Remembering the tragic assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Greetings from Mobile Generated News®  MoGN!

The assassination of John F. Kennedy is one of those rare events in history when you remember exactly where you were and the emotion of the moment for the rest of your life.

 

I was in elementary school, when the news spread that The President had been shot.   I remember it like it was yesterday.  I was walking with my classmates after a nutrition break up the sidewalk in front of my school and heard screams and crying from kids my age.  My reaction was disbelief ─ It couldn’t be true.  Who would want to kill a man that gave the nation so much hope?

Then I saw teachers, administrators and the principal crying as well.  The sadness was overwhelming.  Classes for the rest of the day were cancelled and we were sent home.  As part of the “TV generation,” I couldn’t wait to get to the television set.   My parents were avid TV watchers and part of our daily routine was to watch the evening news every night during dinner.  When I got home from school my Mom had the television on.  What I saw in stark black and white images was Walter Cronkite, the iconic CBS anchorman, officially announcing that President Kennedy was dead.   I never saw an anchorman with a tear in his eye deliver the news.  We couldn’t stop watching.  The TV was on the rest of the day until we couldn’t take it anymore. 

The next morning was Saturday.   I woke up early, turned on the TV before my parents were awake to watch the coverage of the aftermath of the tragedy.  On Sunday morning, my Dad was out doing errands and my Mom was downstairs.  I was glued to the TV set in my parent’s bedroom ─ alone ─ watching NBC’s live coverage.  The anchorman said that they were about to move President Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald from the City Jail to the Country Jail.  They went live to the basement of the Dallas City Jail and I remember watching Oswald being shot as reporter Tom Pettit of NBC News ─ just a few feet away from Oswald said, "He's been shot. He's been shot. Lee Harvey Oswald has been shot."  I yelled downstairs to my Mom telling her that I couldn’t believe what I just saw.  This was just two days after President Kennedy died.  The Funeral was on Monday and I can still recall the sound and cadence of the drums as the President’s flag-draped coffin, was carried on a horse drawn caisson through the streets of Washington.  

It is very hard for me to be to believe that it has been 50-years since the assassination and the realization that I am old enough to remember that day and the days that followed so vividly.

So many Americans alive today weren’t even born when it happened.   Many people over the years have said that November 22, 1963, was the beginning of the loss of innocence in this country ─ the feeling that no one was safe.

Let’s all take a moment to remember the hopes and dreams of the young, vibrant and charismatic President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.     

─Jeff Wald, Executive Director, Mobile Generated News®, Los Angeles

The television age is still here but the current and next generation of news viewers will likely witness history first on our smartphones and tablets. 

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