Kennedy assassination in Dallas
If you are a Real Texan of a certain age, you remember well that the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the U.S., took place on Friday, November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas at 12:30 p.m. I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing, how about you?
Since this event took place 51 years ago many of you were not here yet, but some of you were young then and you remember.
The announcement came when we were in high school class. We didn’t have TV’s in classrooms back in those days, but they did put a radio broadcast over the intercom. We were just shocked.
The bell rang to change classes after a while and we shuffled to our next class. My next class was at the gym for football practice. We were in the playoffs. I remember the old black janitor and friend to all Mr. C.C. Reed was standing there with his large dust mop in his hand with tears streaming down his face.
“They killed him,” said Mr. Reed. “They killed our president.” I went over to Mr. Reed and spoke to him briefly then went to the bleachers and sat down. I sat there and listened to the proceedings some more. Seems like it was Walter Cronkite doing the talking over the intercom.
I believe we did go ahead with our playoff game, but numerous college and professional games were not played that week. Those games that were played had moments of silence.
Over the weekend, I was either just spending time or working at the Rocker B Ranch. Phil Farr and I were over at the cook’s house watching TV. The cooks were Theodore and Alma Washington. It was on their small black and white snowy TV that we watched Jack Ruby walk up and shoot Lee Harvey Oswald. We all just looked at each other in disbelief.
And time speeded up for all of us ‘of that certain age’ after those events. The events you read about in your history books were the times of our lives.
We lived these events.
LBJ was sworn in as president, Vietnam was looming in the horizon, conspiracy theorists had their explanations for the assassination, the Beatles came to America, the music of the 60’s changed tone, Vietnam escalated, millions of us served in the armed forces, friends were lost to the war and to drugs, some dropped out, some tuned in, some protested, some woke up several years later wondering what had happened.
It was a heck of a time to be young in America and it all seemed to start on November 22, 1963.
Where were you?
And how has your life been?
You can get more of David Werst’s Real Texas Blog by email. You might just enjoy some of David’s b.s. and Ramona’s Real Texas Recipes.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I remember just getting home from work…standing in the driveway…when I heard the news. At first panic set in. I mean, after all, who would assinate our president? Then worry followed the panic until I heard Walter Cronkite giving us the details with grief and shock in his voice. Then sadness set in. Like you, the rest of the events seemed to unfold at lightening speed. I hope to never live through a time like that again.
I too was in high school and remember it like you do David. School officials had let us out of school for a few hours the day before [11-21] and we went to Lackland AFB to see President Kennedy. I remember him being just a few feet from me as he was passing by — what a great feeling that was. That was the first President that I saw within such a short distance —- and, the last.
I was on a bus heading to el paso to play a football game. the border and all schools and municipal facilities in el paso were closed. the uil said they didn’t care if we played the game, but we had to tell them by midnight saturday who would advance to the next level for the next week’s games. we eventually played the game on a little field behind the school at canutillo that saturday afternoon, and proceeded to the next week’s round of play-offs.
I was on the same bus as Andy and we heard about the killing of the president as Steve Wayne listening to a small radio on the bus.
I was on that same bus. We were supposed to play in the Sun Bowl, but they closed it down. I remember David Atwood starting to sing “Hit the road Jack and don’t come back” and Charlie Millwee and some of the other seniors telling him to shut up!
I was at Baylor University and when the news of the President’s assassination was broadcast. Classes were cancelled and we were all shocked and huddled around the black and white TV in our dorm watching in stunned silence. We were scared and worried that some larger plot was in place, that maybe Russia was going to attack. A couple weeks before the civil defense sirens had gone off in the middle of the night by mistake, scaring everyone and that was still on everyone’s minds. We had been freshmen when the Cuban Crisis happened and ofcourse we still remembered how frightening that had been.
It was a very disturbing time in our history and I hope my children and grandchildren won’t have to experience times like those.
Thanks, Andy. I was trying to remember if we won the game or not. I do remember when the announcement was made; I was in in Mr. Magruder’s General Math class. (He didn’t think I was smart enough to be in Algegra my freshman year.) I guess he made the announcement? If so, I don’t recall who was leading the class.
I am assuming we drove to El Paso and back on the band & football bus without staying the night anywhere. Is that right?
Now, if I can just remember how I happened to be at home Sunday instead of church and saw Ruby shoot Oswald on TV.
I was at Doeges Phillips 66 station that was across from the big EL PASO NATURAL GAS camp at Midkiff Texas. We were getting filled up with gas to go to Arkansas for Thanksgiving. I guess the thing about all of this I remember the most is that when we went thru Ft. Worth and Dallas it always took us at least 2 and a half hours, at least that long, sometimes longer. We got to Ft. Worth/Dallas somewhere around 8:30 – 9:00 the night of the 22nd. There was not a soul out on the streets! OK, there may have been a few people BUT we were able to get thru both cities in less than an hour.
I was returning to San Angelo Central High School, from lunch with my good friend Larry Word. Walked into the school and I heard the broadcast from the office over the load speaker. Then, it was shock and crying. From that moment on, I sat by the television, at home and watched every minute of broadcast.
We saw Walter Cronkite’s message of the Presidents death, over and over on TV. Then we saw Jack Ruby kill Oswald, the swearing in of LBJ and the funeral procession. The one thing I will always remember was the Caisson and the riderless horse ” Sgt. York”. I shall never forget.
I was 24 and the assistant managing editor of the Denton (TX) Record Chronicle. We had just put the paper to bed and I had driven home for lunch. As I walked to the back door of our apartment, my wife opened the door and began to scream something to me. I couldn’t make out what she was saying, but over hear shoulder I saw Chronkite’s face on the teepee screen. I raced to my car and back to the newsroom. It was empty, except for our sports editor (who was even younger than me) who stood frozen at the Associated Press teletype machine.
We had a small staff. A managing editor (who had driven to Dallas to hear JFK’s speech), one reporter, a deskman who edited stories and designed the way that day’s paper would look, a society editor and a photographer. And me.
The newsroom was not just empty (except for Les, our sports guy, it was also eerily quiet. Normally, the sound of the newsroom was punctuated by the click-clacking of the AP teletype machine. Now the machine was quiet. The last entry on the spool of paper that ran through the machine was this: “Alert. President Shot. More to come.”
I ran back to the pressroom and yelled, “Stop the presses!!” The pressman, looked at me, waved and laughed. I yelled at him, “*&^*&%. stop the )*^#@ presses!!!!” He did.
I mentioned that we had a small staff. Well, I should have said “full-time staff.” We had about 20 part-timers, all of them journalism students at what was then know as North Texas State University. And all these great, bright kids began streaming to the newsroom with the same question: “What can I do?”
I put a group of them on our phones, calling names at random from the local phonebook, asking for a reaction to the news. (It was amazing how many comments included the phrase “City of Hate.”)
Soon the AP moved a brief story saying the President had been pronounced dead at Parkland Hospital. Our lead story on Page One that day had been about JFK’s Dallas visit. So we inserted the Pronounced Dead story in it (in bold face) and got the presses rolling again.
In the meantime, our managing editor had phoned in a reaction story from the mart in Dallas and the AP had moved a complete story on JFK’s killing and the kids had gathered enough local reaction to fill four full pages of the newspaper. We had a special four-page section prepared, put the AP story at the top of Page One, followed by our managing editor’s story. At the last minute. I instructed to composing room to place the word “EXTRA” on Page One, above the nameplate (which said Denton Record Chronicle).
Once the special editor came rolling off the press, we gave them to the kids and told them to get out on the street and sell them for a quarter a piece. I also told them that they could keep all of the money they made.
I also remember when Ruby killed Oswald. My then-wife and I were driving home from church when we were pulled over by a cop whom I knew. He gave me the news, got in front of my car with his red lights and siren going and we followed him to our portent building.
Heady times for a 24-year-old!
I was pretty close to where you were David. The thing I remember most, when it was first announced, was how quiet the halls were, both during class and while classes were changing—and the many tears shed.
I also remember it well, and I also was on the bus headed to play in the Sun Bowl, but it ended up being closed and the field we played on was full of stickers and everytime you were tackled you were picking sticker out. We did win the game.
Walter
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