We all have experienced at least one moment in our lives that is literally unforgettable. If you were at least 4 years old in November 1963, you will never forget where you were when you heard the news that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.
I remember the day as though it were yesterday. My husband and I were vacationing in Japan with our good friends Stanley Mosk and his wife, Edna (now deceased). Mosk was California's attorney general at the time.We were at the Okura Hotel in Tokyo. At 4 a.m., Mosk received a telephone call from his office in the states - delivering the terrible news that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. We turned on our television sets and saw the newscasts that were being beamed all over the world. We were numb and heartsick.
Every Japanese person we encountered in the corridors, the elevator and the lobby of our hotel bowed his head respectfully and said softly, "So sorry about your president . . ."
In November 1992, I ran the following note in my column, "Where were you when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot? Please respond briefly; postcards preferred." I wisely rented a post office box, but I was not prepared for the deluge that was to come!
I received more than 300,000 responses and devoted several columns to sharing those responses with my readers. Your recollections were fascinating and heartwarming.
The following represents selections from some of the more memorable ones. Pierre Salinger, President Kennedy's press secretary, leads us into that fateful day:
FROM PIERRE SALINGER:
It is fascinating that almost 30 years after John F. Kennedy was assassinated, so many people around the world remember exactly where they were and how they reacted to his death. I found it extraordinary that 300,000 people had responded to Abigail Van Buren.
For me, it was a dramatic day. I had left the White House on Nov. 19 to accompany six members of JFK's Cabinet to an economic conference in Tokyo. President Kennedy had asked me to join the trip to organize his visit to Tokyo, planned for February 1964. This would have been the first visit by an American president to Japan since the end of World War II.
We stopped in Honolulu for three days for an important meeting on the Vietnam crisis. Early in the morning of Nov. 22, the White House plane headed for Tokyo. I was in the back reading the economic papers when suddenly somebody came and told me the six Cabinet secretaries had to see me. They were in the office in the front of the plane. When I walked in, it was grim. They handed me a wire bulletin saying Kennedy had been shot.
The plane turned around and headed back to Honolulu, and I was instructed to take over the communications system and find out what had happened. When I connected with the White House, there was total confusion. For many minutes nothing was coming through clearly. About a half-hour after the plane had turned around, I heard in my ear: "Wayside. Stand by." Wayside was my code name. About every 30 seconds for the next five minutes, I heard the same thing. Then suddenly came a new message. "Wayside. Lancer is dead." Lancer was the code name for President Kennedy.
I was destroyed. I so admired and liked JFK. I had a feeling that not only was he lost but that my life was lost.
When we reached Washington, a car took me to the White House. JFK's body had just arrived in the East Room and there was a short prayer service. Jackie Kennedy came up to me after the prayer and said I had had a terrible day and should sleep in the White House.
I went upstairs where I talked with colleagues like Ken O'Donnell and Larry O'Brien until 5 in the morning. Finally, I went to sleep.
At 7 a.m. the phone rang. I heard the operator say: "Mr. Salinger, the president wants to talk to you." For an instant, I thought I'd had a nightmare. Then, on the phone I heard, "Pierre, this is Lyndon." It was over. It was now clear to me that Kennedy was dead.
I hope many people understand what a worldwide influence John Kennedy had at the time of his assassination. Thirty years after his death, people have not forgotten him or his contribution to our country and the world.
A SELECTION OF LETTERS
I'LL NEVER FORGET
I was just 6 years old in afternoon kindergarten. Our principal's voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing that the president had been shot. Our teacher was crying, and the principal's voice was heavy with sadness. I walked home to find my mother watching television. I think everyone in my hometown of Wapakoneta, Ohio, was watching Walter Cronkite on their black-and-white TVs. I remember thinking that Walter Cronkite sounded sad and near tears, just like the principal. I looked at little Caroline and wondered what it would be like to lose your daddy at our age. - E.S., Columbus, Ohio
I was in the Peace Corps and had been teaching English in a small town in Thailand for just two months. The shy young Thai student who lived with me came and told me in Thai that President Kennedy had died. I couldn't imagine why he would die suddenly and said, "Oh, you must mean that his father has died." No, no, she said, and kept explaining in Thai what had happened. I didn't know the Thai word for "assassinate," so I couldn't understand her.
Finally, she got her English lesson book and pointed to a drawing of a fellow shooting a gun, next to the sentence, "He fired a shot." Then I knew. - M.J.B., Van Nuys, Calif.
My most aching memory is the sight of little Caroline fumbling under the flag to touch her father's coffin while she prayed. - K.A., Lakewood, Colo.
I WAS AT HOME
That evening, my father, a staunch Republican, put our house flagpole at half-staff and put a light on it so the flag would be seen 24 hours a day for the whole week. - C.A.A., Emmaus, Pa.
I was changing my daughter's diaper when I heard President Kennedy had been shot. I instantly thought of Jackie and the fact that she'd lost her baby, which had been due about the same time as my daughter, and now she was losing her husband. - J.L., Melbourne, Fla.
My father and I were planting a Norway maple seedling in my front yard. As we were pressing the soil in and around the tree, my neighbor came out and shouted to us, "The president has been shot." This tree has grown to be a beautiful shade tree and a living memorial to President Kennedy. - E.K., Towaco, N.J.
I WAS WATCHING TELEVISION
Being ill, I was home from school watching Mike Douglas, a live TV talk show. When the station broke in with the horrible news, I went numb. All I remember was Mike Douglas telling his director, "How can I continue? How can I keep talking?" But he did continue, expressing his - and our - grief. - C.M., Euclid, Ohio
I was watching "As the World Turns" when the news flash broke in. I remember pulling our 1-year-old son onto my lap, sitting on a hassock in front of the TV hugging him and crying and thinking, "This is what it was like in 1865 when Lincoln was shot." - G.K., Lexington, Ohio
I WAS IN DALLAS
When Kennedy was shot, I was a student nurse at Parkland Hospital. I heard all the department chiefs being paged. I saw all the press buses arriving; watched the E.R. grow crowded; saw Jackie in her bloodstained pink suit. Thirty years later, I find it hard to believe I was there. - J.D., San Angelo, Texas
As soon as the president's and vice president's limousines passed by, we headed back to the office and had walked about two blocks when Dallas became a solid shrill of sirens with police cars going in all directions. A feeling that words cannot describe, and the sound of sirens that I can hear till this day. - M.K., Naples, Texas
I was so excited that I wanted to see him again so I headed for Market Hall. The president's car made the exit going maybe 70 mph, and a black tarp was covering the back. I knew immediately something was wrong. Nothing in my life had prepared me for this. - P.N.M., Dallas
I WAS IN THE MILITARY
I was working for the Air Force in Washington, D.C. When we heard that JFK had been killed, the wheels of government stopped. People were walking in a coma, and crying and hugging each other. The newspapers printed "extras." A friend and I went to Arlington Cemetery to say a prayer. We were there until sundown! - J.G., Phoenix, Ariz.
I WAS JUST A CHILD
Since I was the same age as Caroline, the president's daughter, I was always afraid that if I ever went to Dallas with my family, my father would be shot and killed. I carried that thought for years and even said it once in my second-grade class. Everyone laughed. - D.H., Ringwood, N.J.
My grandmother, who was living with us then, was sitting on the sofa crying while the TV played. This shocked me, because I had never seen an adult cry before. The newscaster announcing the president's death was also crying. - G.D., Long Beach, Calif.
It was around noon. Our young son wandered into the kitchen to complain, "There are no cartoons on, just sad music." We hurried into the living room and sat in stunned silence as Walter Cron-kite, with his voice breaking, told us JFK had been assassinated. The world has never quite been the same. - S.D.C., Falls City, Neb.
I WAS IN SCHOOL
I was in my sixth-grade class drawing a picture of John Kennedy and Abe Lincoln standing on a cloud looking down on people. Someone asked why Kennedy was on the cloud as he was not dead. Then the announcement came that the president was shot. I felt horrible - like I was responsible. - K.R., Columbus, Ohio
I had just turned 13 and was in seventh grade. We were informed that the president was dead, ordered to put our heads on our desks, and to close our eyes. We were sent home shortly thereafter.
When my dad walked in, we all rushed up to him, including my mother, and told him that the president had been shot and killed. He dropped his metal lunch bucket on the living room floor and started to tremble. He did not know! He worked for the federal government and he did not know! My dad quickly regained his composure, but I will never forget that moment because it was the one and only time I ever saw him show any emotion. - M.K., Holt, Mo.
As a class of 10-year-olds, we did not know what "assassination" meant. By 1968, the word would become unfortunately an all-too-common one. - W.F.S., Fresh Meadows, N.Y.
I WAS AT WORK
When President Kennedy was shot I was operating a Linotype in Hillsdale, Mich. With tears blurring my eyes, I continued typing news bulletins until nightfall. - J.B., Largo, Fla.
I had just completed reading Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain," written in memory of President Lincoln's assassination, to my sixth-grade class. The memory of this strange coincidence still raises many feelings. -T.W., Alford, Mass.
I'LL ALWAYS REMEMBER
I was standing beside the hospital bed of my grandmother holding her hand as she died. I cried because I was left without her, and I cried for a country left without a leader. - B.P., Hardeeville, S.C.
President Kennedy's body lay in state in the rotunda of the Capitol Building. My husband and I lived six blocks from there. People were lined up for blocks all day long and into the night to view his body.
About 3 a.m. the next morning, I awoke to an odd sound outside the front of our house. A line of people, walking two and three abreast, stretched from the Capitol Building as far as we could see. There wasn't a sound except for the shuffling feet. It's something I can never forget. Deaths in the family have been very painful to experience, but the shuffling of thousands in the middle of the night is the most solemn memory. - L.O., Livermore, Calif.
Taken from "Where Were You When President Kennedy Was Shot?" copyright 1993 by Phillips-Van Buren Inc. Published by Andrews and McMeel. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.