Senior HS English class with Maybelle Spencer. We had a loudspeaker next to the large clock. It wasn't used very often so it started with some static, then the principal announced President Kennedy had been shot. He asked us to pray for him which we did. We were stunned and shocked when minutes later he came back on the speaker, voice breaking, and announced that President Kennedy was dead. I remember Mrs. Spencer told us to put our heads down on our desks…maybe she didn’t want us to see her cry? The bell rang shortly after and I went on to Chemistry class. Mr. Christianson told us that President Kennedy would want us to continue on with our experiments, and we got out our bunson burners, all of us thinking this was not the thing to do. Then the announcement came the busses would take us home. I remember watching the TV, Walter Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley…the sad picture of Jackie Kennedy in her bloodstained pink suit standing next to LBJ as he took the oath of office. The repeated footage of the assassination, and the mysterious Lee Harvey Oswald. I remember the funeral, little John-John and Caroline and how sad it seemed for them and all of us. But I also vividly remember having an overnight at my friend Carolyn’s house, and watching on TV the next morning, live, the jail transfer of Oswald in which he was killed by Jack Ruby. At that moment I suspected for the first time that there was a lot more to this than we would ever know. And sadly, that ushered in 45 years of tragic events that gradually tore our country apart. Finally, hopefully, November 4, 2008 signals the first steps on the road back.
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