November 22, 1963

I was 8 years old, in the third grade.  We were playing outside on the playground, a cold November afternoon in Chicago.  The teachers suddenly began ushering us inside, single file line as usual, up the stairs and into our classrooms.   When we were seated at our desks our teacher told us President John F. Kennedy had been shot.  Shot?  What?  Why?  Our 8 year old minds had a hard time understanding what was going on.  Our experience with violence was limited if not nonexistent.  Today violence is laid out for all to see in the media.

Take a few minutes today to remember the man who was our 35th President.  The man who did great things, loved his family, and his country.  Today he would be 89 years old.  Hard to imagine JFK at that age.  I wonder what his life, that of his wife and children, would have been like had he not been killed.   I wonder how the lives of all people would have been different as well.   We'll never know but we will always remember him with great fondness and respect.

Where were you when you heard the news?