60 years ago today......
- Thread starter Dirk
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Domus
Guru
- Location
- Sunny Radcliffe
I was 9 and watching TV alone, my parents were upstairs with my sister who was unwell. The news flash made a huge impression on me because just two years earlier during the Cuban missile crisis my dad put me to bed with the words "if you never say your prayers ever again, say them tonight". From then on I looked on JFK as some sort of hero. I have read and watched hundreds of accounts of the day and been fascinated by American politics ever since.
Fast forward to 2016 and my visit to the sixth floor museum in Dallas, walking down Elm St made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I got very emotional standing on the Grassy Knoll. Standing at the window next to the sealed off window on the sixth floor I was struck with the thought why would any assassin choose to let the target get so far away before pulling the trigger. The limo was so long it slowed to almost a stop to turn the sharp corner right below the window then it accelerated down the hill as the crowd had thinned so much, then he fired three times? Makes no sense to me.
Fast forward to 2016 and my visit to the sixth floor museum in Dallas, walking down Elm St made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. I got very emotional standing on the Grassy Knoll. Standing at the window next to the sealed off window on the sixth floor I was struck with the thought why would any assassin choose to let the target get so far away before pulling the trigger. The limo was so long it slowed to almost a stop to turn the sharp corner right below the window then it accelerated down the hill as the crowd had thinned so much, then he fired three times? Makes no sense to me.
raleighnut
Legendary Member
- Location
- One of the 'Elite'
My father was a radio fitter/operator on RAF Gan (a tiny island in the indian ocean that was a refuelling stop and radio relay station) he was one of the people who broadcast the news around the world
twentysix by twentyfive
Clinging on tightly
- Location
- Over the Hill
I recall the BBC news reader bursting into tears
twentysix by twentyfive
Clinging on tightly
- Location
- Over the Hill
One in one out
Must have been another kids programme then.
I was definitely watching kids TV at the time.
Time plays tricks with your memory.
Unless it was the Monday edition of BP and they did a feature on JFK.
dicko
Guru
- Location
- Derbyshire
wiggydiggy
Guru
Crackerjack was on a Friday.
Dogtrousers
Kilometre nibbler
I remember it distinctly - I cried and pooped myself when I heard. Or soon after.
Probably. I was a babby at the time.
Probably. I was a babby at the time.
Last edited:
a.twiddler
Veteran
JFK must have died around tea time in UK time on that Friday in 1963. I was 11 at the time and had started Grammar School that term. By the time I got home from school on the bus I would have thought the news would have been released but somehow I didn't get to hear about it until the following morning. Probably grabbed some tea, went out on my bike for a while as it would be going into storage soon, did some homework, and went to bed. My younger brother wasn't of an age to be interested in news programmes. My father was in the RAF, having gone to the Middle East, and we were expecting to join him in a few weeks, but if he'd been home he would have been sure to have a view on the event. Possibly my mother was too harassed with the preparations for the impending move to be following world events. Anyhow, I remember being up early the next morning, it being Saturday. I went downstairs to the kitchen to have some cereal.
I turned on the Roberts wireless (no daytime TV in those days) to have some music and instead got something like, "Good morning. This is the Bee Bee Sea Heaume Service. Here is the Eight O'clock News. Following the assassination in Dallas yesterday of the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, investigations are continuing..." all in the distinctive pronounciation of the BBC at the time. This was like a sudden electric shock. After the Cuban Missile Crisis of the previous year everybody knew who JFK was. It was only years later when I was older that I realised how close the cold war had come to being an extremely hot one. Even back then, he was seen as one of the Good Guys. I ran upstairs, shouting Mum! Mum! President Kennedy's dead! like some loon. Obviously, she already knew, and was hoping to have a bit of a lie in, as it wasn't a school day, so wasn't best pleased. This was the first time I'd been affected by the death of a world leader.
Since his death he has become legendary, probably much more so than if he'd just died of old age.
I turned on the Roberts wireless (no daytime TV in those days) to have some music and instead got something like, "Good morning. This is the Bee Bee Sea Heaume Service. Here is the Eight O'clock News. Following the assassination in Dallas yesterday of the president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, investigations are continuing..." all in the distinctive pronounciation of the BBC at the time. This was like a sudden electric shock. After the Cuban Missile Crisis of the previous year everybody knew who JFK was. It was only years later when I was older that I realised how close the cold war had come to being an extremely hot one. Even back then, he was seen as one of the Good Guys. I ran upstairs, shouting Mum! Mum! President Kennedy's dead! like some loon. Obviously, she already knew, and was hoping to have a bit of a lie in, as it wasn't a school day, so wasn't best pleased. This was the first time I'd been affected by the death of a world leader.
Since his death he has become legendary, probably much more so than if he'd just died of old age.
- Location
- Next door to Mr Benn at No 54
I was six years old at the time. We were living in India, so the news may have taken a day or two to reach us. Some of my Father's colleagues were from USA, so they probably heard the news from their Headquarters.
