November Memories (1963)
(Catching up on things)
Many people remember when they heard that President Kennedy had been shot. I was in Language Arts class my junior year at Los Alamos High School. Just before noon there was a knock on the classroom door. Our teacher was summoned into the hall. A minute later she stumbled into the room with her hand on her breast saying “He’s been shot!” We all looked around at each other not knowing what was going on. I thought someone had been shot in the hall but I hadn’t heard any noise. Eventually she told us that the President had been shot. Since it was almost lunch period classes were dismissed and most of us wandered over to the cafeteria. Walter Conkrite's voice was piped into the room over the PA system. During lunch we learned of the tragedy in Dallas eventually realizing the President had died. I remember students filing outside sitting on the lawn and crying.
This was particularly difficult to process. JFK had visited the scientific labs and later our school in December of the previous year and had made such an impression on us. I remember listening to him at the football field. Seeing him and Vice President Johnson was so exciting. To see the President and such a vibrant man. His death deflated us.
I was in the front row of the crowd. It was so awesome when he came down and started to shake hands. I missed his hand but did touch his suit sleeve. A treasured moment. (See video minute 6:25 and beginning 10:00.)
The following weekend was so chaotic with the plane trip from Dallas to Washington, the bloody pink dress, the hunt for Oswald, his murder on camera by Ruby and then the state funeral including Black Jack the horse with boots reversed in the stirrups. The beautiful horse was a symbol of a fallen leader. We had a new President with both similar and new agenda(s). Talk about a gloomy November.
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