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

Gary Miller and I were driving in my '56 Mercury up Slauson Ave. Bell Gardens from the I-5 freeway when we heard on the radio that JFK was shot. We were discussing that if they could kill the president we as Joe Smucks didn't have a chance! That's me on the p***enger side.

 

was on the USS Washtenaw County LST 1166 getting ready for drydock at the Yokosuka Japan Naval base. Thinkin about my 32 tub. The base went on alert and all the ships went to sea, cept us.

 

I had just sat down in study hall when the news came over the PA. They dismissed school early; I got in my '58 Ford convert. but don't remember the drive home. I think we were all in shock.

 

I was 3 years old, and it's my earliest vivid memory. It was uncharacteristically warm in upstate NY for late November, and my mother had the doors and windows open as she was cleaning the house. I was in the living room, and when the announcement came over the TV, my mother came running in from the kitchen and cranked up the volume. A few days later, I remember seeing the funeral on television and being confused about the riderless horse with a pair of boots stuck in its stirrups backwards. At the time, my father drove a rather ugly '61 Impala 4 door sedan that was a bland nonmetallic beige color that looked like it could have been touched up with a bottle of Cover Girl.

 

10th grade at catholic boarding school when annoucment came over pa during english cl***. every cl*** was let out but we went to study halls , dorms, or chapel. church bells were rung for the longest time. my mom had a 54 chev 4 door

 

I was just an itch in my daddy's pants at the time

 

First fall after greaduating high school. Going to local college and working in a grocery store 40 hours a week. I had just returned from college cl*** and was eating before going back to work. One of the checkers came in and told me, I said "Not a very funny joke", she started crying. I worked the rest of the evening. Business was really slow that night. Got in my 40 tudor a drove home. It wasn't much, but it was my transportation. Joe

 

I wonder if Kennedy would have been as revered today had he not been shot.

Clinton was dished lots of trouble for the Monica deal and Kennedy was having out and out affairs on his wife.

 

I was in high school math cl*** when it was announced over the PA system. I was only 13 and wasn't driving yet (legally), but I was ready.

 

No car; 2nd year of high school, pumping gas part time at a Texaco station and waiting impatiently for the day that I could get my license and buy a car. The license came in Sept. '64,'57 Bel-Air HT purchased June '65.


I remember it was beautiful warm (for November) sunny day and it got ruined and burned into my mind by that horrible news.

 

was living in santa rosa cal.at the time,and we just came in from recess and our teacher at the time was Mr hamilton a black man,and he was crying and we couldn`t figure out why and he said cl*** was dismissed.Well we thought cool untill on the school bus headdin home a lot of people were just standing around the streets crying and just staring into space. It was weird man like a twilight zone episode.............

 

I was two and cruising around on three wheels ">

 

I was 6 months old..being driven around in a 63 2 door Catilina Red with white interior

 

Not everyone was upset when JFK was shot.
45 years later ... time has a way of changing " memory "
He is now mostly regarded as a good president. But at the time, a LOT of folks did not like him. He, like Bill Clinton, was a womanizer. He was his father's son. His father was a womanizer also. Many folks thought that JFK or some of his people had killed Maryiln Monroe. Most of the Kennedy men were woman chasers. Civil Rights was also a HOT TOPIC for a lot of folks. His positions on it and other topics were not popular. I heard some folks cheering ... when his ***ination was reported.

I was in high school in Charleston SC. I did not cheer. Death was not something to be cheered about ... IMHO. School was dismissed early and I wrote the bus home. My father had a new Chevrolet and my mother had a red 59 Chevrolet.

Sad times for sure.
Then Oswald was shot on live TV.

I do not believe the entire truth will ever come out or be told in my lifetime ... about the events of that weekend. I believe there was more than one shooter and that Oswald was a patsy.

 

Just returned from Texas where my wife and i visited the book depository and the exact sight of the JFK ******ination . very interesting. As a hunter , and without being too graphic, Oswald wasn't the only shooter. There WAS someone that made a successful shot from the front , that exited the rear of JFK's head.

We'll probably never find out the truth of what REALLY happened.

 

I was 13 months old so no memory of that day. My dad was a reporter for the Oakland (CA) Tribune and the AP teletypes started clattering around 10:45 a.m. as the news came in that Kennedy had been shot. My dad wrote the caption for that afternoon's Trib front page special edition, a photo of JFK. Here's an excerpt from a later story he wrote about what the newsroom was like that day:

John F. Kennedy was dead now, actually and officially. A little copy girl went about her duties in tears. The city editor brought an almost life size engraving [front page photo] of the face of the dead president to the desk of a reporter [my dad, writing about himself in the third person] and held it before him, and said, "I need a caption. Look at it for one minute because that's all the time we have." That reporter [my dad] remembers that "I was almost paralyzed, and I tried to think of things I'd read and heard." The reporter kept trying, and then he wrote: "... ask what YOU can do for your country." -John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Jan. 20, 1961.

I have a copy of that original front page in my dad's scapbook as well as an 8x10 of my dad standing in the Tribune foyer later in the evening of 11/22/63 before he went home. The photo is stamped NOV 23 1963, as it was developed the next day.

Both of my older sisters remember the Mira Vista (Richmond CA) school PA announcing that Kennedy had been shot and my mom remembers my dad calling her at home within minutes of the story coming in over the AP wire. Our only car was a white '62 Falcon 2-door bought at Rett-White Ford in Albany CA.

 

Guys, please lets keep it focused on the cars and where we were? Fun reading where y'all were & what we were doing & driving, don't want to get too OT & go down in flames over politics.... THANKS!

 

A funny thing was on the ME. report he had been killed with a explove round as in AR-9 round. Oswalds rifle was **** and no way he was that kind of shot. remember Warron commision cut down five trees just to be able to get shot.
also remember Carlos Marcello was recorded saying he and J.Edger fixed his *** good. ( Abscam tapes ) I dont think it was John that they wanted it was Bobby. by removing John they got rid of Bobby. or so they thought.
I was 8 years old and in school. My dad had a 29 ford P.U. ( 331 push ****on) and our family ride was a 57 Chevy HT.

 

Valley View elementary School, Duarte, CA, third grade. (funny, all these years I thought I was in 5th or 6th when this happened, yet i remember what happened as clear as day)
An aide came into the cl***room and told the teacher to bring the entire cl*** to the Auditorium without any explanation. As all the cl***es filtered into the room, I noticed that they had a large Black & White TV up on the stage. Once every one was seated the principal spoke. "The President of the United States, John F Kennedy, has been shot in Houston." An absolute silence fell over the room and he then turned on the TV. Many wept openly while others just stared at the TV. The younger kids asked questions as they had no idea what any of this meant. We spent the remainder of the day in the auditorium watching and listening.

My folks were teachers in the school district and told of similar reactions at the schools they were at while we watched the TV that night at home.

Mom drove a 61 Comet Wagon, Dad had a 54 MG TF1500 and a Renault Dauphine.

 

Pretty traditional with the Kelsey Hayes (LOL) and metalflake seat and grips!

 

I was a year out of high school, had just picked up my future wife from school, and heard the news on the car radio. I was driving my '59 T bird, slammed on the ground (although then it was "dropped"), double reversed chrome wheels, shaved, molded hood scoop, painted '63 vette "Satin Silver". For some reason we were listening to the radio instead of the 8 track. Still got the girl, but the Bird is long gone.

 

I was in 4th hour Mr. Meade's Biology cl*** at Huff Jr. High, 8th grade. Mr. Meade was the A/V teacher so he brought out a tv to watch. We were dismissed early, so I walk home(about a mile). My Dad had two cars, a 1961 Rambler Cl***ic Station Wagon that was a light yellow and a 1960 Ford Falcon that was turquoise green. The Falcon was to be my graduation present, but I totaled it in Thanksgiving, 1967 and I got a watch instead.
George

 

I was leaning over the fender of a Mercedes, rebuiling the carburator. My brand new wife was in the car listening to the radio. She got out crying and said "the president has been shot"....wow, what a day to remember.

By-the-way,,,I still have that wife. She is no longer brand new, but she is still good.

 

Misses Gl*** 8th grade music cl***, mom had a '57 Turnpike Cruiser, dad has a '55 Customline and I had a Cushman Highlander

 

I was still just a gleam in my dad's eye. I was born 3 years later. Does anybody else check out the cool cars in the news reel coverage from that awful day? Those new '63 Galaxies the Dallas P.D. had were pretty cool!! Most likely p-code solid lifter 390s....

By the way my mother was driving a '63 Falcon and my dad still had his '61 Starliner. It had a 2x4 427 and a 4 speed in it by then!!!

 

I was in study hall Bird Island High School Minnesota. They made an announcement over the intercom. I was driving a 1949 Studabaker Champion convertable. Wish I still Had It.

 

I was on the DMZ in Korea that day. There was a lot of excitement and we were put on "****ed pistol alert" I didn't know why, a Lt. asked me if I knew how to drive and of course I did. I was told to get in a 2 1/2 ton truck that the guys were filling with food and ammo and follow the jeep in front of me. We went up the hills to our defensive positions above the kasong corridor because the North Koreans were about to jump us and invade the south. I was hours later that we were told that the president had been ***isanated. The North Koreans didn't move on us and we came down from the hills after a week or so.
So the answer is I was driving a deuce and a half, I won't forget that day.
I do need to add that a few years ago i found out that the reason we were in that area in the first place was that if American soldiers were the first ones killed, the American public would support another Asian war...this was a few years before Viet Nam...The expression is cannon fodder, but we were told we were "hand picked brave soldiers"
I have mixed feelings of both pride and anger.

 

I was a senior in high school in the detention room for throwing a ball of mercury at some dope in Physics cl***. My beautiful bone stock 1940 Ford Deluxe coupe was parked outside. I had just bought it from a family for $275.00!!!!!

 

I was 3 and a half and have no recollection of the day but remember our
new bright red Galaxie,dads 57 Ranchero and my happi-time sportster...

 

I was a freshman in college and at home changing the clutch on a friends 58 Chevy when I found out Kennedy had been shot.