OT: Where were you 45 years ago today?

I was in 7th grade religion class....kind of ironic we were there saying our prayers.....and the announcement came over the PA system....

Wow, this brought tears to my eyes just reading it. I was in my 5th grade class. The 5th and 6th graders were taken to the music room, the only room with a TV, we watched for awhile. I was the only one who cried. I honestly don't rememberthe rest of the day, if we were sent home or not. I do remember the sad sad news coverage that we watched at home.

I remember I was in 9th grade science class with Mr. Steiger.  The announcement came over the loud speaker; first that he had been shot; then a few minutes later that he had died.  This was all around noon sometime (EST).  As I remember, school was dismissed shortly after that.  I had about a mile or so walk home and remember stopping in a couple of small stores on the way to catch any further news and in some cases, check out what was on TV.  I remember not sleeping much at all that weekend.  I was glued to the TV.  I remember watching the funeral so I know we didn't have school on Monday.  That was the beginning of the terrible tragedies of the 60's.  It seemed one thing right after another.  I remember thinking so often that our country seemed to be disintegrating.  That feeling stopped, although briefly, when we finally moved into the '70's.  By then I had moved to San Francisco and in 1978 our Mayor and a Supervisor were murdered, the Jonestown tragedy also occurred just a few days prior.  Again I was filled with that disintegrating feeling.  All of those events seemed to have a great deal of impact on my life and the person I turned out to be.  Other tragedies occurred over the years but then came 9/11.  That too was a milestone in my adult life.  It had great impact but for some reason the memories of the 60's especially can bring back su*****redible emotional memories to this day. I think that has something to do with my age at the time.

I was in 4th grade.  We were taken out of class and assembled out in the front of the school, in orderly lines.   The teachers were crying, but did not tell us what was going on.  The principal came out to announce the shooting to all of us. School was let out early, so I walked home and watched the TV all weekend.  I was watching when Ruby shot Oswald on live TV.  What a vivid memory - hard to believe that it was 45 years ago. 

Many years later, I worked in Texas as a nurse, and got to know a physician who had been working in the ER at Parkland Hospital that day.  The world is a small place, isn't it?

WOW ... hard to believe it has been that long. Also amazing how we can remember where we were at the moment of the announcement.

I was sitting in Mrs. McAllister's 3rd gade classroom.