Thursday, November 21, 2013

50 Years Ago

50 years ago I was working a part time job at the Coca Cola Bottler while at the University of Wisconsin. When I showed up for work that afternoon, the office manager met me as I arrived. He was wondering if I had heard the news. I hadn't. The news was that President John Kennedy had been assassinated.

The office scene that day remains etched in my mind. There were windows looking out to the production floor, there were the windowed offices of the execs and the clerical staff at their desks. As I listened to the office manager relate the gruesome news, I also noted the time of day -- 3:20.

Where were you when you heard that JFK had been assassinated?

6 comments:

  1. In government class at Pasadena Texas high school.

    ReplyDelete
  2. since my dad was in the military I was in school in Wiesbaden Germany, I remember we were reading a book and one of the characters was named Oswald and the teacher told us we wold no longer be reading that particular book...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was a 1st Lt in the Army, attending a crash course in German in Oberammergau, Germany. My wife and I and another couple had just sat down for a dinner and ice show at an arena in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The announcer came out and told us about Kennedy (shortly after 8 pm local time. The show and dinner were canceled. We left and went into Oberammergau and had dinner and were greeted all evening with condolences from the German citizenry.

    Chris H

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was a 18 year old PVT in the Army stationed in Korea and assigned to the KMAG (Korean Military Advisory Group) not far from the DMZ as a radio telephone carrier attendant working the night shift. During the night I went to the radio teletype van to talk and smoke with the soldier assigned to the rig. I wasn’t aloud in the van for security reasons and he came out to meet me and said the president had been shot and died. The anxiety level went off the charts for both of us. We were put on high alert and moved our vans with the communications equipment to pre-assigned field location and set up for possible action from the north. Scary time for an 18 year old in Korea.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was on a bus when the news broke, so didn't hear the initial report. When I arrived at the VA hospital where I was doing volunteer work, I learned of the assassination. Everything was at a stand still and very somber.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was just getting out of my US History class at Downey High School and the hallways at first went into normal chatter mode, but then got eerily quiet as the news spread down the hallway. Very sad indeed and surreal.

    ReplyDelete

Anonymous comments are no longer allowed. Regardless, comments are appreciated. Sometimes there may be a response from Wandrin Lloyd. Sometimes not. Regardless. Thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts. Leave a comment or send WandrinLloyd an email. Note: Ads disguised as comments will be deleted.