History JFK,45years ago Nov22d,'63 what car and where were you?

Sitting in the Student Union at college when I heard the news......glued to the black and white TV the rest of the weekend.........drove my '57 Chevy Convert with 3 friends to Washington through Sunday night to go to the funeral for JFK.........on the 25th I turned 21 years old and watched the funeral procession with Charles DeGaulle, Haile Selassie, other world leaders, Jackie, the kids and Bobby & Teddy Kennedy as they came by.......I moved over right near the cathedral and was no more than 50 feet away from the steps when John John saluted his father's casket in the famous picture.........

It was a weekend I shall never forget......something just drew us there to be a part of history......

CB

 

8th grade English class, first class after lunch. The girl who sat behind me, who had gone home for lunch, heard it on the radio and told me about it.

 

I was in 2nd grade,remember walkin into the office and they had a tv on everybody was really upset,bout an hour later my mom picked me up in her black 58 merc parklane ragtop & was crying......not a good week anywhere in the USA,and like they said "you will always remember where you were when you heard"

 

I was going to college & working part time. I was at my part time job when we heard it on the radio. I drove a 55 Chevy with a built 327, drove it to the strip and ran D/G. It was a sad day.

 

An excerpt from my first book - Chapter 18, "The fifties ended in 1963!"

In late 1962, I moved to Fremont, Nebraska with my hi school buddy, Dave and his parents. I worked at several jobs, not knowing where my life was going yet. In May of 1963 I heard the new supermarket on Bell Avenue would be finished soon. I applied for a job, was accepted and began work in July…the store would hold it’s grand opening in September.
I met all of the guys I was to pal around Fremont with in the first month working there…all except one was a car guy. I got my ’57 back from the body shop (crashed just after I moved there)…it was looking good and I enjoyed having it again. The rest of the summer was great… life was good. The supermarket grand opening came and went, the summer morphed into fall and fall edged toward Nebraska winter.
It was a normal Friday, November 22, 1963, mid-morning, when the Grocery Manager asked me to wash the front windows…I got the necessary buckets, brushes and squeegees and went to the front. I had finished two windows closest to the south end of the building and was about to start on a third. I dipped the brush in the water bucket, raised up…and literally freaked. There, across the huge, nearly empty parking lot, on the other side of Bell Street stood a yellow Dog & Suds Drive-In, trimmed in Crimson Red. Chills ran up and down my spine, Deja-Vu gripped me. I knew I’d been here before…seen that drive-in…but when? I couldn’t place the time, nor date. I thot of nothing else as I finished the windows and went to lunch. It was a cold day, I started my ’57 to warm it up, but it had a miss in it and wasn’t running very well. I urged it out of the employee parking spot, turned on the radio and unconsciously turned south on Bell Street, something I didn’t do as the 15 cent ‘burger joint I went to for lunch was north on Bell. Surprisingly, there was no music on the Omaha AM station…just harried voices…I turned it up and an announcer hurriedly described a scene of panic in Dallas, Texas. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy had just taken place. I was stunned. I couldn’t imagine there were people that wanted a US president dead. Six blox later, as I was paying more attention to the radio, I center-punched a ’60 Ford at an uncontrolled intersection, destroyed my ’57 again. Fortunately, neither of us were hurt in the accident. I didn’t go back to work that afternoon as the mess I made had to be taken care of. I got a traffic ticket…and a wrecked car again.

R-

 

Was in the hall between classes during my senior year. Students buzzing about the President being shot. When we got to our classes, the principal announced it over the PA system. We were all in dis-belief. So much optimism died that day. As someone previously mentioned, it was the start a tumultuous time. It changed America.

 

Waukegan Township HS, Waukegan, IL, sophomre English Class, was the day the world stood still for me. The live Walter Cronkite radio feed was on the school PA system. No car, driving the folk's old beater DeSoto 4-door when I could. Gary

 

I was 4 years old riding in a 50 chev with my dad. We were passing the Catholic church in Herington and when the news flash came across the radio I swear he almost wrecked the car. We turned around and hauled ass back to the house to see the T-V coverage. A day I'll never forget >>>>.

 

Kindergarten class.
The Principle came into the room and told the teacher and she had tear in her eyes when she sold the class.
At 5 most didn't really understand it. I did, Grandpa had died that year. My Mom died the next May.

 

Kindergarten, Principle brought a note in to the teacher and she freaked. We had a '58 Olds 88. I was just a squeaker, but I remember like it was yesterday.

 

I was 21 and driving a 60 Chevy with a 348 bored 1/8" over with 12 to 1 pistons and balanced by Holman-Moody Speed shop, Isky cam, three deuces, 4 speed transmission, and 4:56 gears. I was an independent operator picking up laundry and drycleaning from 82nd Airborne barracks as well as a few civilian customers. I was standing in the living room of a once a month customer who did not own a washer when the news broke over the tv.

 

I was working construction in down town Wash D.C. I was riding the bus!!! Capitol Transit back then. We cut out early as soon as the word hit the radio to avoid the big rush but it didn't work. The federal gov. released all the fed workers at the same time. Instant grid lock. I did not get home until after 8 PM that night.

I did stand in the lines that seemed to be blocks long with friends and I got to walk by the casket inside the Capitol rotundra a few days latter.

They say you remember exactly where you were when you heard it...I do. I had my head up inside a dropped ceiling when the boss wiggled the ladder and said lets get out of here they just shot the President!

 

I was at work when a co-worker told me he had heard it on the radio. I never will forget him adding "Guess the SOB got what he deserved" I remember his saying it as clear as day and lost all respect for him after that because of it.

 

I remember my mom crying when we got word that day. One of those moments that identifies a generation. I has shoe box full of Matchbox cars. I'm looking at the Dec.6 Life magazine with Jackie and the kids on the cover right now.

 

I was in 4th grade Mother Superior came in our clss and told us, school was dimissed early that day, it was a very quiet ride home. At that time we had 62 pontiac catalina and 57 pontiac wagon.

 

I was in my first week of basic training at Fort Leonard Wood. The whole base was put on high alert and there was a lot of speculation about what was going to happen. We all thought that we were going to war real quick. Every one assumed that the "Commies" were behind this deal and we were going to have to take care of business. I had just gotten married and had a baby on the way so it was scary times.
As far as what kind of car I had then, it was a 55 Chevy custom. the hood and trunk were shaved and it was painted Chevy truck green. Had a 283 and a three speed trany with a Spark-O-Matic floor shifter. Damn we were cool. I had 57 Buick hub caps with 4" bullets in the center and wide whites on it. I have always been a wide white kind of fella I guess. The car when I bought it had been undercoated by the first owner (I bought it from the first owner) and it had about an inch of under coating every where. The hood probably weighed 150 pounds.
Later,
Dick

 

i had graduated high school & had a 1959 corvette ........... thx .. steve

 

I was a senior in high school and had my 59 Buick convertible.

 

In daipers, Greensboro, NC, probably my dad's '60 TR-3A!

 

I was in class in 7th grade in Plainview, NE when the principal put the live radio feed on the schools PA system. What a day...

My dad was still driving a '51 Ford, though his brother had moved up to a plain-Jane '59. Me; I was playing around with the '47 Dodge pickup out in the fields.

 

I was a 2nd grader in Hamburg, Germany - walking to school in the cold and dark, past houses with lit candles on the window sills in remembrance of JFK. Depressing.

 

I was in 11th. grade and had a nice 49 Ford Cp.
Drove my Mom up to the train station to pick her brother up , my uncle, a Major in the Marine Corps. at the time, comming home from Japan for a 30 day leave.
We were sitting in a local diner having a cup of coffee before hitting home.
A waitress came up maybe because he was in uniform and said did you hear about the president being shot, we were waiting for the punch line thinking she was telling us a joke, then we heard it on the diner radio, he said "Well all leaves willl be cancelled" and we took him right back to the train station.

Remember it like it was yesterday.

 

I was in kindergarten. The principal came in and told the teacher the news. Don't remember much else from that day.

Parents had a 58 Chevy and Lloyd truck that they bought at Cal Store in Lakewood. Ugly little 2 cyl piece of crap that wouldn't start for my mom half of the time which meant I was left standing on the curb alone after all the other kids had been picked up from school.

 

Sitting in a college classroom (Univ of Idaho) dreaming about Sue "the bod"....doodling full race flatheads on my notebook.

Daily driver on that day was a 57 270hp Vette

They closed classes, some rushed to the HUB to watch TV, rest of us headed for Ratskellers - to have a beer and watch TV.

"ask not what your country can do for you..."

dj

 

I was a junior at Terra Linda HS san rafael cal. In my english class i think it was around 10 am when it came over the PA system . My first car was a 46 ford coupe it had no motor when i got it i installed a used flathead . I traded it for a 51 chev HT. It had a 235 6 I changed that to a 283. 1963.

 

Senior chemistry class St. Mary's H.S. Wilkes-Barre PA. Glued to the TV all weekend. It was the end of innocence for the early baby boomers. The world has not been the same since. Dad had a 55 Chevy 210, 2 door sedan, six with overdrive, green with ivory top. He later traded it for a 58 Dodge Royal Lancer 4 door hardtop. I like to thing that some hot rodder bought that 55 and it's still on the road.

 

7th grade math class, someone came into the room with a note for our teacher, a cool athletic guy we liked. As he read the note there was a long silence in the room and we saw the color drain from his face, I remember the moment in black and white. He choked out the words, "Our president is dead" and slumped into his chair. Oh yeah, my only transportation then was a Huffy 10-speed bike.

 

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I can remember being sent home early from the 5th grade and the bus was over crowded. Might have been a short bus ? ...H

 

I was 2 months from being conceived, so you might say I was a gleam in my pappy's eye... He was driving a '50 fastback Chevy coupe and mom was driving a '56 Buick Special Coupe... My sis says she can still remember that she was in class, bending over to pick up her pencil when they came over the speaker and told everyone in class.

 

6th grade,recess had just ended,I was playing with the dead flies in the window next to my seat,principal came into the room,told the teacher...she started crying,told us,then we were allowed to leave school if we walked,instead of riding the bus...I took off for home,having an early WTF moment..was building an AMT 40 Ford coupe in front of the TV on the day Oswald was shot...Isn't it amazing the detail we all seem to remember about those days?