53 years ago today.
I was a sophomore in high school
It was 5th period (Band) when the announcement came to suspend classes until the bell rang and then to report to 6th period classes (French) which would also be suspended, class-wise.
We were all in shock.
Sometimes, I still feel the shock of it.
I was in ninth grade, school had just gotten out, we were gathering at the front entrance where the school buses picked us up, and the word was suddenly going around that the president had been shot. We thought it was a joke. What I don't remember is when the word that it wasn't a joke went around. Did teachers come out and tell us? The bus driver? If not, I certainly got the confirmation at home some twenty minutes later. The TV was on for the next four days.
I was just leaving the employment office in Hollywood, getting into my car to head out into the SF Valley to start a new job at Fedco as a management trainee when a woman across the street said to me "The President's been shot".
Most of that day, I wandered over to the TV department to watch the news.
The job lasted that one day, which was fine with me.
