The JFK Assassination

If you were alive 46 years ago, do you remember where you were when you heard that JFK had been assasinated?

It was a Friday and I was in 5th period Speech Class at Morgantown Junior High School. Mrs. Madeira was called out into the hall by Mrs. Thompson (history teacher). We could hear both of them crying. Dean Perry (whose birthday was that day) said that he thought Mr. Areford, our Principal, had died.

Mrs. Madeira came back into the class and announced that the President has been shot and has died in Dallas, Texas. She said that school was going to be dismissed early.

Dean and I thought that the Russians had done it and that we were probably going to be at war. We walked home without saying a word. We kept expecting Atomic Bombs to start falling.

My birthday was Sunday, the 24th, we were watching TV when Lee Harvey Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby. It was a crazy time. I will never forget it.

I was at Univac in Bluebell, Pa. designing the logics to interface a paper tape punch to the U-1004 computer, me pretty sure.

I was alive! My mom was about 16 weeks pregnant with me. Obviously, I don't remember a thing about the Kennedy assassination, but I know I was alive then and as much a person then as I am today!

Of course, post Roe v Wade there are plenty of Americans who will argue I was not a person.

I wasn't born. I wasn't even conceived. I guess that makes me the young un here.