NOVEMBER 22ND, 1963

((First posted on 22Nov 2016))

On November 22, 1963 I was a sophomore at Abington High School here in Abington, Ma. It was
near the end of the school day, and I was in my last class, American History with Mr Smith. Suddenly
the door at the back of the room opened and Mr.Divoll walked in from his room and told us the
president had been shot.

Mr. Divoll was the Drama Coach as well as a history teacher and was known to use a little theater in
his classes, so at first I wasn't sure what this was all about. When he said it again, this time using
President Kennedy's name, reality hit me.

I don't remember if we were dismissed from school early that day. I suspect not. School got out for
the day at 2pm and the news that JFK was dead broke around 2:30. So most of us had gone home by
then. Mom usually watched the CBS soap operas so when they switched to live coverage of what had
happened it was Walter Cronkite who told us the awful news.

Two days later my family went to my Uncle Ed's house for Thanksgiving dinner and we heard on the
car radio that Jack Ruby had killed Lee Harvey Oswald.

Of course the whole country was in shock but JFK's death really hit New England hard, especially
we Irish Roman Catholics. JFK was the first of us elected president, and it was a tremendous source of pride, especially in Massachusetts. His election had been the ultimate triumph of generations of Irish immigrants over anti-Irish Catholic discrimination.

I remember the pictures of the Kennedy children, and watching the funeral procession with the riderless horse. I remember the cadence of the drums.

It was the start of one of the most turbulent eras in our history, but I didn't know it at the time.