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Post by jesse on Nov 22, 2008 9:40:29 GMT -5
Where were you forty-five years ago today and what were you doing? Me....I had been home for about a week after coming back from working on the DEWLINE in Greenland. A friend of mine was the Executone sound system distributor for the Southern Virginia and Northern North Carolina area. On this day in particular, we were at a small drug store in Vinton, Va where I was helping him install a music system for the store. The TV program was suddenly interrupted with a special announcement. Walter Cronkite came on and in a very sombre and emotion filled voice, informed us that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Everyone in the store was stunned and seemed to be in a state of shock. I personally don't think I will ever forget that moment at 3PM, 22 November 1963.
Jesse
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Post by Maarten on Nov 22, 2008 9:59:46 GMT -5
I was only an eleven years old boy then, but I do remember like it happened yesterday. I just went to my bedroom (must have been around 9.15 pm Dutch time). When at the top of the stairs I heard my mum and dad call me back. At that moment the news was brought by Dutch TV that President Kennedy had been killed. We were all in shock about the news.
Maarten
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Post by Tom/CalClassic on Nov 22, 2008 12:56:41 GMT -5
I'm sure almost everyone in our generation remembers that (and the first man on the moon too). I was in music class in high school, when the announcement he had been shot came over the PA system. We continued playing, until the announcement came that he had died. We just couldn't play music any longer...
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Post by jesse on Nov 22, 2008 15:20:55 GMT -5
That too, Tom. I was sitting on the console at Goddard Space Flight Center and we were a bunch of nervous wrecks. Everyone was cool up until separa tion of the Lunar Lander from the space craft, and then the nail biting began. It was a moment that I will never forget. We all received these certificates in addition to letters of appreciation from the crew. By the time the last Apollo 17 Mission was launched, it had become fairly routine. Jesse
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Post by ozbeowulf on Nov 22, 2008 17:11:31 GMT -5
I was in Dallas when JFK was shot.
At that time, I was a reporter for KLIF, a Dallas radio station. I had the day off, but obviously I raced into the station where we were all kept very busy for the next several days.
During that period, Dallas was like a ghost town. Road traffic was minimal. Downtown seemed deserted and eery. People in Dallas, like everywhere, were glued to their television and radio sets.
One sidelight to the story is that Jack Ruby (who knew one of the KLIF disk jockeys) visited the studios late in the evening before he shot Lee Harvey Oswald. He sat in the back of the newsroom while I did a newscast. We exchanged only a few words, but that little visit earned me an FBI interview, a tiny part in the Warren Commission report and a seat in the witness box at Ruby's subsequent trial.
It was truly a bizarre experience for everyone that November...
Glenn
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Post by jesse on Nov 22, 2008 17:53:52 GMT -5
A small world Glenn. One of Jack Ruby's attorneys was Joe Tonahil... When I retired from NASA and moved back to Texas, I had no idea that Joe would be a neighbor of mine. He had his office building here in Jasper. When Joe passed away a couple of years ago, his family put up the largest tomb stone in the cemetary. It is a monolith to be sure. I drive past his grave several times a week on my way to my daughter's house.
Jesse
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Post by chris_c on Nov 22, 2008 19:22:48 GMT -5
I was in grade school and if I recall correctly, they took the older out of classes except for the kindergarten kids and brought us down to the gym where the only school TV was. I remember my teacher was crying, perhaps others as well. We didn't have a TV at home so this was the only coverage I actually saw and the whole family trooped over to next door to watch JFK's funeral. And this in Toronto, Canada...
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Post by bushpounder on Nov 22, 2008 20:15:09 GMT -5
I remember it well. I was in second grade. The principal came in and told us the president had been shot. I remember asking, "Who, Kennedy?" and the rest is in pieces. I remember the funeral on TV and visiting the grave about five years later. I always wonder what the world would be like now if that tragic event never happened. Bad part is I have heard so little about it today on the news. How fast so many forget.
Don
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Post by jesse on Nov 22, 2008 20:37:45 GMT -5
Very true, Don. No one wants to remember it seems. However, yesterday, Friday, most of the networks were mentioning the 45th anniversary for today. I think today's news was so little because they figure they covered it already.
I don't know if Jack was still in business when you moved to Roanoke, but that is who I was working with while I was waiting to go back to Europe. Jack Estes had his communications business in Roanoke for a number of years. I used to work for him on weekends while I was still in the Air Force at the Radar Site on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He wanted me to work for him full time after I retired, but he could not meet the salary requirements that I needed.
Jesse
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Post by qxtoolman on Nov 23, 2008 1:07:15 GMT -5
I was in Catholic School, and we were told to quietly get-up and go to the Church. Monsignor came to pulpit and told us what happened. Then a high Mass was said, and then back to class for the rest of the day. I remember just bits and pieces of the funeral, as it was Deer Season, and of course no TV out at the Camp. Even at home the reception was always "iffy" at best being 100+ miles from the nearest TV station. The big thing I will always remember most was Walter Cronkite breaking down live.
The Space program was the thing I was most captivated with in My youth. I never missed a launch of the Mercury program, and remember praying that they would get Gus Grissom out of the water, after they lost his capsule. Another one was when Gemini 8 started spinning and had to come home early, then they had float in their capsule for 3 hours while the recovery ship steamed to it. People forget that flight because the Apollo 13 was so much more dramatic.
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