The Shot Heard Round The World

By Ron Beasley

At 62 I'm amazed at what I remember and what I don't.  I remember my divorce but I really don't remember my wedding.  I remember that long bus ride from Portland to Ft Lewis, Washington in 1968 when I became a member of the US Army but I really don't remember getting out of the Army three years later.  I remember the Cuban Missile Crisis because we all thought we were going to die.  But if there is one thing that is burned into my mind it is what happened 45 years ago in my High School English class.  Part way through the class the loud speaker in the room clicked to life and the principal announced the John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas.  We were all sent home at once and it wasn't until I turned on the black and white television at home that I found out he had died. I also remember there was nothing on that black and white television for several days.

Comments

[Redhand]

But if there is one thing that is burned into my mind it is what happened 45 years ago in my High School English class. Part way through the class the loud speaker in the room clicked to life and the principal announced the John F. Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. We were all sent home at once and it wasn't until I turned on the black and white television at home that I found out he had died.

At 59 it's my Pearl Harbor news equivalent too. Happened almost the same way, with a PA announcement in our classroom that the President was shot, except that we waited a while in class praying silently that he was OK (Catholic School in the 1960s) and then heard over the PA the second announcement that the President was dead. We were sent home after that. It was like the entire country stopped dead in its tracks.

The ONLY thing on TV over the next few days was news of the funeral and transfer of power. It was the day before Thanksgiving, as I recall, and was the bleakest such holiday in my life.

The only thing similar since I have experienced was 9/11. The loss of life in 9/11 was obviously greater, not not the loss of innocence.

[rusted]

I was in 5th grade in a Catholic School that had TV's on roll a-way stands in every other class room. We had the other 5th grade class join us... and we all watched and cried together... somethings you just don't forget... but to add a positive.. I would also throw in the "tearing down" of the Berlin Wall... never thought I would see that in my life time either.