57 years ago today. Do you remember?

[MVeeI]

Was Governor Connally Oswald's real target?

James Reston Jr.: Was Connally Oswald’s real target?

The writer is the author of “The Accidental Victim: JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Real Target in Dallas” and “The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally.” He wrote

omaha.com

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Was Governor Connally Oswald's real target?

James Reston Jr.: Was Connally Oswald’s real target?

The writer is the author of “The Accidental Victim: JFK, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the Real Target in Dallas” and “The Lone Star: The Life of John Connally.” He wrote

omaha.com

I’ve read a lot of books on the assasination and this is the first time I’ve seen this theory. Too bad Ruby killed Oswald. He was the only real lead the police had. Our offspring may find out what happened in the future when the archives are opened, but I am betting that much of the evidence will have mysteriously disappeared. This thing had the stink of the CIA all over it. I think it was revenge for the Bay of Pigs and protection of the military industrial complex.

 

[simon1]

Was sitting in class in grade school when someone came in and pulled the teacher out. She came back in a bit wheeling in a TV stand. We watched a bit of the newscast and then they sent everyone home.

Used to have the newspaper article when Sirhan Sirhan shot Bobby Kennedy but Mom threw it away.

 

[Runnin_Ute]

I was only five years old, so any memories of the shooting itself are very vague and non specific. I remember a copy of an old issue of LIFE magazine in our home for many years with photos and articles about the assasination.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[The Knize]

I was out on the playground in the 6th grade. I remember it well. Very shocking. At that age, not so long after WWII, in the middle of the Cold War, not far from the Cuban crisis, it did not seem so impossible or anything. Why wouldn't someone try to take out the President? The US had scary enemies in the world.

Ruby shooting Oswald seemed really shocking. Seemed like a Mafia hit taking out the one person with information.

I suppose the whole thing seemed a bit of a loss of innocence, even as a 6th grader.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

I was out on the playground in the 6th grade. I remember it well. Very shocking. At that age, not so long after WWII, in the middle of the Cold War, not far from the Cuban crisis, it did not seem so impossible or anything. Why wouldn't someone try to take out the President? The US had scary enemies in the world.

Ruby shooting Oswald seemed really shocking. Seemed like a Mafia hit taking out the one person with information.

I suppose the whole thing seemed a bit of a loss of innocence, even as a 6th grader.

I’ve asked the same questions. Remember that JFK pulled the air support from the Bay of Pigs operation and made a lot of enemies at the CIA. The CIA used the mafia for some of their wet work. At the same time, Castro thought JFK allowed the Bay of Pigs operation. JFK was also going to de-escalate Vietnam and pull the troops out. JFK had recently mounted a war on organized crime and put his brother, Bobby, in charge of making it happen. The mob was not happy.

So, JFK had lots of enemies, all of which were capable of mounting an operation like the assassination. Some of them could have even have worked together to make it happen.

 

[Hydguy]

Wasn't even a glimmer in my dad's eye at that time.

 

[Hydguy]

I’ve asked the same questions. Remember that JFK pulled the air support from the Bay of Pigs operation and made a lot of enemies at the CIA. The CIA used the mafia for some of their wet work. At the same time, Castro thought JFK allowed the Bay of Pigs operation. JFK was also going to de-escalate Vietnam and pull the troops out. JFK had recently mounted a war on organized crime and put his brother, Bobby, in charge of making it happen. The mob was not happy.

So, JFK had lots of enemies, all of which were capable of mounting an operation like the assassination. Some of them could have even have worked together to make it happen.

THe Mob didn't need a green light from the CIA. They were already angry that they delivered the presidency to Kennedy, and then he turned around and screwed them.

And no one with half a brain believes that Oswald was smart enough to pull off the hit, and was nothing but a patsy.
While he was very much a die hard commie, he didn't have the brains to plan his dinner, much less a hit on a president.

And I never got the hullabaloo about him, or his family, and he was a pretty scummy guy in his own right, as was his brother Teddy, and pretty much the entire clan seems to be riddled with killers and rapists.

 

[hcoop112]

In the black hole of nothingness o_o didn’t even exist yet

 

[H4nk]

I was 5. I've always believed Oswald was killed so he didn't disclose any information. I don't believe any of the "government" conspiracies because there were too many witnesses and if the "Deep State" was going to do it, they wouldn't do it that way. He was killed by an avowed Communist and the shooter was killed by a mobster which were incidentally, two groups that hated him.

 

[preidy]

Vividly. I was in 3rd grade at St James Catholic school in Kearney, Nebr and Mother Superior came into our classroom and announced the sad news. After that the entire school walked (in silence) to our church a block away and we were told "to pray". All my memories all in black and white.

 

[TexOkie Shaver]

Vividly. I was in 3rd grade at St James Catholic school in Kearney, Nebr and Mother Superior came into our classroom and announced the sad news. After that the entire school walked (in silence) to our church a block away and we were told "to pray". All my memories all in black and white.

Strange, I had not realized it, but my memories are in black and white as well. The day was gray with no color, and so were he images on TV.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I was out on the playground in the 6th grade. I remember it well. Very shocking. . . .

I was in 5th grade. Came back from lunch to hear the rumors, and they were confirmed by our teacher. They didn't send us home though. The wall-to-wall TV coverage I remember, because when you're 10, the pre-emption of your favorite TV shows is bothersome. And no, I wasn't watching when Oswald was shot on Sunday.

For years I kept the follow-up early December issue of TV Guide summarizing the TV coverage. I have a number of vintage TVGs, but I'm not sure if I still have that one.

November 22, 1963, was the day the United States lost its collective confidence. Every year since then has hit us with some new disaster or set of fears or disappointments. (Remember American Graffiti's tagline? "Where Were You In '62?" Even then George Lucas must have realized 1962 was the last overall good year in American history.)

 

[Benzadmiral]

. . .

And no one with half a brain believes that Oswald was smart enough to pull off the hit, and was nothing but a patsy.
While he was very much a die hard commie, he didn't have the brains to plan his dinner, much less a hit on a president.

. . .

My interest in Oswald is his connection to Gnaw-luns; he lived here when I was a small boy. He and his mother lived on the edge of the French Quarter while he was in junior high and then going to the high school I would much later attend. (Some people have said Oswald went to the same grammar school in the Quarter that I did, but when he was 6 to 12 years old, he lived in New York, I think.) He and his Russian wife lived on Magazine Street in late '62 or early '63, not that far from Tulane University. And the famous footage of him in short sleeves and tie, handing out "Fair Play for Cuba" leaflets in downtown, well, my mother often took me to shop in that area. For all I know I might have walked past him or sat next to him at the Woolworth's lunch counter.

The other peculiar thing: Both he and Clay Shaw (the local businessman/philanthropist, portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in Oliver Stone's wildly inaccurate JFK) went to my high school too. (Oswald dropped out, as you might expect; Shaw and I didn't.)

 

[Merle]

At 12:30 this afternoon, it will be 57 years since one of the most charismatic Presidents that we ever had was gunned down in Dallas Texas. Do you remember where you were?

As a three-year-old, I would have to say it was at home with Mom. I don't remember the day, but days afterward,I do know I'll always remember John-John saluting the caisson as it passed. We had black & white television and apparently on that day they had real trouble keeping the luminance channel under control as the signal was passed out to California.

 

[The Knize]

And no, I wasn't watching when Oswald was shot on Sunday.

I was not either. I was perturbed that nothing was on TV other than assassination coverage. I suspect lots of folks older than I was felt the same way. There was only so much to say after a while, and it was not like they were providing any factual investigation, anyway.

I did not mean to get too deep into assassination conspiracy theories. It does seem clear to me that the American public has never been told the whole truth of what happened. I have no clue as to whether anyone really knows the truth of what happened. Kennedy had enemies, for sure. It was a very tense time across the globe. Assassinations of political leaders have happened across history, for various reasons. And a fair number happened or were attempted in the US after Kennedy's.

I do not think we should feel too surprised that Kennedy was assassinated or that we do not really know what happened.

I have always liked Bill Hicks explanation of how the powers that are always behind the throne, maintain that power. Essentially, every new President is ushered into a smoke filled room, and shown a film of the Kennedy assassination from an angle never seen before. After that the new President is asked; "Any questions?"

Too soon?

Like I said, it did seem like a loss of innocence, even to 6th grade me. But I am not sure it was even all that big a deal. To wax philosophical, I think in the lives of a nation as well as in our own lives, truth is nearly always a good thing. It was a very dangerous world in 1962. It is a dangerous world now. The US is not universally loved, and Kennedy sure was not. It was and is too dangerous to have a President riding down the streets of Dallas in an open-air automobile. It probably was not in 1952, 1942, or 1932 either.

 

[Alacrity59]

I am Canadian and I was only 2 but I have memories of being around 5 and my aunts and uncles still talking about it. when I asked them years later about it they said they were devastated.

I might be a year older but much the same . .. then 1968 and Robert Kennedy was killed.

 

[Hydguy]

My interest in Oswald is his connection to Gnaw-luns; he lived here when I was a small boy. He and his mother lived on the edge of the French Quarter while he was in junior high and then going to the high school I would much later attend. (Some people have said Oswald went to the same grammar school in the Quarter that I did, but when he was 6 to 12 years old, he lived in New York, I think.) He and his Russian wife lived on Magazine Street in late '62 or early '63, not that far from Tulane University. And the famous footage of him in short sleeves and tie, handing out "Fair Play for Cuba" leaflets in downtown, well, my mother often took me to shop in that area. For all I know I might have walked past him or sat next to him at the Woolworth's lunch counter.

The other peculiar thing: Both he and Clay Shaw (the local businessman/philanthropist, portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones in Oliver Stone's wildly inaccurate JFK) went to my high school too. (Oswald dropped out, as you might expect; Shaw and I didn't.)

His wikipedia page is quite a funny read...

 

[john parker]

Was a pilot in a squadron on an aircraft carrier. We were heading east, returning to the West Coast after a deployment in the Far East. News was passed over the 1 MC. Spent several days checking the compass to see which direction we were going to end up heading.

 

[JeffBr]

Riding bus home at 11 years old. Delivered the evening paper with news. Unbelievable time for all and our nation.