Where were y'all...? (Dallas, Wichita Falls, McKinney: home, school, college)

[Cowboybootnut]

I was a third grader at the Pleasant View Elementary School in Canton Ohio. We were sitting in Mrs. Robertson's class, when the principal got on the intercom and asked all the teachers to come out into the hall. Mrs. Robertson went out for a few minutes, then came back in to tell us that school was being dismissed early today - no reason given, and the buses were ready to pick us up to take us home. We got on the bus, and headed to our homes, happy that we left early on a Friday. I kept hearing some of the fifth and sixth graders talking about the president being shot. I thought they were joking, the older kids used to tease us with "Santa Claus wasn't real," or "Bozo the Clown died," just to make the younger kids cry. So I made sure not to cry.

I got home, went into our small trailer (yes, I am trailer trash!), and mom was there as usual. Even at 8 years old, I could tell there was something a little different with her, but I didn't know the reason. I told her about the older kids teasing us about the president being shot. I notice that the TV was on, and it wasn't game shows, or soap operas, it was a news broadcast. Mom told me that the kids weren't kidding, the president was shot and killed, and she cried.

I cried too, and I am crying today thinking about it.

[case44]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Cathy, for lots of reasons I later came to think of -- and still do -- Walter Cronkite as a pompous blowhard. But in watching the old film clips, I can't help but admire him.

He should be admired, Rebby. Sometimes politics have to be set aside in moments like that. We're all human and that includes news anchors.

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Hidy fellow Texans...

I have to admit I really didn't think of the significance of this date until I caught it on the IE newspage. That is, that it was 45 years ago that Kennedy was shot in Dallas.

Where were y'all at the time? (those still in the womb or not yet thought of are excused from this excercise! LOL).

I'll play, even though I wasn't born yet, but I've seen many clips from my local news stations. My mother was less than a mile away decorating a store downtown when the event occurred.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

TexReb, I have to disagree with you about Uncle Walter. If we could only have journalists like him today. I try to think of one, and I just flat can't.

His coverage of this event was, indeed, heartbreaking.

Wellll, THL...maybe I should explain a bit...

I agree wholeheartedly with you that he was the epitome of an old time broadcast journalist. And deserved his reputation as "the most trusted man in America". I remember well from my growing up days watching as Daddy watched the CBS Evening News and Cronkite signing off with "And that's the way it is..."

Always trying to imitate those guys on TV as a kid, I had nothing but awe and admiration for him when growing up. And still today, honestly respect him as, as you say, one who told it like it was without editorializing. At least, in his heyday.

Later on though, as the Vietnam War became more and more questionable and unpopular, he did indeed begin to "editorialize." Just as he was once the objective anchorman, he later became forerunner of the type we have today. That is, one who interprets, rather than reports, the news.

But honestly? It wasn't actually that which soured me on him. I know this might sound silly (although expected of me, I guess), but it was reading a certain part of his autobiography that just hit me the wrong way.

To wit: His family moved from somewhere up north (I think Ohio) to Texas. He related in this memoir of how his teacher in the Houston public school he entered insisted that the use of "sir" and "ma'am" be the norm when addressing adults. He refused to do so and his daddy backed him up on it! Saying something like "Son, you don't have to conform to these silly Southern ideas of manners." My own daddy would have beat my a$$ nine ways from Sunday if I dared defy a teacher like that! And to NOT use such honorifics as "sir" and "ma'am" was not even on the radar screen anyway...

Ok (while I sure as heck ain't gonna re-open that beaten to death thing about Texas vis a vis the South), doesn't such a thing make your hackles rise a bit? LOL

Then from there, he just became less the journalist than a lecturing liberal know it all. A pompous blowhard. And it was sad to see, really. Like watching a favorite uncle become senile.

The early Walter Cronkite I respect and admire sincerely. The older one became one who started to believe he really was the most trusted man in America. To the point he mistook his opinions for gospel truth.

Oh well, as it is, he sure did do an incomparable job of covering the dark day in Dallas. Nothing will ever change that. He also took care of his audience back in the day. For that, I salute him and would be proud to shake his hand.

[RGV]

Sure are alot of old farts around here.

I still had three years of cooking.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by case44

He should be admired, Rebby. Sometimes politics have to be set aside in moments like that. We're all human and that includes news anchors.

I don't and won't argue with that one, my friend.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by RGV

Sure are alot of old farts around here.

I still had three years of cooking.

heeeey? Speak up sonny...cain't hear ye!

[lonestar2007]

We were living in Deport (small town close to Paris) at the time. I had a cold and had talked my Mother into letting me stay home from school. I had gone with my Daddy to the lumber yard and I was waiting in the car listening to the radio and they broke into the middle of the song that was playing and announced that the President had been shot. At first it was impossible to comprehend, it was totally surreal. When Daddy came out I was telling him as he got into the car and of course it was all over the radio. We went straight home and I remember as we walked in the door, my Daddy said to my Mother, turn on the radio, the president has been shot. I remember the grim look on my Daddy's face, my Mother crying. They didn't vote for Kennedy (my Daddy thought it was completely unheard of, a Roman Catholic running for the office of president of the United States), but this was not even a consideration at the time of the assassination. I remember the shock, the disbelief, then the grief. I remember we knelt and prayed for President Kennedy and Gov. John Connolly. The events that followed, Walter Cronkite announcing President Kennedy's death, the swearing in of Lyndon Johnson, Jack Ruby shooting Oswald on national TV, the funeral, little John Jr. saluting, made the following days a period of solemn disbelief, shock and sadness. I remember it as though it happened yesterday.

[GayleTX]

I was 19, married to a soldier stationed at Ft Carson CO.....we were home on leave in Texas that week staying with my in-laws near Dallas. We had planned to go into Dallas and shop at North Park Mall that day....I had put on a maternity dress for the first time that morning and was excited about shopping for the baby in the Big City. But just before we were to leave we heard the news about the assassination. We, of course, forgot about our trip....we sat down in front of the TV and watched the events unfold throughout the next few days. Being military, my husband expected to receive a call to return to post (you have to understand the uncertainty, the unknown of the first day or two - who shot him? why? was the entire government in danger? what would happen next? ). It was a frightening and uncertain period.

[Jude1948]

I was a high school sophomore in Covina Calif. Principal came on the intercom and told us what happened. They let us go home early and I walked home. Looking back I realy feel that that was the beginning of our loss of inocence.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Jude1948

Looking back I realy feel that that was the beginning of our loss of inocence.

That is such a good way to put it, Jude. It was the twilight of national innocence, as I once heard it said...

This is hardly an original observation, but I watch the old Andy Griffith Show and Leave It To Beaver...and wonder if that world ever truly existed...?

Seems like at one time though, it did...