Thursday, November 21, 2013

Friday Flash 55.....



8th Grade....
We were in the auditorium watching a movie on the American flag, when all of the
teachers started whispering excitedly amongst themselves. The lights came on, we
were herded back to our home rooms, the P.A. was tuned to Walter Cronkight.
".....Fellow Americans, this just in from Dallas, President Kennedy has been SHOT!"


A few minutes later school let out early, and three days of surreal live imagery was
forever etched into our minds forever. I'll never ever forget that day. Where were YOU?
If you or anyone you know shot Kennedy or has written a Friday Flash 55
Please come tell The G-Man
I will visit, read, enjoy, comment ...Then BOOK!
So from the most unforgetting host from coast to coast...
Have a Kick Ass Week-End!!!

I still can't believe it's been 50 years.....

38 comments:

Anonymous said...

I must say, I wasn't around to remember this one. I've had a few of those moments in my lifetime though.

Very thoughtful 55 tonight.

Mine is HERE.

Anonymous said...

Yahtzee! The days must be slowing down if I'm actually first!

Brian Miller said...

my moment like that was the explosion of the shuttle...we were watching it in science class...i remember the shock of it...

Mary said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Mary said...

The three individual within this country that really hit me the hardest (during my lifetime) were: 9/11/2001, the explosion of the Challenger, and the shooting / death of John F. Kennedy.

My 55 is up: Conversation

hedgewitch said...

Galen I was in homeroom, 9th grade,when they turned the TV on, which they rarely did except for inter-school announcements--and there it was.Never forget it, or the ones that came after.

I have a sort of peaceful 55 this time:

The Fall Garden

author.nara.malone said...

I know where I was when the Challenger exploded--home on the couch, sick with the flu. Watched the teacher wave and the shuttle launch and then it was gone.

These 55 words were hard won: An Ode to Friday 55

Anonymous said...

Before my time, but of it nonetheless. Ruined my grandmother's 50th birthday, which was the exact same day.

here's mine ~

Gabriella said...

Hello G-Man, I was not around when Kenned was shot but I heard a lot about him today on the French radio. Here is my contribution for this week: Ode To My Belt. Have a great weekend!

TALON said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Helen said...

I was a very young mother with three small sons .. 1,2, 3 years old. My husband was an undergrad -- pre-med ... We lived in public housing. Tough times. Nothing would compare with the horror of President Kennedy's assassination. We were in shock, unable to take our eyes off that tiny black and white screen. Fifty years seems a lifetime, that day ~~~ seems like yesterday.

GAB said...

Back when Kennedy was shot I was in the 3rd grade second time around. (no I didnt fail out, it was back when we had a bad cough like whooping cough and I had missed so much school they thought it better I repeated 3rd grade) I was sitting in class when they announced it over the loud speaker then sent us all home. I got home and my mom wanted to know why I was home so early. I told her they said the president had been shot. Well we werent allowed to turn tv on during the day so mom left me and my sisters home while she went to a neighbors to see if this was true. When she came back and was crying she said dad would just have to be mad and turned on the tv. But when dad came home he didnt utter one word about tv being on during the daytime. He just sat down and watched it all unfold.

Margaret said...

Wow. Love all these comments. I am reading a book about him and Jacqueline right now - I wasn't born yet - but like everyone else, I'm still intrigued.

I hope to have a 55 tomorrow -

Cloudia said...

You said it ALL! Except for the teachers crying. . . .


ALOHA from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
=^..^= <3

Cressida de Nova said...

" Juvenile Thoughts At An Assassination"

Alice Audrey said...

I wasn't born yet. Close, but no cigar.

Mine is up

TALON said...

Sorry about the wrong link.

I was only four when Kennedy was assassinated...no real memory of that terrible time.

My 55: Spirited

Linc said...

I hadn't arrived yet for this one. When the shuttle exploded, my school didn't tell us. 9/11 is the first such experience I have.

Well done, G-Man. Here is mine: Birthday.

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I wasn't even a gleam in my momma's eye, and my husband was too young to remember. I was in college when the Challenger exploded, which is the closest thing I can compare it to, but the Challenger hasn't resonated through the years in the way the Kennedy assassination did.

There have been other presidential assassinations, but who in the 1950s still cared about McKinley? Who in the 1930s pored over Garfield archives? The Lincoln assassination will forever be overshadowed and explained by the legacy of the Civil War.

And maybe that's why Kennedy still resonates. His administration inspired much, fulfilled little, and ended in a way almost guaranteed to leave future generations always wondering. Who doesn't love a good mystery?

Here's mine: Fashionista

John (@bookdreamer) said...

Sadly no memories of the actual event but do remember the first Dr Who story broadcast on the same day. I was only 9 so time travel was far more important then politics. Although I do remember the Cuban missile crisis but was in a remote welsh cottage with no electricity and the battery on the radio went at the height of the news. So for 24 hours we waited for the escaping masses on the run from burning cities...
Here Is my Friday 55'

Mr. Charleston said...

It was nighttime at Ramstein Air Force Base. I was a base photographer covering a basketball game. There was a simple announcement, "Attention all personnel, attention all personnel, the president has been assassinated. All personnel report immediately to your duty stations, All personnel report immediately to your duty stations." Immediately thereafter the sirens sounded and the base was placed on full combat red alert. The jets scrambled. All non-flight-related personnel were given rifles and stationed on the base perimeter. Not something not easily forgotten.

A Kinder and Gentler Mr. C

Bubba said...

Two in a row! I'm on a roll!
http://thisisbubbasplace.blogspot.com/2013/11/trending-55.html

Vanessa Victoria Kilmer said...

I was 5. We were living in Fayetteville, NC and we were trying to pack to move to Germany.

It's the first time I saw grownups crying. It was shocking.

flash 55 - trees

Unknown said...

For me, THE moments were Challenger (at home and watching it live, sick from school) 9/11 (watched the second plane live), and the Murrah Building in OKC. When my husband called and told me to turn on the television on that April day, I thought it was the middle east, typical shit. When reality hit, I was in shock for years. Then when 9/11 happened, it was not so shocking, but still horrifying.

Other Mary said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Other Mary said...

This is one I can't remember. Glad you shared your memory with us though Galen.
Here's my 55, with a totally different tone:

http://writinginthebachs.blogspot.com/2013/11/on-committing-to-write-poem-day-for.html

(And I didn't forget how to do the link. It's just that my title is so stupidly long I didn't want to type it over again. And no, it doesn't count as part of the 55 words or I'd be waaaaay over.)

Grace said...

Can't believe its that long ago ~ I remember my mom telling me about it later later on but sorry, its not part of my memories ~

Am playing along:

everyday amazing: Red

ruth said...

I too was in school (in midwest Canada). I remember the shock of it - how everything for a while played out like a bad dream, from which surely one would soon wake up...

My 55 speaks of a different sort of tragedy...

Anonymous said...

Oh! That must be quite a memory. Well-penned.
Here is my link- Where no one sleeps
-HA

Margaret said...

Checking in SO late AND I'm off to see a musical theatre production. Will come back tomorrow to visit everyone. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

A New Eden

Mijayami said...

I wasn't around yet for JFK's assassination but I do remember grown-ups crying when Elvis died. At the tender age of 5, I had no idea who he was or why people were so upset. We watched the news about the Challenger in school, with multiple classes crowded into classrooms to share the tvs. Princess Diana's death was also one of these shockingly memorable moments. I was packing, about to get on a plane and start a new chapter in my life, so maybe the day was more memorable for me because of it.

My 55: To Be or Not To Be

Anonymous said...

Hey Galen, I wrote my 55 on the same theme before I read yours. I don't have a TV, but obviously this is very much in the air for those of us that remember. It was unimaginably shocking and sad and memorable.

Here's the link. http://manicddaily.wordpress.com/2013/11/22/november-22-1963-if-alive-then-and-over-five-you-remember/


I'm sorry it's not like a real link. K.

Unknown said...

I actually wasn't born yet, at least not in this particular form. I was probably still a Lovecraft geek though.
I have a theory that an Insect from Shaggai invaded Lee Harvey Oswald's brain and made him commit the awful deed.

the walking man said...

6th Grade the nun came over the PA and sent us home. I found out what was happening but at 9yrs old had no idea it was the first of one that would turn us into what we are now.

Shit then the next day the first episode of reality TV. Ruby shoots Oswald. That was the first time I had ever heard live gunfire or see a man killed in front of me.

The 7 days that changed the course of history. Bobby, Martin, X, and so many others that could together have changed the path we walk now.

I played But I just couldn't write about JFK and what could have been.

Fireblossom said...

I was in elementary school--3rd grade, I think--and my mother and older brother came to pick me up after school in my mom's car. My brother told me the president had been shot, but I wouldn't believe him because he was always telling me whoppers. Our mom confirmed it, though, in her usual show-no-emotion way, as if reporting that there was nothing good in the mail. It all seems a rather surreal way to have heard about it, looking back.

I was sitting in front of our big cabinet b/w tv watching when Oswald was shot. I remember thinking, at first, that he was twisting to try to escape, but he had been shot, of course.

Sorry not to have done a 55 for a couple of weeks; I haven't forgotten you, it's just that my time and energy for blogging has been being stolen by my employers!

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