35 years ago

Where were you when JFK was shot, November 22nd, 1:30PM Eastern time.

I was in the 3rd grade (8 years old) at All Saints Elementary School in Philadelphia, probably doing Art (it was a Friday afternoon, and that's when we did art).

I remember a nun coming in to tell us the Prisident had been shot in Texas. I specifically remember Texas, because immediately I thought of a scene from a Western on a dusty street where someone would pull a six shooter on the President and drop him with a single shot. The only other image I had of Texas would be from the Jimmy Dean show (popular at that time). You have to remember how kids were at that time---pretty innocent, at least by today's standards.

I don't remember if the nun was crying. I do know we were dismissed for the day, and I walked about 5 minutes to my house. I don't remember if my mother was crying, but certainly at this point, the bad news was all over the television, and most likely the news was out that the President was dead.

It was a very sad time.

Some things I remember are the news crews gathered at the White House---I specifically remember a miniature model of the Apollo moon rocket being removed from the White House, along with a narrator telling the audience how much the president loved the model.

On Sunday, November 24th, I (along with my brother Bob) was one of the millions of people who witnessed Lee Harvey being shot on live television. My parents were at Church (the 11AM mass). I was at home because I had gone to the 9:15 Childrens mass.

Seeing someone shot on live televison is nothing new to today's kids--they see it all the time, and it has to change them in some way. Later that evening, when I went to visit my grandmother on Wilmot street in the Frankford section of Philadelphia, I recall seeing the first Zapruder film showing the President being killed---it was grainy, but you could certainly see his head explode.

Talk about a loss of innocence.