connecting to anything connected to the media, and being an early reader I was always poking my nose into newspapers of all things. Because of this I was acutely aware of all things in the news and eagerly followed JFK’s election campaign, particularly because he fought hard in the first place to get the nomination and because he fought hard to squeek through the election win against that real “bastion of badness”, Richard Nixon. Once in the White House Kennedy embodied a feeling of better times to come. Not only that, he presented a fresh, young outlook on the future of the world, let alone America, and when the ships were down (Cuban Missile Crisis) he had the kohones to face down the menace and ultimately defeat it. At the same time, he also led the fight for civil rights reforms, made serious inroads against organized crime, and put the Space Program on a real sound footing so the dream could be realized. This was a guy who believed in what was fundamentally ethical and right in society. Sure, he wasn’t a saint by any means, but he was definitely the most promising leader the Western World has seen in the last fifty years.
John Lennon:It was the evening of December 8, 1980 (sorry, not the 7th as someone above stated), a Monday Night and my wife and I were in our apartment watching Monday Night Football when Howard Cosell made the announcement. We just sat there stunned.
Let us not forget Walt Disney. I was on the Super Chief headed out of Minneapolis towards Albuquerque when that bombshell dropped.
And while I’m at it, anyone notice that 2003 has been a particular tinker of a year when it comes to famous people dying? Who’s left? Yeesh!
And, since it’s late and I shoulda previewed before posting, that’s “chips” not “ships” and “stinker” not “tinker” just above. Ah, the benefits of old age: as with Peter I too will wear my pants around my ankles.
I was in Catholic school. I can’t remember now what grade, and don’t want to figure it out right now. I was just leaving the cafeteria and heard two of the lay teachers (that is, the teachers that weren’t nuns) talking about some terrible tragedy. But they didn’t tell us kids the specifics until after our noon recess, when we returned to the classrooms.
The school didn’t have a PA system, so we had to listen to a little radio the nun brought in. When we heard that Kennedy was, indeed, dead, they let us go home. I was supposed to go to the health club (where my Mom insisted I go, in a futile attempt to make me lose weight) but the club was closed. In fact, everything was closed.
The next day, the only thing on all the TV stations was the long, horrible funeral. My mother yelled at me because I complained about everything being closed. And so, what could I do but watch? The pool cameras covered everything; only the news anchors were different on each network, but they couldn’t find anything original to say, only repeating the same condolences and expressions of the nation’s pain. I even saw that famous moment when JFK Junior turned to salute the passing casket, with some wondering comment on the part of the anchor.
I remember the news parody program “That Was the Week That Was” dropping its regular show that week. The cast (including David Frost) read poetry from the time of Lincoln’s funeral.
And yes, Kennedy’s death washed the man of the troubles his Presidency had. I remember seeing a nasty comic book parody with a superheroic Kennedy being crippled by wxposure to the compound AlCuFe – aluminum, copper and steel, the three industries with which he had labor problems. His Cuban situation wasn’t considered a great victory by most people. Before the Dallas trip, it was believed that Kennedy would have had terrible problems being re-elected, and he’d really have to campaign hard.
I had just turned 13 in September. I walked into World Geography with Mr. Fromhart and he was sitting at his desk, tears rolling down his cheeks. In a broken voice he told us the president had been shot. Then a bit later, the Vice Principle came in and told us the President was dead and that as soon as our parents could come and get us we were dismissed for the day. At 13 I thought JFK was the coolest person. The very antithesis to stodgy Eisenhower who was the only other president I remembered. (OF course, Truman was president when I was born but I was barely two when Eisenhower assumed office.) I still cannot, to this day, see the photos of John Jr. saluting his dad’s flag-draped coffin without tears coming to my eyes. As an impressionable teenager, I’d have to say it affected me, and still does. The only other thing I can think of that hit me as hard was 9/11/2001.
Yes, Aldous Huxley died, along with C.S. Lewis and JFK all on the same day… there’s a christain book out there with all three of them arguing their points of view in some sort of purgatory.
I thought at least this seemed like an interesting idea.
Travis
The book, I believe, was by Peter Krief. Excellent book, don’t remember the name.
I was a month old and news of the assination almost killed me. Literally. Family myth has it that my mother was watching TV and holding me when it happened. She was so shocked that she squeezed me too tightly for me to breath. My Dad walked into the room, saw me turning blue and prevented my expiration. Or so the story goes.
I remember where I was when I found out about both doomed shuttles, but not where I was for anyone else’s deaths.
The big ones I remember very clearly:
Princess Di: My wife and I had just come home from seeing SPAWN, of all movies. It had been out for a while and we were finally getting around to it. We got home, and I went online to check my e-mail and it popped up on the news report. We were stunned.
Kurt Cobain: I was not a Nirvana fan. In fact, I hated them and all the publicity around them. Cobain had just survived a (then alleged) suicide attempt a few weeks prior. I was in the car with a few friends, driving across town in Tampa to shop at the Alternative Record Store (in its original location) and Eccentricities (both are now closed), and the news about a body at his home came over the radio. I callously said, “I’ll laugh if it’s him.” We got to our destination and ran into a guy a casually knew who hosted a local alternative music video show, who confirmed it was Cobain. I’ve since come to appreciate Nirvana and really regret my callousness.
Joey Ramone, Dee Dee Ramone, Jam Master Jay, Johnny Cash, John Ritter: These were all recent, but they were all guys I highly respected. I discovered each of these online the morning after, and woke my wife with the news.
Roy Orbison: This was a strange one, because I dreamed about it, then woke up to discover it had happened. I suspect that this was because I’d fallen asleep with the TV on, and the news reports had seeped into my dreams.
9/11: As mentioned above, I discovered this on walking into work my second day at the newspaper where I currently work.
Columbia: I woke up and checked my e-mail, and saw that I’d left my instant messages on. I’d received a message from a friend asking if I’d heard. I cleared my head, and called work (the paper I work at is the local paper for Kennedy Space Center; I live about 30 minutes’ drive from NASA and the local economy is heavily dependant on the space industry). I ended up going into work on that Saturday and being there about 12 hours — which still doesn’t compare to the shifts that some folks pulled that day.
I’ve read enough memory studies to wonder just how accurate some of these stories are. When you see people become convinced they were on a hot air balloon ride when their feet never actually left the ground….
Anyway…too young for JFK. Remember being upset when I heard about Dorothy Stratten. Was also saddened by Jim Henson’s death but don’t remember any specifics about where I was or anything. Was in Germany when Challenger exploded. Heard people talking about something happening and went into the small club on base to check it out on TV. Fitting for today, I do remember exactly where I was when I heard about Freddie Mercury’s death – listening to the radio at work in Saudi Arabia. KISS drummer Eric Carr dying the next day didn’t help an already foul mood. And found out while in Saudi that someone I knew in Germany had died. Was home watching the morning news shows when 9/11 hit, so I got to watch all of that live from the floor in front of the TV.
Um, I didn’t say that Lennon died on December 7th; I said that my second thought on learning of his death was to be glad that he hadn’t died *on the previous day*, i.e. the 7th.
1963. Mr. Lynch’s 5th grade class. First announcement, the President had been shot. Second announcement, the President was dead.
We observed a few moments of silence while the adults in the school tried to compose themselves.
Probably the first time I saw that many adults visably shaken.
I don’t know that any of my own family that I’d grown up with had
died at that point.
13 years later, I’m student teaching in a classroom without
walls, just room dividers. I’m
teaching math, the guy on the other
side is teaching History.
“John Kennedy was killed by a lone
gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald”.
Almost jumped the wall.
Around the same time I saw a
production of a play called “Kennedy’s Children”.
5 characters in a restaurant/bar
each handling their own monologues
about their life. Each having
grown up in the shadow of the assassination.
–Ed
Famous deaths which made an impact on me:
EB White
Challenger Crew
Jerry Garcia
When Princess Di died, I was so surprised by the amount of press, I wrote a poem a couple days later saying “if Mother Teresa died, she wouldn’t get the same amount of attention”….read it at an open mic. And the following morning I felt like the kid on the Star Trek:TNG episode who pressed a button and the ship fell apart.
These kinds of shared tragedies and deaths affected me a lot more growing up than as an adult. Whether that is a function of maturity, or just developing a mental callous after ‘x’ number of times of being a part of public mourning, is difficult to say.
Cases where I can recall precisely where I was and what I was doing:
JFK
Martin Luther King, Jr.
RFK
Eleanor Roosevelt
Dag Hammarskj
180 degree editorial turnaround
after an assassination?
What’s the definition of “Statesman”?
– “Dead Politician”.
Some people have commented that they don’t understand why this had such an impact on our country.
As a perspective, television was still relatively new to most people of that time.
Color tvs were something to dream about. Kennedy was the first President to use and be seen on television extensively. He may have been the first to be sworn into office on television,
but he certainly was the first to be seen by so many people.
This was the first major death covered by television. His accused assassin was murdered on live television. This kind of stuff had never been seen before. That’s why it stuck in the country’s collective mind.