How old were you when you became aware of President Kennedy?

[EFerrari]

Poll question: How old were you when you became aware of President Kennedy?

For some of us, he defined an extremely hopeful future. For others, he came to signify a terrible loss. Maybe for even younger folk, he was someone we never really knew, something our parents talked about.

How old were you when you came into contact with the story of JFK?

[msongs]

1. the man or the myth? nt

[EFerrari]

7. In any way unless you are a blood relation.

:)

[stillcool]

8. Do you think today...

he would be a DLC'er?

http://www.nndb.com/group/269/000093987/

[burrowowl]

98. HELL NO!

[EFerrari]

100. JFK was expansive, not conservative. I agree. n/t

[burrowowl]

104. He was for social justice

The Corporatist DLCers haven't shown anything but Corporate 'Justice'.
I hope to GOD and DOG that Ted's faith in Obama turns out to be warranted!

[EFerrari]

108. I don't know about Senator Kennedy but imho neither candidate

minds social justice more than the other. I'm not even sure that in this climate they can.

That's okay.

We keep pressing the issue. There's slamming your head against a brick wall and there's working with brick until you have finer tools than blunt force.

[stillcool]

101. I just found that page...

I think it's my new favorite!

[leftofthedial]

2. he wasn't yet President Kennedy

he was debating Nixon. It's when I became a Democrat.

[EFerrari]

12. I was four and remember the jokes about will he show up in long pants.

(He was being hit for being too young and inexperienced.)

We never ate on TV trays but the family did for the debate. Only my mom and I spoke English at the time. She translated for my grandmother and for my uncle who was a teen.

It's funny because I remember the debates because we ate in the livingroom for once more than anything.

lol

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I was 14 when he was elected in 1960.

His assassination was one of the defining moments of my life. It had much to do with who I am today.

[EFerrari]

13. That my mother shared her grief with me, with all of us

shaped my whole family. :hug:

[MoJoWorkin]

118. I was 15, and campaigned door-to-door for him.

His death, along with Bobby and MLK changed my life forever. I became defeated in my desire for a future in public service. I regret not having more courage to continue.
I feel SO inspired by Barack Obama. I studied every word and deed of Jack Kennedy back then, and I feel he would be very proud of Caroline and Ted for passing the torch to Barack. The time IS now for a new generation of leadership. I believe it will take young hearts and minds to get us out of the abyss in which we find ourselves today.

[Liberal In Texas]

121. I was 11 when he was elected. I remeber watching the debates on TV.

My folks were for Nixon. I think they thought that Nixon would continue with the benign policies of Eisenhower. I guess everyone found out when Nixon did become president how wrong that assumption was.

The assassination, like 9/11, was a horribly stunning thing to experience.

[Fed_Up_Grammy]

4. I voted for him.

[EFerrari]

14. Lucky lady.

I just played with left over campaign flyers!

[Island Blue]

5. He was assassinated when I was three months old,

so it was sometime later when I was in school, I guess.

[EFerrari]

16. Can you remember when? My brother was two weeks old.

We'd barely settled in after he and Mom were back from the hospital.

[thunder rising]

6. School closed early that day ... my dad was in Vietnam .. it was a bad day

I was in the 2nd grade.

[goodgd_yall]

62. Where were you going ot school then?

I ask, because I have a friend who grew up in New Jersey and she said her school closed for the day. I told her mine didn't and now I wonder if it was a regional thing. I was attending school in unincorporated area of Sacramento County in California.

[thunder rising]

73. I was in a little town of Adrian TX (50 mi west of Amarillo) only paved road was HW 66

[Garbo 2004]

102. Not regional. I was in a Sac City school & we were sent home on 11/22/63. n/t

[trashcanistanista]

156. I was in third grade in a school in New Jersey and

the principal let us out early, he was crying. I went home and told my mom the principal was sick. When I got home it was when I found out the President was assasinated. I already knew who Carolyn and John John were and remember watching John John salute his father's casket on TV during the funeral procession. In those days, the Kennedys were all over media such as Time and Life magazine, especially Jackie. They were the popular equivalent of today's Britney.

[Kutjara]

9. I was just under two when he was assassinated.

My mother was Irish and, like many people of her generation idolized the "nice Irish boy" who became President. I pretty much heard about JFK from the moment I could understand speech. When RFK was murdered, she had a nervous breakdown and didn't come out of her room for nearly two weeks.

[EFerrari]

94. My mom had to stop nursing my brother when JFK was assasinated.

Her milk dried up completely. I remember that whole period as dark and painful and terribly silent.

[Arkansas Granny]

10. I started high school the year he was elected President.

[EFerrari]

17. Do you know that from the dates or from something you remember?

:)

[Arkansas Granny]

27. I remember watching the Democratic and Republican

conventions that summer (1960) with my folks, but I was already aware of JFK. I don't remember exactly when I first knew of him. We always listened to the news at night around the supper table, so I'm assuming that I heard his name there long before he was elected. My dad was a Republican and my mom was a Democrat, so there was always a good discussion of politics in the household.

[EFerrari]

32. Same here. There would always be a discussion at the kitchen table

after the dishes were done, mostly my mom, my uncles and my grandmother. Some of my aunts would be out in the livingroom watching tv, but the kitchen was the place to be.

I don't really remember his run for Congress but I do remember the convention coverage.

[flamingyouth]

11. I honestly don't remember being unaware of him.

He made such a huge impact on my parents, they talked about him constantly. My dad especially idolizes him. I remember many times when he would speak of his assassination with tears in his eyes (and believe me, my dad's not the type to cry easily). They were too young to vote for him, unfortunately, but he was President when they met and married and was killed just three months after their wedding.

His picture always hung in our home. My mom was pregnant with me when his brother was killed and again they were devastated.

[EFerrari]

22. Wow. You're a kid!

The day after he won the election is my third earliest memory.

/oops

[flamingyouth]

40. Thank you!

I'm feeling old because I'm going to be 40 this year. :P

PS - Great thread topic. :hi:

[EFerrari]

43. (The secret of life is knowing that forty is your BEST year.)

eom.

[DemoTex]

15. Not a well designed poll. Two questions: One JFK, the other President Kennedy.

I remember well Senator John F. Kennedy, but I don't remember him as a Congressman.

[EFerrari]

24. Everybody wants to be a critic.

:)

[samdogmom]

18. I was five during the 1960 election and vividly remember listening to

election coverage on the car radio. I was eight when he was assassinated and I watched every minute of the funeral coverage that I could. I remember TVs brought into our classrooms so all students could watch. Caroline is just a few years younger than me. I remember being very envious of her and wishing we could trade lives.

[EFerrari]

25. You and I are about the same age. My mom used to buy me

little outfits that evoked either Jackie or Caroline. It was amazing.

If you asked me what Chelsea was wearing while the Clintons were in the White House, I wouldn't know, let alone know to buy clothes for my little girl relatives to emulate her.

[SeattleGirl]

19. I was five when he was elected.

Even at that age, I knew there was something special about him. It was probably because of the generally favorable reaction to him from the adults around me.

I was 8 when he was assassinated. That is a day I will never, ever forget.

[EFerrari]

89. About the same timeline here.

It's amazing, isn't it, how much children so young pick up?

I especially remember the very day he won and the very day he was shot. The day he won everyone was really up, as if it was a family party. The day he was shot, I remember the whole family sitting on the sectional, silent, and watching teevee.

[bdamomma]

167. I was five too, but my mother (god bless her soul) told me

I was crying (I was eight) when I got home from school that day. Terrible horrible event, I remember watching his funeral the whole world stood still.

[soleft]

20. When I was a kid, we had these plastic statues of all the presidents

They stood on a styrofoam pedastal. The only ones that were wearing modern suits were Truman, Eisenhauer, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. I thought Kennedy was the best looking, so when I played with them, he was always the good guy. Nixon was always the bad guy. My older sister told me who Kennedy was and that he had been shot. I remember feeling really sad, like when I found out that Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz was dead and Lucy and Ricky were no longer married.

That was my first awareness of him. I've always seen him as a hero.

[Auggie]

21. The night before he was assassinated I asked my mother what would happen

if someone were to shoot the president. I was six years old. Freaks me out to this day.

[EFerrari]

26. Did you mean the president or that president?

That would freak me out, too.

[Auggie]

34. Must have meant Kennedy since he was the only president I knew.

[John Q. Citizen]

23. I was probably about 4 or 5. My parents had the First Family Comedy album,

and they were both involved with The Young Democrats in S. California.

[EFerrari]

28. What is the First Family Comedy Album? n/t

[WritersBlock]

33. Vaughan Meader, I think his name was. We had it, too.

I must have listened to it a hundred times.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Family_(album)

on edit: Yeah, Vaughan Meader. I think he died a couple years back.

Gosh, does this bring back memories!

[Auggie]

35. I loved that album

[WritersBlock]

38. Yeah, me too.

I don't think I could listen to it today, though. It would break my heart.

[bigbrother05]

39. Vaughn Meador, made a living doing JFK

Top selling comedy album at the time.  Disappeared suddenly near the end of Nov '63.

[EFerrari]

46. Thank you, bigbrother05.

I can't believe I never heard about this album.

[goodgd_yall]

58. I still have my copy of that album.

[bigbrother05]

Picked up a copy at a garage sale

not sure anyone else knew what it was.  Can remember seeing him on the talk shows.  Was satirical but in no way mean spirited.

[John Q. Citizen]

74. I still remember the line "Well let me say this about that," in the Kenndy MA accent

[Hekate]

97. ROFL. I think I actually have that album somewhere around here! My boyfriend & I used to ham it up--

-- doing lines from that album.

Vaughan Meador did the Kennedys quite well.

Hekate

[John Q. Citizen]

107. Yes he did. It was satire but it was gentle and friendly satire. I don't think

it was very appreciated by Nixon voters, but Kennedy supporters really liked it.

[EFerrari]

136. My mom didn't have that but she had an album of his speeches.

It had a photo portrait of him on the cover and a red background. Not sure when she got that. It may have been after we lost him.

ETA: This one.



Product Description
33 1/3 Vinyl Record - A & B sides - Produced and broadcast by Radio Station WMCA, New York, on Friday, November 22, 1963 Plain paper sleeve Narrated by Ed Brown. Produced by Martin Plissner and Ed Brown; Roger W. Turner, Director News and Public Affairs. Recorded speech material from RPI. O

Must have been hard to put that together.

[Hekate]

163. I also have that one, or one very similar: I think mine has a black background. His inaugural speech

...is on it. It came out shortly after he was assassinated.

I've never managed to get rid of my vinyl LPs. :eyes:

Hekate

[bdamomma]

168. I think my parents had the same album.

[Ishoutandscream2]

29. I have had so much contact with people

I'm from Dallas, the Oak Cliff section. Oswald was caught on Jefferson street, not too many blocks where I was a two year old being watched by my grandparents.

I went to high school with June Oswald Porter. Marina remarried, and moved to the Rockwall area. June and I were pretty good friends. She was extremely intelligent. In our speech class senior year, she made a persuasive speech about how our community needed a modern library, not more athletic facilities.

As a counselor here in Rockwall, I have met the man who buried Oswald at Rose Hill cementary in Fort Worth (he was the granddad of one of our students), and the man who was handcuffed to Oswald when he was shot spoke to our students (another granddad). A lot of living history, gotta tell you.

But I would have given all of this up if it would have never happened... I love my city, but the agony knowing that it happened where I was born, raised, and continue to live still haunts me to this day.

[EFerrari]

37. Wow. That's quite a story. But you know, even if many of us

aren't as connected to that physical place, there is still what might be described as a "haunting".

[kskiska]

65. There's an interview with June Oswald Porter

I'd always wondered what happened to her and her sister. Marina had another child, a son, with her second husband.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=675

[Ishoutandscream2]

93. Oh yes, that's June alright

Always spoke her mind, and she could be very terse. Very, very bright. Didn't know her and Rachel were having problems at one time. June always kept to herself, but Rachel seemed very outgoing and popular. Rachel was even our school mascot.

[Gormy Cuss]

30. I lived in an Irish-American neighborhood-- he was akin to a saint.

I don't remember his presidency but I do remember the pall cast over the 'hood when he was assassinated.
I remember Bobby's assassination (and MLK's )more clearly.

[EFerrari]

41. Check it out: we lived in an Irish Catholic neighborhood in Daly City.

We were the only ones on the block who weren't Meehans. Except for that German guy up the block with the big dog.

[Gormy Cuss]

50. That's Meghans, old school.

I didn't know Daly City used to be an Old Sod area. :hi:

[EFerrari]

59. Oh, man! Was it EVER!

Great neighborhood. I still remember the fundraisers in the basement of Our Lady of Mercy. I only rode my bike DOWNHILL, lol, and I remember the nuns not speaking English and confusing the hell out of me because I was trying to learn English at the time. lolol

[Individualist]

31. I was 17 when he was elected

[EFerrari]

45. So, did you know about him before that or did you get to know him

after the election?

:hi:

[gateley]

36. I was six when he was running for President.

I was very aware of him because we're Irish Catholics, and both of my parents were from Boston. My friends and I were interested because they had a little girl who wasn't much younger than we were. My parents had a beautiful picture of JFK, and one of the entire family. The family portrait was BIG - hung in the basement, I remember.

My Catholic school, naturally, was wildly enthusiastic about a CATHOLIC actually being considered for Prez.

There was so much excitement when he won (I remember being bored to tears watching the returns on TV with my parents.)

And EVERYTHING was Kennedy - John Q. Citizen brought up the Vaughn Meader First Family Album. I still remember bits from it!

[EFerrari]

49. I was in second grade in a Catholic school run largely by

Irish American clerics. It was HUGE.

/ack

[951-Riverside]

42. I was only 1,962 years old when I found out about John

[Neshanic]

44. When my first grade teacher came in and told us and started crying.

[EFerrari]

139. How frightening. My second grade teacher went into a huddle

with the other nuns on the playground and they all started crying. That was pretty scary all by itself.

[Sherman A1]

47. Got to see him as a candidate

drive past in an open top car in St. Louis.

[TahitiNut]

48. I was a sideboy for him when I was 19. I was in high school when he was inaugurated.

I was familiar with him since about 1956, when I was 13 and he was being considered at the Democratic convention for a Vice Presidential spot with Adlai Stenvenson.

For me, it was CURRENT EVENTS and not HISTORY. For me, it was personal experience and not hearsay.

[EFerrari]

52. Please tell me what a sideboy is unless it will embarrass the Party.

I thought a sideboy was a cabinet for china!

lol

[TahitiNut]

60. It's a naval honor guard for a dignitary coming on board a ship.

I was a Coast Guard Academy cadet. The ship was the Eagle. Kennedy reviewed the ship at the Navy Yard in D.C. at the end of our 1962 summer training cruise.

A head of state rates eight sideboys - four on each side. I was the last one on his left. We saluted and the Bosun's Mate piped him aboard - stopping when he stepped past the last sideboys. (Me.) He slowed down as he passed me (as a joke) so I got to look at him about 18"-24" in front of me ... at his shave (close), suit (extraordinary tailoring), haircut (perfect), slight smirk at the bosun's mate (joking with him), and glance to his left.


Yes, I was a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy from 1961-63 and an enlisted draftee in the Army from 1968-69. I've seen enough military in my life.

[EFerrari]

64. Damn.

You really were there. Damn.

[TahitiNut]

69. Yup. It was quite something.

At that age, I was clueless ... didn't fully realize how unusual my experience was. It made November 1963 even more difficult. It was "personal" in a strange sense.

It may sound funny, but it made "Forrest Gump" almost like a personal biography in many ways. I get bizarre kinds of 'deja vu' senses when I watch that movie.

[EFerrari]

75. If FG had been set in San Francisco, I'd feel the same way.

So many random and fleeting encounters with so many people like Harvey Milk when I was mostly a clueless kid trying to bring home a check or in some way do what I thought I was supposed to do.

[bigbrother05]

51. 8 years old in 1960

Remember watching the convention. No winner on the 1st ballot, JFK & LBJ in a battle. The wiley Texan and the charismatic Bostonian. Was looking forward to a brokered convention, probably no better way without a clear front runner.

[EFerrari]

61. You remember more than I do. I remember only black and white images

and of Kennedy at the podium and of a huge crowd. I think that's when I caught the thread, began to pick up the story that was being made.

[Canuckistanian]

53. I was 5 when I heard of his assassination

And I damned well knew he was "the president" and how important he was and how well respected he was.

And I remember my mother's reaction to the news (we were both watching a soap opera and she was ironing when the news broke).

I realized that this was a significant world event, even though I was a child in another country.

[kineneb]

79. so was I

but I knew about him before that; he came to northern California and dedicated the newly-built Whiskytown Dam. I seem to remember seeing the newspaper photo. There is a large plaque near where he stood.

I also remember my grandparents discussing the Berlin Wall, at some point.

[Jed Dilligan]

54. 1983, I was nine

Martin Sheen's wonderful portrayal of JFK in the miniseries gave me my first real awareness of what he did and meant.

[EFerrari]

63. I think that's when my oldest son first got to hear / watch the story, too.

I'd forgotten about the Sheen portrayal. :hi:

[Jed Dilligan]

67. Do you remember which comic said,

"Let's make Martin Sheen president and tell him to play Kennedy for the next four years?"

When I was ten, this seemed not only possible but a very good idea. After all, we had a lousy actor playing a cowboy in there, why not a great actor playing a great president?

[EFerrari]

70. No, I don't. Who was it? n/t

[Jed Dilligan]

72. I wasn't quizzing you--I thought you might remember

I honestly don't. It may have been one of the old SNL crew; I don't know. Might have even been Al Franken: whoever predicted that career!?

[EFerrari]

77. I have no memory at all from 1976 to about '85 because we had rugrats.

Trying to place the voice. Was Carson still on? Sounds a little dead on for him. What a great quote.

lol

[Jed Dilligan]

90. Yeah, I was about fifteen before Tonight passed to the fat-chinned slob

Used to love Carson, but he was never quite that trenchant.

I'll ask my mom next time we talk, she has a pretty great memory, and both her kids were pretty self-sufficient by the time I was 9 (I'm the younger).

[goodgd_yall]

55. I was 6---no category for me.

It was while he was running for President in 1959. I remember a lot of talk about his being Catholic. I lived in Mississippi and Catholics were not thought of very kindly (to put it mildly).

[EFerrari]

66. I was an adult before I knew that some people didn't consider Catholics Christians!

What is it that you remember?

[Jensen]

56. I had just turned 12 when I saw him and Jackie in New York....He had just been elected!

[EFerrari]

68. Do you remember what you thought?

I remember when he won -- I thought it was like winning a baseball game, lol. And after, it was like hearing the story of fairytale characters. The Kennedys were my bedtime story for those years.

[Jensen]

175. I was "Star" struck !!! What a gorgeous couple!

I stood there on 90th St and Broadway frozen and mesmerized....I will never forget!

[Thothmes]

57. I was 15 when he was assinated.

[UTUSN]

71. I can tell you EXACTLY, San PAT!1 I was

But why are you so crazy about the KENNEDYs? Why can't we LUERVE one another?!1

[caraher]

76. I was born on his birthday the year after he was killed...

and my first name is John. I don't know whether there was a connection there... my parents saved the newspapers reporting on the assassination and I think that's where I first learned about JFK.

I'm also of Irish extraction on my father's side.

[EFerrari]

78. When did you find out about the clippings? My mom kept them all, too.

I still have them. Isn't that something.

[caraher]

88. I'd guess around age 6

In fact, I think it might have been my dad adding moon landing stories to the small collection of newspapers he'd saved from major events, leading to "what is this one about?"

[EFerrari]

92. Gotcha. When I was 11, my grandmother and I went on a visit

to El Salvador. She smuggled back a book called "These Men Killed Kennedy" that was banned in this country. As an eleven year old, I go very worried on the flight back because I didn't know what I would do if someone arrested us!

For me that means, the story didn't end with the funeral. We never really put it aside or away.

[kwassa]

80. I saw Jack Ruby kill Lee Harvey Oswald on live television

we all saw it, it happened right in front of the tv cameras.

I was 11 years old.

[EFerrari]

84. A lot of us saw that.

:(

Do you remember, is that when you started learning the story or, was it the next place in the story?

[kwassa]

105. The next place

It was a several day drama that started on a Friday. Everything shut down, and we lived in front of the tv.

[EFerrari]

109. My family had a turquoise sectional. We live there, too, you are right.

I've never really thought about that before but all my family members were working for wages. They got docked for not coming to work. The world seemed to shut down.

Even after JohnJohn asked "can I have one for my father" it wasn't over.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

124. I did too. I just turned 12, 5 days before. It was surreal, as was the assassination and funeral.

The tv must have been on in our home 24/7.

[Liberal In Texas]

169. Me too. And when I came to Dallas years later and walked into a TV station for my job interview,

just off the lobby was a wall sized blow up of the b&w news photo from the Dallas Times Herald of Oswald cringing and the old RCA TV camera on display in front of it that broadcast it live to the world.

It was very strange seeing that for the first time.

[bobbolink]

81. I actually shook his hand when he came to speak in Los Alamos, when I was in high school.

The football field where he appeared was renamed for him.

It's Bobby, however, who I revere, and believe would have really changed our society.

:cry:

JE reminds me so much of Bobby.

:cry:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

82. I was 8. My parents loved him and they drove the whole family to one of his railroad

whistlestop rallies on Long Island. i think that was probably the first time I became Very aware of him.

[EFerrari]

86. That's cool. We never went to a campaign stop.

He was a teevee personality for me. Not Bobby, though. I got to see him out here at the Cow Palace. It was packed.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

123. I forgot to mention, that when we went, my brother, then 14 met Bobby, and shook his hand.

My brother was so thrilled!

Although I'm in NY, I never got to meet Bobby. The day after his murder, my sister and I went to St. Patrick's Cathedral to pray for him (and we are Jewish). Tears welling up thinking about it.

[EFerrari]

131. The summer went dark. It was just too much.

After that, my youngest uncle flipped and registered as a Republican. He had loved Bobby so much. He used to go walking with my mom , calling, the three of us went to rallies together.

I'll never really understand his reaction but I think he couldn't allow himself ever to be hurt like that again and decided that if the world was full of sonuvabitches, he'd join them. Looking back, my mom and I had sort of a similar reaction. That was the summer we left the church and not even together, but independently. We never went back to Mass together as a family again.

[davekriss]

83. I was 5, it was the day he was assassinated

All the grownups around me were in tears and shock. I was puzzled and concerned. I watched the news. I especially remember the funeral.

[pinto]

85. 9 or 10. My Dad was an LBJ Democrat, my Mom a JFK Democrat.

One a Texan, one a New Englander. Both passionate about what each man meant to their constituencies. And both politicians revered in their home state.

It made for good table talk, which I drank up like gravy at the end of a good roast.

I think that's the point I found political practicality and idealism compatible.

[EFerrari]

87. You were lucky, pinto.

Had my parents stayed married long enough to talk politics, they'd likely have come to blows.

:rofl:

[pinto]

91. I was and it was fun. (They split, eventually - but politically, the deed was done...)

:hi:

[EFerrari]

95. Thanks, everyone. It helped a lot to remember today why

I ever thought we could not only do well but do very well.

Thanks.

[Hekate]

96. I was 13 when he was elected, by 14 I was inspired. I sent away for the Peace Corps packet...

He wasn't just a myth, he was a real person who acted on the world stage.

He was making strides on civil rights -- African Americans all over the country were devastated by his death, because he had given them hope that the days of Jim Crow laws were over. Lyndon Johnson seized the moment after the assassination to ram the 1964 Civil Rights Act through Congress, but it got through in part to honor Kennedy and the work he started.

JFK wasn't a god -- he didn't have to be....

Hekate

[EFerrari]

99. He wasn't just a myth and that's, imho, why his story is so powerful.

He did stuff. He wasn't a bunch of slogans although I'm sure his people worked those, too. Maybe, his people invented the modern campaign. And the press held back on his flaws, we know that now.

What I remember is that he captured the press. He did, not his "people" although they were there, too. He went out there and held press conferences and outdid them.

And that he ran as a hawk. (Can you imagine the Republics dismay if Hillary or Obama ran as hawks? lol) And that, in the optimism of his administration, diplomacy was our most potent weapon. Talking to people.

The mythology certainly has been spun around him and that administration and that time. But, all by itself, it was remarkable. :)

[ConcernedCanuk]

103. 11-TEEN - you left some gaps there - - why?

.
.

anyhoo,

I did a school project and oral presentation about the Cuban Missile Crisis and how Kennedy prevented it, with cutouts from newspapers of the silos and so on

I got an A+ on it

He got whacked . . .

Some country ya got there.

[EFerrari]

106. Always happy to hear from our neighbors to the north,

[Hatchling]

110. I was in fourth grade.

It was just before the election and my class had a mock election. I was the only one that voted for Kennedy. I was really confused that everyone else voted for Nixon. I went home and complained about it and discovered to my dismay that my family was Republican! OMG.

I was in seventh grade English class when I found out he had been assassinated. Bobby Wright had been sent home to get his books and burst into the classroom shouting "President Kennedy has been shot!" We all burst into laughter because Bobby was such a prankster and the teacher made him shut up and sit down. It was inconceivable to me when I found out it was true. I remember sitting for hours in front of the tv watching everything.

When Bobby was killed while I was in high school, the world just seemed to fall apart. I have never been able to feel hope since then without a sense of fatalistic cynicism.

[pinto]

111. I was in school at the time, as well. Massachusetts. Apparently the staff

had some clue to the news. The principal opened the door to our class, crying, and shook her head, 'No'.

We were told, 'You all need to get home, right now, the President is dead.'

New England stopped.

[B Calm]

112. I was 12 and I see you didn't put my age group on your poll. Why

do you need to know how old I was anyway?

[EFerrari]

117. You're right. Technically, 11 and 12 are not teens but pre-teens.

I was lumping those years in that whole decade.:)

[MiniMe]

113. I was 5 when he died.

I think I knew of him before that, but what 5 year old pays much attention? But I do remember very well the funeral.

[L. Coyote]

114. 1956, when he crossed the National radar as THE "Catholic" politician.

[Girlieman]

115. What kind of question is this?

"The story of JFK?"

Is this question solely for those who were not born until after his death? What's the difference between the story of JFK and JFK himself?

[EFerrari]

119. JFK was very much a character in the stories of his public life

even in life. He was the hero of PT 109, the Catholic politician who beat Richard Nixcon, the young Senator from MA, the president who shot for the moon and so on. It wasn't just a marketing trick although there was that, too. I think this is one reason that he resonated with people so much.

We don't only remember a man or a series of events or even a career. We remember stories or bits of stories that we use to share our own life with other people. The story of JFK is bound up in the story of our own life as well as in the life of the nation.

[El Pinko]

116. I was probably about 8 years old.

I remember my dad was a big admirer of his from way back, although he died 6 years before I was born.

Even when I was young I remember feeling like we had been robbed off something very important in his passing, and I still feel that way.

The first president I remember was Ford, though. Everybody around me seemed pretty ambivalent about him. Growing up in Texas, my dad was the only one of the parents in my neighborhood that liked Carter very much, and the only one who hated Reagan. Although El Paso is and was a red county, our mostly-white, somewhat upscale neighborhood leaned pretty heavy GOP. I always found it annoying how all the other kids at school all parroted their dads' Reaganite platitudes with no understanding of any of what they were saying.

Boy, I really went off on a tangent there...

[EFerrari]

120. At least the first president you remember isn't Nixon!

lol

:hi:

[pdxmom]

122. I was almost 5 years old, and I remember the funeral very, very clearly. It

is sort of imprinted on my mind. My father and a group of friends had gone to D.C. to attend in person, and my mother and the wives of the other men were all gathered around the T.V., watching it and crying. I think that was probably the beginning of my political awakening and interest. I remember it so clearly and my mom talking to me in terms a little kid could understand, about why she was so sad and why JFK was such a great man and a great loss. I will never forget.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

125. I was a child during the 1960 campaign

It seems silly now, but a lot of Protestants were afraid that a Catholic president would answer to the Pope first and the American people second.

[EFerrari]

126. I remember that and now wonder how real it was or if it was

something Nixon's campaign generated. It would be fun to go back and read about that campaign. :hi:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

127. Oh, anti-Catholic prejudice was a real phenomenon

and many of the Catholics gave back as much as they got. This was before Vatican II. We can thank Pope John XXIII for easing relations between Protestants and Catholics.

I also credit our public school system, where Catholics and Protestants studied side by side, for the fact that we never developed a Northern Ireland-type feud. (The UK subsidizes religious schools, so all the Catholic children go to Catholic schools, while the state schools are almost exclusively Protestant.)

As an example of the type of anti-Catholic stuff that was going around in those days, one of my relatives told her children never to have Catholic friends, because all Catholic young people were out to seduce, marry, and convert Protestants and require them to raise their children Catholic. (Sounds like gays and lesbians "recruiting," doesn't it?)

[EFerrari]

129. The Catholic Agenda! As a child, I was in parochial school.

I was taught that anyone who was not Catholic was wrong and would unfortunately go to hell. It was just a fact. Not sure I had any Protestant friends until we moved to a town without a Catholic school and I was switched to public school, come to think of it.

[LeftHander]

128. Bene Geserit mother drank water of life....I knew in the womb....nt

[Snarkturian Clone]

164. The bile of the Shai Hulud? NT

[Snarkturian Clone]

165. dupe!

[mulsh]

130. I was around 3 or 4 when I first became aware of Kennedy

my parents were split. My mother, good San Francisco Irish Catholic gal, loved all the Kennedy's, especially John. My father, an east coast Irish Catholic knew both Jack and Bobby from his high school years. Loathed both of them. Voted for both of them but really had lots of personal animosity especially toward Bobby, who I later found out was stupidly nasty to some of my other relatives. Teenage antics but what ever they did left an irreversible tastes in dad's mouth. My mom never met any of the Kennedy's.
Both of them liked Teddy.

[EFerrari]

132. Hi there, mulsh.

Bobby sure seemed to have an @sshole problem in his early years, didn't he? Makes his later work sort of remarkable when you consider how priviliged he was and how little need he had to change himself.

Can I ask what hood you were in? It's funny because the Sunset (my neighborhood) used to be very Irish Catholic and now it's a salad except for our old firefighter and cop families. :)

[unc70]

133. Age 8 in 1956 watching Dem convention

Watching the fight for the VP.

[EFerrari]

135. Wow! I was only months old. What do you remember?

Where was it held?

[unc70]

153. I remember a lot, even the commercials

The big news at the Dem convention in 1956 was that it took several ballots to select the VP. It was late summer and hot, both in my house and at the convention.

The convention was covered nearly full time by the only two commercial stations we received. My family mostly watched CBS with Walter Cronkite. I remember that Betty Furness would do live commercials for refrigerators and maybe air conditioners right in the booth with Cronkite. It was fascinating to me, just becoming aware of politics. My parents were politically aware, but nothing like I am now. For President, my father voted for Ike; my mother for Adlai. They were good natured about canceling each other.

We sometimes checked on NBC where Chet Huntley and David Brinkley were providing the coverage.

Thinking back, I remember the commercials almost as much as the politics. I think it was in 1956 (could have been 1960), that George Feniman kept advertising iced tea; Feniman was Goucho Marx's announcer, did much of the Dragnet voice-overs.

The speeches seemed long and boring, the demonstrations and music were interesting, and I really like the roll call on the votes with the flourishes at each state. This was all exciting because seeing this live was new not just for me, but for everyone.

When I have more time, I may try to find some bits of that coverage. It would probably bring back a lot more memories.

[onenote]

134. ten when he was assassinated

Grew up in the DC suburbs, with neighbors (such as Pierre Salinger) that were part of JFK's circle.

[karynnj]

137. I was 10 and this was the first election I had any concept of

Although my parents were for Nixon, I was for JFK. Likely because of Caroline Kennedy. Once he became President, I started reading the newspaper.

[EFerrari]

140. You were already a big troublemaker at that early age, weren't you?

:)

My mom used to talk about Caroline. That's when I realized that being a little girl was a responsibility.

[karynnj]

147. Actually no, I was one of these serious kids who

was told by a very well read mother, "Put down that book and go outside".

[EFerrari]

148. She obviously knew that reading was dangerous to your health.

lol

[marlakay]

138. I was 7 in second grade

I remember the day they said he died and how we all cried and no one left the tv. The flag, the family it stays with me. I am from CA and my parents took me downtown to watch his brother drive down a street and I remember everyone being so happy and shouting I don't remember when that was as time is fuzzy back that far.

My mom loved Jackie and her style..we stayed up late listening with our parents to the returns the night they shot Robert and even as a child when the second Kennedy died it was like fear hit the country, like we weren't allowed to have populism here.

[EFerrari]

141. I know. The day Bobby was assassinated, my mom walked

her two precincts for him and I was with her, proud to be "helping" even if my feet hurt.

We were so tired, we both took a nap . . . and woke up to that.

My mom stayed in bed for two days after that and my brother and I didn't do much, either.

[RedEarth]

142. I was in a ninth grade Spanish class when he was assassinated

[EFerrari]

159. Was that when you first learned about him?

[Cabcere]

143. However old I was when we learned about him in school, I guess.

:shrug: My parents were in elementary school when he was assassinated.

[EFerrari]

144. My kids (that I had when I was ten, lol) might say the same thing.

I've never asked them about it, about what their impression is or how they feel about that whole story.

How did you learn about it in school?

[Cabcere]

145. I don't really remember

I think it must've been Nov. 22, and maybe my history teacher told us to ask our parents/grandparents about JFK... :shrug: I don't know. Now it just seems like one of those things that everybody knows and you just sort of take for granted, you know? :shrug:

[EFerrari]

146. Sure! I'm going to call one of my sons and ask him, too.

You know, it was so immediate for some of us. It was like someone in our family, like skin, like someone you love and care about. That's mostly why I posted this thread. To find out if the story is being handed down or not.

John Kennedy was all about making and building and doing. Not like the cautious stuff we hear today from mainstream politicians. There was something beyond hopeful. It was more like, let's go for it! And, the nation did. He gave us a sense that we could do anything. And, he was right.

/here -> hear

:)

[Cabcere]

152. It's really hard for me to even imagine something like that.

I must've been eighteen before I realized that people actually used to trust politicians...and I still had trouble believing it. All my life, I've known that politicians lie - it's just a fact of life for people of my generation, I guess, and it blew me away to find out that it wasn't always like that. :shrug: :hi: Peace.

[Jimbo S]

149. Kindergarden. My school was named after him.

Built 1966.

[Midlodemocrat]

150. I saw him in a motorcade in New Haven, CT. Not sure of the year.

I was 4 or 5, maybe?

It made an impression on me because my parents adored the Kennedys.

[Rabrrrrrr]

151. In my teens, about 15 years or so after his death.

[Hardrada]

154. I remember hearing about Senator Kennedy in 1956

when my cousin was at the Democratic National Convention. JFK gave a speech we saw on TV.

[EFerrari]

158. That was fifty years ago. Where does time go.

:)

[Hardrada]

160. Where indeed?

[Djinn]

155. Depends what you mean aware

I probably knew of his existence when I was younger than 5. Grew up in a very political household.
The ages I became aware of specifics?

I was probably around 13 when I learnt of his support for the brutal and corrupt Ngo Dinh Diem, until it became irritating and he had him executed

I guess I was around 15 when I found out about the illegal intervention in Laos

I was in my early 20's when I found out about his expansion of SOA to push his cold warrior agenda in Latin America

[EFerrari]

157. He did all of those things, you are right. He ran as a hawk

for the presidency in the most powerful country in the world and one that had a habit of preying on other countries. All of that is true.

[fujiyama]

161. My first recollection of President Kennedy (or learning of him)

was a presentation I gave in second grade about the Moon Landing. I mentioned how Kennedy was president when it happened, because I had heard his speech and found it inspiring.

The teacher then told me that Nixon was president by then...and I thought it was unfortunate that Kennedy never did see the landing take place. Oh and by that time, I had already heard that Nixon had been a crook.

Gee, I guess my politics haven't changed that much over 18 years.

[murielm99]

162. It was before my twelfth birthday, when he was running

for office. My parents were so impressed with him.

My parents did not like Catholics. They put all that aside for Kennedy.

I was fifteen when he was assassinated.

[countryjake]

166. Not sure exactly how old I was, but it was his book, not his story...

that first gained notice in our household. Whatever year it was that he won the Pulitzer for "Profiles In Courage", (1958 maybe, I was pretty young), is when my family (especially my dad, a strong union man) hit the roof, because one of the "esteemed Senators" that Kennedy chose to profile was Taft, a highly hated man in my Ohio family. Then later, when Kennedy ran for prez, that was the deciding factor that prevented both of my folks from casting any vote in that election...I imagine it was his notion of "reaching across the aisle" (similar to what we're now hearing) that caused them to distrust him so badly. I can remember childishly trying to make the case that "everybody has some good in them", and got back a very good lesson on the importance of a working man's right to organize, capitalist oppression, and what an insidious grip "money" actually has on our nation.

[EFerrari]

171. Your parents sound like they know what they value. My mom

is the same way. lol

:hi:

[RFKJrNews]

170. What a wonderful topic! so glad I found this!

Thank you for this thread, thanks to everyone who shared their memories, and those lovely photos!

I was born after the murders of both Kennedys. I remember vividly my first encounter with JFK as a child of 6. I was rummaging through a desk drawer one day where my folks kept old photos, souvenirs, etc... (including the newspaper from Pearl Harbor Day) and saw that famous memorial issue of Life Magazine with Kennedy on the cover.

Instantly transfixed, I opened it up and studied the feature story with those altered photo stills from the Zapruder Film inside. Even as a kid, I knew something was all wrong with the official story. As they so often say, "even a 6 year-old could figure out Oswald didn't act alone."

I sometimes wish I had been born earlier so that I could have memories of the New Frontier, like so many of you do. On the other hand, I suppose it is a blessing I was born after the horrific events of 1963-68, so that my psyche was not scarred by those memories. I can only imagine how traumatic the assassinations must have been for children. Judging by what I've heard from friends who lived then, and what I've read here, the trauma of those events will never go away. No one who lived through it was quite the same again...even now, 40+ years later.

[EFerrari]

172. Hey, there.

I don't think it does ever go away. It was traumatizing for kids to see adults all around them in tears and emotional, so laid low. On the other hand, it was instructive to see adults be human in the same decade that we were being fed the Cleaver family.

There's another aspect that's also important. JFK asked for activism. RFK expanded on that call. The murders of those men inspired many people to fight their grief via activism, I suspect. It was a way to keep them or at least, to keep a connection to them and to their best work.

[JVS]

173. WTF? Who is that?

[EFerrari]

174. Now, there's a book concept!

President Kennedy for people who are too young to remember . . . or who have lost most of their memory

:)

[Iggo]

176. I was barely 2 yrs old when he was murdered.

But my mom's family is Irish-Catholic (her mom was from Ireland) and my dad's family is Catholic and Californian since before California was part of the United States.

So I got heavy doses of Kennedy stuff, which only got more intense as I worked my way through first Catholic school, then the public school system.

So I guess my answer is I was probably aware of him since before I can remember...heh.

(Edited for piss-poor grammar.)

[RFKHumphreyObama]

177. I was about 8 or 9

I was born in the early 1980s and I grew up in SE Asia. I became passionately interested in US politics when I was about eight and started doing a whole lot of research on US Presidents. It was then I discovered President Kennedy and I liked him immediately. My mother told me that she had loved President Kennedy and had cried when he was assassinated. My mother was from South East Asia and had lived there for all her life before Kennedy's assassination -the fact that she mourned his loss is indicative of how widely he was loved and admired around the globe.

I purchased my first book about Kennedy when I was about nine or ten and, by the time I was 13, I had accumulated a whole collection of books about President Kennedy and his assassination. In addition to this, In addition to this, my dad was a university lecturer and this allowed me to borrow all sorts of books about President Kennedy and the Kennedy Administration from the university library. I read memoirs from people like Arthur Schlesinger about their time in the Kennedy White House and I also read a collection of the Kennedy press conferences that were compiled into one book. I was and still am fascinated by the Kennedys

[Omaha Steve]

178. I was home sick from school

I remember telling my mom as she walked in the door. She had been two houses away at my grandparents house getting something to make me feel better. She was so sure I misunderstood the news.